Tiffin University's 2012 seniors certainly had a day to remember.
The Dragons finished their 2012 campaign in fine fashion, using a big play defensive effort and a strong passing attack to beat Lake Erie 34-14 on Senior Day. They finish their season with a 3-8 overall record, 2-8 in the GLIAC.
Tiffin opened the game just the way they wanted, marching downfield on a 75 yard drive that ate up 4:43 in 12 plays before Marcus Beaurem hauled in a 7 yard Dan Pitts pass to make it 7-0 on their opening drive of the game.
Lake Erie responded immediately, driving 68 yards on 7 plays to even the score at 7-7 on Anthony Bilal's 1 yard run at the 6:46 mark of the first quarter.
Seth Pekoe booted a 25 yard field goal at 13:22 of the second quarter to give TU a 10-7 lead, but the onslaught was just starting for the Dragons in the second quarter. The Dragons would account for four scores in the quarter, with Pedro Correa catching a 24 yard pass from Pitts to cap off a 90 yard drive in 6 plays to push TU's lead to 17-7 at the 8:27 mark.
Tiffin used some big plays as the half ended to turn the game into a rout at halftime. Pitts nailed Beaurem on a 69 yard bomb to score with 2:37 left in the half, and then Stefan Willis picked off a driving Storm offense with 1:02 left and returned it 84 yards for another touchdown to make it 31-7 Tiffin at the half.
Lake Erie opened the third quarter with a 75 yard drive that ended with a 2 yard TD pass to make it 31-14, but the Dragons defense did not allow another score the rest of the half. While allowing some big pass plays and the occasional long run, TU's defense kept points off the board by posting 4 interceptions and pressuring three different Storm quarterbacks with 6 sacks.
Seth Pekoe finished the Dragons scoring with another 25 yard field goal at 2:32 of the third quarter.
Overall the two teams matched each other with 445 yards of total offense and 21 first downs apiece. The difference was Tiffin's knack for making the big play when needed, stopping drives via interceptions and sacks.
Pitts had a huge day, connecting on 29 of 44 passes for 364 yards and no interceptions and 3 touchdowns. Beaurem racked up 150 receiving yards and 2 scores on 8 catches, while Jeremy Armstrong also had a big day with 88 yards on 11 catches.
Willis had 6 tackles along with 2 interceptions and 106 yards in interception returns. Josh Pribble led the team with 8 tackles, a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss. Kyle Finch also had 8 tackles withi a sack and 2 tackles for loss.
Logan Kaminski registered 7 tackles and a sack, Bryon McCorkle had 7 tackles with a half sack and a tackle for loss, Brandon Person had 5 tackles with an interception, Mike Virgin added another pick along with 4 tackles, Joseph Collard had 4 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and 2.5 tackles for loss, and Rafael Cuellar had a sack and 2 tackles for loss.
Overall the Dragons defense had 6 sacks for 48 yards lost, 14 tackles for loss of 81 yards, 6 deflections, one forced fumble, and 4 interceptions for 116 yards in returns.
