In measuring Tiffin University's football team in its progress from week one to week two, the Dragons' result against Saginaw Valley State spoke volumes.
It wasn't just that the Dragons posted a huge 40-0 shutout victory. It was what else the Dragons accomplished in the game.
It was the Dragons' first shutout victory since 2005.
It was their largest margin of victory ever over a GLIAC opponent.
It was their largest margin of victory over any opponent since a 73-30 win against Missouri-Rolla in 2007.
It is also the first time since 2007 that TU has opened a season 2-0.
Tiffin scored on their opening drive, as Tomislav Derezic nailed a 34 yard field goal at the 13:09 mark to put TU up 3-0. The Dragons scored again just before the end of the first quarter when Charles Holland caught a 30 yard TD strike from Antonio Pipkin to cap a 14 play, 80 yard drive and put TU up 10-0.
The second quarter was the Tomislav Derezic Show, as the kicker set a new TU record by booting 3 more field goals in the quarter covering 39, 33, and 33 yards to give him 4 in the game. The field goals gave TU a 19-0 halftime lead.
The Dragons came storming out of the halftime locker room, scoring in just 10 seconds on a 67 yard pass from Pipkin to Pedro Correa to jump ahead 26-0. Holland added another TD catch to his standout day, hauling in a 7 yard TD reception from Pipkin at the 7:30 mark of the 3rd quarter to push the score to 33-0.
With the Dragons' second unit running the offense for most of the fourth quarter, TU tacked on one last score at 14:54 of the final quarter when Chris Watkins rushed for a 15 yard touchdown to make it 40-0.
Tiffin's defense continued right where they left off from the second half of last week's win, playing stifling defense in holding SVSU to just 134 total yards of offense. TU outgained the Cardinals 573 to 134, including a massive 392 to 53 in passing yards. They held a 26-10 advantage in first downs, with the defense holding the Cardinals to just 1 for 12 on third-down conversions.
The Dragons, who held possession for a huge 38:44 in the game, averaged 7.7 yards per play and converted 8 of their 15 third down opportunities.
Pipkin had another huge game, passing for 388 yards on 21 of 31 passes with no interceptions and 3 TDs. He was sacked just once while also rushing for 54 yards.
Holland had a huge game, catching 10 passes for 192 yards and 2 scores while Correa had 138 yards on 6 catches. Watkins was the leading rusher for TU with 66 yards in the 4th quarter.
Jalen Randolph was the leading tackler for TU with 6 stops. Stefan Willis had 4 tackles with a sack while Austin Jasper also had a sack. Johnny Joseph and Roamelle Bell also had 4 tackles apiece.
