Published: October 20, 2009 12:09 am         

Ramblin' Reck: QB Derek Eitel assualting Rose’s record book

Derek Eitel put his name in the football record books at Rose-Hulman on Saturday and has three more games in which to add to those totals.

The senior from Marshall, Ill., needed 27 yards in the Engineers’ game with Defiance to become the all-time leader in passing yardage at the school and eclipsed the old mark on his very first pass attempt of the game, completing it to Ben Hopf for 30 yards.

Play was stopped for a moment to take the football out of play so that it could be given to Eitel following the game.

He finished with 274 yards and two touchdown passes in the contest won by Defiance and now has 6,566 in his three-plus seasons. Jason Duff had the old mark of 6,292.

Eitel has scrambled for touchdown passes in the final seconds of the first half in the last two games — against Hanover and Defiance — with the plays ending with no time left on the clock.

He avoided a sack to get the one against Hanover and gave the Engineers a two-touchdown lead at the half against Defiance. Following a timeout with three seconds left on the clock, Eitel heaved a pass that was tipped before ending in the hands of Andrew Huddleston in the end zone for a 63-yard touchdown pass and a 21-14 Rose-Hulman lead.

As it turned out, the Engineers did not score again and Defiance rallied to win the game 28-21.

Rose is at Bluffton this week and has Franklin in its final home game before closing the season at Anderson.

• First timers — The cross country team at Vincennes Rivet is putting its name in the school record books.

The school of 102 students competed in the regional for the first time in 26 years, running at Pike Central, and will have two runners in the semistate at Brown County on Saturday.

The Patriots placed fifth in their sectional to qualify for the regional and just missed qualifying as a team for the semistate, placing sixth in the field.

Rob Roads is the first-year coach of the team. He graduated from Terre Haute North and the University

of Southern Indiana.

• Carmel does it all — Carmel concluded a banner fall sports season in Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference action Friday by defeating Ben Davis in football to claim the outright title in the sport.

Carmel already had won MIC championships in boys tennis, girls golf, volleyball, boys and girls soccer and boys and girls cross country.

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Terre Haute South grad Zach Hosking is off to a good start in college golf at Millikin.

He was on the team in two fall tournaments and placed third in one with rounds of 80 and 72 for 152.

Millikin is ranked in NCAA Division III golf.

• Washington defeated Bloomington North 2-0 for the championship of the boys soccer regional at Terre Haute North.

The Hatchets will meet either New Albany or Seymour — they met Friday — in the semistate at Evansville and then would face either Evansville Memorial or Columbus North for the title.

In boys tennis, Park Tudor defeated Bloomington South 3-2 to win its seventh state championship. Bloomington South freshman Ronnie Schneider was a winner at No. 1 singles. Schneider was on the Dan Dakich Show on Monday and said he had been hurt playing some football early in the season and started playing lefthanded in having a banner season.

• Heritage Hills coach Bob Clayton won his 300th game Friday when the Patriots defeated South Spencer to finish with an 8-1 record. Clayton is one of six coaches to win 300 in the state in prep football.

• Dallas quarterback Tony Romo had his No. 17 jersey retired at Eastern Illinois, his alma mater, last week. Another former EIU quarterback is Sean Payton, coach of the undefeated New Orleans Saints following Sunday’s impressive victory over the New York Giants.

n The first five members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame are Bill France Sr. and Jr., Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty and Junior Johnson. Some thought David Pearson should have been a member of the class.

• Former Indiana and Alabama-Birmingham basketball player Robert Vaden has signed a contract to play in Italy.



Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by email at tm_reck@yahoo.com or by mail at 4284 South 5th Street, Apt. 3, Terre Haute, IN 47802.