The Hope College football team completed the greatest single-season turnaround in its 107-year history with a 31-6 Senior Day win against Concordia, Wisconsin on Saturday at Ray & Sue Smith Stadium.
The Flying Dutchmen finished with six consecutive wins for a 7-3 overall record following a 2-8 campaign in 2015.
The 1946 Hope team won more games than the previous season, but that was 1942 because World War II halted the Flying Dutchmen between 1943-45.
"It's about our players believing in a system, they bought in, I'm just proud of them," head coach Peter Stuursma told MLive. "We were 1-3, we got rolled off the field in game one (a 44-3 loss at home to Monmouth (Ill.). We could have packed it in and our guys kept believing and kept fighting and kept playing. It's a credit to our kids in believing in something and what kind of relationship they have."
Hope honored 11 senior members of the program before the game: players Kirk Gibson, David Hornshaw, Tyler Kirchoff, Ian Koziatek, Andy Lucas, Justin Phillips, Michael Stephan, Adam Walma, and Cole Watson, student assistant coach Ryan Reason, and student manager Ben Schroeder.
Gibson, Lucas and Walma contributed to a defense that allowed seven or fewer points for the fourth time this season and the fourth time in the past five games. The Flying Dutchmen yielded 346 passing yards but only a third-quarter touchdown.
Junior defensive back Mason Rosado of Holland, Michigan (Holland HS) made a team-high seven tackles. The Flying Dutchmen had a season-high five sacks, including 1 ½ apiece for junior Zach Telfor of Charlotte, Michigan (Charlotte) and sophomore defensive lineman Ian Gorgenson of DeWitt, Michigan (Lansing Catholic Central).
Stephan and Reason helped an offensive line the Flying Dutchmen collected 436 yards rushing as a team while stymying Concordia (3-7) to minus-13.
Hope accumulated a school-record 2,738 yards on the season - passing the 1971 mark of 2,433. The Flying Dutchmen accomplished the feat with 507 carries - five fewer than the 1971 team's school record.
Junior running Mike Miklusicak of Wayland, Michigan (Wayland) for a career-high 259 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. He recorded the third-highest single-game rushing total in the Flying Dutchmen's history.
Miklusicak trailed only Brandan Graham's 302 yards on 46 attempts against Kalamazoo in 1996 and 293 yards on 44 rushes against Olivet in 1995.
Junior Brandan Campbell of Otsego, Michigan (Otsego) ran for 167 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries.
Campbell totaled 1,361 rushing yards on the season - the fourth-most by a Hope player in a single season. His 14 rushing touchdowns are tied for fourth-most all-time, equaling Dan Bloemers (2003) and Ron Bekius (1958).
Miklusicak ran for 1,077 yards and 10 touchdowns on 160 carries. He ranks 10th among the Flying Dutchmen's single-season rushers.
Campbell and Miklusicak are the first Hope pair to eclipse 1,000 rushing yards in the same season.
Junior Darren Ford of Howell, Michigan (Howell) kicked a 45-yard field to give him 14 on the season, a new school record. He broke the tie he had with Aaron Mick (2014) with the second-longest field goal in Hope history and the longest at Ray & Sue Smith/Holland Municipal Stadium.
Ford set the school record with two 46-yard field goals at Albion on November 5.
Hope's next game is the 2017 season opener on Saturday, Sept. 2 at Monmouth, Illinois.