After the first half of the football team’s final home game last Saturday, the Mac crowd was celebrating a 28-14 lead. In the second half, though, the Scots quickly gave up all of their 14-point lead and more, eventually letting the Ripon College Red Hawks of Ripon, Wisc. leave St. Paul with a 56-35 victory.

“We fought hard,” Andrew Connet ’06 said. “We just had some bad breaks, some bad key series.”

Despite the heartbreaking loss, there were some highlights for the Scots. The team chalked up four touchdowns in the first 30 minutes of play. Also, the Scots’ defense, led by defensive back Tim Burns ’06 (playing with a broken hand), displayed a rare sturdiness for the first two quarters. With 14 tackles, as well as a forced and recovered fumble, Burns brought brief hope to a Macalester defense that has struggled all season. The defense returned to its usual inadequacy early in the second half, however, at one point allowing Ripon to accumulate three touchdowns in less than two minutes.

While the Red Hawks forced five turnovers compared to the Scots’ three, Ripon had to overcome fifteen penalties in order to defeat the Scots.

Macalester quarterback Adam Denny ’05 broke Macalester’s record for career touchdown passes when he connected with Ben Dickinson ’06 early in the fourth quarter. Denny, who now has 32 career TD passes, displayed unusual versatility in the game against the Red Hawks, running for a touchdown and catching a pass in the end zone from backup quarterback Nick Hanks ’08 for yet another score.

Denny has lined up as a receiver in several red zone situations over the course of the season and has totaled five touchdowns on such plays.

Hanks has seen some playing time this year and is hoping to bring improvement to the 1-7 Scots. Although he acknowledges a poor season, Hanks is confident about Mac’s 2005 football season. “Winning is fun and we haven’t done that very often this year, but I see a brighter future,” Hanks said.

The Scots will play the last game of their season tomorrow at Lawrence University in Wisconsin.“We’re definitely hoping for the win,” Connet said.

Last year, the two teams battled here with Mac intercepting the ball five times to earn their only win on the season. This year, each squad has only one win so far— both over the hapless Knox College Prairie Fire.