Taylor Closes Season with Senior Day Victory
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UPLAND, Ind. – The 72nd season of Taylor football came to an end on Saturday with a 38-26 Senior Day triumph over Lawrence Tech inside Turner Stadium.
Taylor exploited a shaky rush defense from LTU (1-9, 0-6 MSFA) for season-highs of 38 points, four rushing scores and 293 rushing yards. The 293 yards on the ground marked TU’s highest rushing total in a game in 12th year head coach Ron Korfmacher’s tenure.
TU averaged 6.8 yards over 43 carries in the contest, led by career-high rushing totals from Zac Saltzgaber, Caden Hilliard and Justin Fath. Saltzgaber rushed 19 times for 136 yards and two scores, while Hilliard went for 83 yards and Fath added 53. Hilliard and Fath also collected the first rushing touchdowns of their collegiate careers.
Zane Shilts contributed to the blowout with a 33-yard field goal and five extra-point tries without a miss to put eight points on the board for the Trojans.
Several defenders also posted career-highs, with Mark Baker, Matt Wheeler and Colin Schwartz leading the unit. Baker paced the squad with a single-game career-high 16 tackles to go with one sack, while Wheeler and Schwartz also posted personal-bests with 10 and nine hits each.
The final score was not indicative of Taylor’s domination throughout the game, with a pair of LTU touchdowns coming in the final 50 seconds of the game to narrow the 38-13 margin to the final mark of 38-26.
Taylor asserted itself early into the contest, getting back-to-back rushing scores from Saltzgaber on its first two possessions for a 14-0 lead and taking a 21-0 edge on Hilliard’s touchdown rumble at the 10:15 mark of the second period.
TU then put points on the board on each of its final three drives of the game to open the 38-13 gap, before LTU found 13 points in the final minute of action.
Taylor closed its 2019 campaign at 3-7 overall and 1-5 in MSFA Mideast League play. The five-man senior class of Spencer Crisp, Jackson Bronkema, Mark Baker, Ben Utter and James Haverkamp was honored prior to the start of the contest.
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