Chicago State Routs Fort Lauderdale 80-17 as Tre' Hartwell Scores Five Touchdowns

Seven weeks is a long time to wait for a second win, especially in a program's first season. Chicago State finally got it on Halloween, and the Cougars made sure nobody in Bridgeview had to sweat the fourth quarter.

Chicago State beat the University of Fort Lauderdale 80-17 on Oct. 31 at SeatGeek Stadium, scoring 66 unanswered points after falling behind 17-14 early in the second quarter. The Cougars forced five turnovers without committing one, ran for nearly 300 yards and got five touchdowns from Tre' Hartwell, four on the ground and one through the air. The win snapped a six-game losing streak and moved Bobby Rome II's first-year team to 2-7.

Fort Lauderdale is not a Division I program. The Eagles compete in the NCCAA, and the school sits in Lauderhill, Florida. That context matters, and so does this: Chicago State has been on the wrong end of lopsided scores for most of the fall, including a 44-9 loss at Lindenwood a week ago. A startup program does not get to pick which wins feel big. This one counted, and the way the Cougars closed it out was the most encouraging part.

An uncomfortable start

For about 20 minutes, the visitors were the better team. DeRohn King marched Fort Lauderdale 83 yards in 11 plays on the opening possession, hitting Davidson Loriston Jr. for 48 yards along the way and finishing it himself with a 1-yard sneak with 7:38 left in the first quarter.

Chicago State answered with a nine-play, 65-yard drive. Ashton Pannell found Kaymen Coleman for 26 yards and Hartwell pushed in from the 4. But the extra point did not go through, and King went right back to work, connecting on a 45-yard shot down the sideline before flipping a 2-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Toussaint. Fort Lauderdale led 14-6 with 2:59 left in the first.

The Cougars needed only three plays and 12 yards to respond after a short field. Pannell ran it in from 7 yards out and then threw to DeArmond Mathews for the two-point conversion, tying the game at 14. When Jefferson Ramirez hit a 29-yard field goal early in the second quarter, the Eagles were back in front, 17-14.

Sixty-six straight

Then Chicago State took the game over. Pannell's 38-yard strike to Coleman set up Hartwell's 1-yard touchdown run with 10:00 left in the half, and the Cougars never trailed again.

The turning point came with 4:18 left before halftime. A Fort Lauderdale ball carrier coughed it up near the Eagles' 30 and Khalib Robinson recovered. On the very next snap, Calvin Lee broke an 18-yard touchdown run, and a 21-17 game became 28-17 in four seconds of game clock.

Rome's team was not done. Pinned at its own 5 after a punt, Chicago State went 95 yards in seven plays before the break. Jacob Tiberi, who split time with Pannell, provided the juice, hitting Seth Myers for 37 yards and scrambling for 27 more, and Lee finished it with a 2-yard run with 45 seconds left. It was 35-17 at halftime, a 21-point second quarter that changed the entire feel of the afternoon.

The Eagles' problems with ball security followed them out of the locker room. Fort Lauderdale fumbled the opening kickoff of the third quarter, Marlon Ayers Jr. recovered at the Eagles' 31, and Donovan Blair converted a short field goal for a 38-17 lead. Tareq Council later picked off Koden Brown, in at quarterback for Fort Lauderdale, at the Chicago State 27, and Tiberi followed with a touchdown pass to Mathews that made it 45-17.

The Cougars opened the fourth quarter at the Fort Lauderdale 1. The Eagles held on third down, but Rome kept the offense on the field on fourth and goal and Hartwell powered in for his third touchdown of the day with 13:43 left. Blair's extra point made it 52-17 and completed a run of 38 straight Chicago State points.

Tiberi then found Hartwell for an 8-yard touchdown with 12:05 left, and the Cougars kept going. Hartwell added his fourth rushing score, freshman receiver Keyontae Gray caught a touchdown pass from Tiberi, and Michael Dabney Jr. went 23 yards up the middle for another score with 2:39 left as Chicago State pushed the final margin to 80-17.

The run game finally showed up

Chicago State's offense has been searching all season for something it could lean on. On Saturday, it was the ground game. The Cougars ran for nearly 300 yards, with five different players carrying it at least four times. Lee led the way with 19 carries for 91 yards and two touchdowns, and Hartwell ran 10 times for 72 yards and four touchdowns, most of it on the kind of downhill runs this offense will need against better fronts in November.

The two-quarterback approach worked, too. Pannell went 6 of 11 for 93 yards and ran for a touchdown, while Tiberi completed 9 of 11 passes for 158 yards and three touchdowns and gave the offense a different rhythm when he was in. Coleman was the most dangerous receiver on the field, catching four passes for 90 yards.

Hartwell's afternoon

Hartwell's five touchdowns came in every way a short-yardage back can score them. He opened Chicago State's account with a 4-yard run in the first quarter, gave the Cougars the lead for good with a 1-yard plunge with 10:00 left in the second quarter, and powered in on fourth and goal from the 1 to open the fourth. Then Tiberi found him for an 8-yard scoring catch, and he added one more rushing touchdown before the reserves took over.

Dabney's 23-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter capped the scoring. By the end, Chicago State had scored on drives of 95 yards and on drives of 12, on long runs and on short fields handed over by the Eagles. The 80 points topped the 78 the Cougars put up against Kentucky Christian on Sept. 12.

A defense that forced the issue

Fort Lauderdale moved the ball early, and King made several good throws. But the Eagles ran for just 21 yards, and once the score got away from them, the Chicago State defense started taking the ball away. Breylon Wyatt, Council and freshman defensive back Brooks Dupree each intercepted a pass, Robinson and Ayers each recovered a fumble, and Armani Itote led the Cougars with six tackles, two for loss.

Chicago State has spent much of the fall on the wrong side of the turnover battle against more experienced teams. On Saturday, the Cougars won it decisively, five takeaways to none, and turned those gifts into at least 17 points.

For Fort Lauderdale, Dante Desantis was everywhere on defense with 12 tackles. King completed 15 of 28 passes for 198 yards with a touchdown and an interception and ran for another score, and Loriston caught 10 passes for 82 yards. The Eagles hung around long enough to make the first quarter interesting.

What it means

The record still says 2-7. But the Cougars' only other win, a 78-7 rout of Kentucky Christian on Sept. 12, came before a six-game slide that included losses to Norfolk State, Tarleton State, North Carolina A&T and Lindenwood. Winning comfortably, with a clean turnover sheet, is a reasonable thing to build on in Year 1. The lopsided fourth quarter also gave Rome a chance to play reserves, including a third quarterback who completed his only throw.

Chicago State is off next week and returns home to face Virginia-Lynchburg on Nov. 14 before closing the season at Southern Utah on Nov. 21.

The official box score is on ESPN (opens in a new tab).

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, Chicago State Athletics. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Chicago State Athletics (file photo).