APPLETON, Wis. -- The Ripon College football team continued to have the upper hand in the state's oldest college football rivalry, as the Red Hawks beat Lawrence University 42-14 in a Midwest Conference game Saturday at the Banta Bowl.
Ripon (8-2, 8-1 MWC), which has now won nine consecutive games in the series that began in 1893, led 28-0 at the half and rolled up 435 yards of offense to keep possession of the Doehling-Heselton Memorial Trophy. With 108 meetings in the books, Ripon holds a 55-46-7 lead in the series.
Lawrence (0-9, 0-9) got second-half touchdowns from Derek Micke and Craig Ebert. Ebert finished with game highs of 23 carries and 116 yards. The senior running back now has 2,354 rushing yards for his career and passed Greg Curtis (2,271) for fourth place on Lawrence's career rushing list.
The Red Hawks got a 61-yard touchdown pass on a third-and-11 play on the opening series of the game to grab a 7-0 lead. Ben Garland caught the screen pass from Matthew Miller and went down the right sideline for the score just two minutes into the game. Ripon made it 14-0 on its next drive when Josh Pasek completed a six-play, 65-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown run.
Jon Larsen, who had 20 carries for 85 yards, made it 21-0 with a 2-yard scoring run early in the second quarter. Ripon then got 37-yard touchdown pass from Miller to Ted Bartels with just 34 seconds left in the first half to go up 28-0.
A Josh Kraemer interception set up Ripon's first score of the second half. Kraemer returned the interception 22 yards to the Lawrence 29 before fumbling the ball out of bounds. Ripon scored four plays later on Andrew Fink's 7-yard scoring run to go up 35-0.
Lawrence finally got on the board behind reserve quarterback Max Granaroli. Seeing his first action of the season, Granaroli completed a short pass to Derek Micke, who raced down the left sideline 45 yards for a touchdown to cut lead to 35-7. Micke finished with six catches for 126 yards.
In a bizarre turn after the touchdown, Lawrence received two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and an offsides penalty and ended up kicking off from the 4-yard line. Lawrence nearly recovered a pooch kick, but Ripon took over at the Lawrence 28. The Red Hawks scored three plays later on Miller's 1-yard run.
Zack Hintz set up Lawrence's final score of the game with a 64-yard punt return to the Ripon 22-yard line. Ebert ripped off a 13-yard run on fourth-and-2 and scored on a 1-yard plunge on the next play.
Lawrence wraps up its season next Saturday when it hosts Minnesota-Morris in a nonconference game at the Banta Bowl.