Official Stats
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven football team had their home opener spoiled on Thursday night by falling to NCAA Division II University of West Alabama Thursday night 47-3. The Blazers kept the game close into the second quarter at 7-3, but following Belhaven's field goal by Justin Miller the Tigers reeled off 20 unanswered points to close out the first half and set the tone for the rest of the game.

 

West Alabama opened the scoring in the first quarter on a Dameon Baylor six yard touchdown run with 6:25 left on the clock. The big play of drive was a third down and twelve completion from quarterback Deon Williams to Jason Hawkins for 22 yards to move the chains and keep the drive alive.

 

The game remained 7-0 until the 11:55 mark of the second quarter when Miller connected on the 42 yard field which was set up by an eight play 41 yard drive by Belhaven. Blazer quarterback Alex Williams completed 4 of his 6 pass attempts on the drive including a 20 yard hookup with Cordario Calvin to put the ball at the Tiger 33 yard line leading to the score.

 

Unfortunately, that was all the scoring the Blazers could muster in the contest. West Alabama quickly stole any momentum the Blazers may have had when Williams completed a 37 yard touchdown pass to Jacob Burke to make it 14-3 with 10:32 to go in the half. Dameon Baylor then capped off a 4 play 91 yard drive with his second touchdown of the game on 16 yard carry to make it 20-3 after the Blazers had failed to answer the previous touchdown by the Tigers. Belhaven had UWA backed up on their own 13, but Gerald Worsham got behind the defense and Williams found him for a 71 yard completion which led to the Baylor score.

 

The Tigers tacked on one more touchdown just before halftime to expand their lead to 27-3. Williams found Baylor on a pass to the flats and he took it 10 yards for the score. West Alabama put the game away for good in the third quarter on a 92 yard touchdown pass by Williams to Eric Mcdonald after Belhaven had once again backed up the Tiger offense deep in their own territory. The Tigers were able to come up with big plays the entire night.

 

West Alabama's final two touchdowns came on the arm of backup quarterback Gary Johnston when he found Jason Hawkins from 55 yards out to run the score to 40-3 followed by a five yard strike to Josh Senkbeil to cap the scoring at 47-3. The Blazers had an opportunity to get in the end zone in the third quarter, but were turned away on a fourth down and goal play from the two yard line.

 

The Tigers were led by Williams who passed for 375 yards, three touchdowns, and completed 13 of 21 attempts on the night. Baylor carried the ball six times for 26 yards, but had two rushing touchdowns and caught another for a total of three scores. Worsham led UWA with three catches for 95 yards receiving followed by Hawkins with three receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown. The Tigers racked up 574 yards of total offense and averaged 10.2 yards per play.

 

For the Blazers, Ricardo Bolton ran the ball 17 times for 77 yards and hauled in five passes for 41 yards giving him a total of 106 all purpose yards. Cordario Calvin had a good game catching seven passes for 76 yards in his Belhaven debut. Alex Williams led the Blazers in passing completing 20 of his 37 attempts for 175 yards. As a team, Belhaven had 231 yards of total offense.

 

On the defensive side of the ball Tariq Ali had 7.5 tackles and J.D. Douglas checked in with 7 to pace the Tigers. Jeffery Maxwell led the Belhaven defense with 6.5 tackles while Reggie Lumpkin had 5.5 tackles with one being for a loss. Antwon Hamilton came away with an interception to end the first half and Trevor Butts came up with a fumble recovery.