Jackson, MS-Saturday's matchup with the Golden Bears is the first meeting between Belhaven and West Virginia Tech since the 2006 season when Belhaven came out of Montgomery with a 39-24 victory. The Golden Bears are led by first year head coach Scott Tinsley. West Virginia Tech is off to a rough start heading into today's game with an 0-5 overall record and 0-2 mark in the Mid-South Conference.
Belhaven will play their second consecutive home game after getting their first win last week against Faulkner University 49-24. The Blazers scored all 49 points in the first half and the defense kept the pressure on Faulkner's quarterback the entire game. The defense tallied eight sacks and 13 tackles for losses. The Blazers are 1-4 and 1-1 in the Mid-South Conference meaning that a win over the Golden Bears would get them above .500 in league play.
THE WVU-TECH REPORT
The Golden Bears bring a young football team into Newell field to face the Blazers. Freshman Quarterback Michael Scott has had an impressive start to his collegiate career throwing 17 touchdowns and averages of 282 yards passing a game. Last week in their loss to Union College, Scott tossed four touchdowns and passed for 253 yards. Josh Culbertson is WVU-Tech's leading rusher with an average of 79 yards per game and has two touchdowns on the season. However, the passing attack is what really makes the Golden Bear offense go. WVU-Tech's passing offense ranks 12th in the NAIA for yards per game.
Belhaven will face a 3-4 defense from the Golden Bears; however it doesn't have a typical 3-4 make-up. The defensive line is small but quick and should pose some interesting one-on-one matchups for the Belhaven offensive line. The tackles are both less than 200 pounds and the nose guard weighs in at around 250. Strong Safety Jon Culbertson leads the team in tackles with 70, which on average is 14 per game. The defense is surrendering around 429 yards per game.
West Virginia Tech's five losses have come to Lenoir-Rhyne 51-13, Urbana University 28-19, UV College at Wise 62-33, Campbellsville University 57-47 and Union College 45-27.
THE BELHAVEN REPORT
Belhaven is looking to ride the momentum from last week's victory over Faulkner into Saturday afternoon's contest with the Golden Bears.
Jerred Wallace got his first start at quarterback last week and made the best of it throwing for 279 yards and five touchdowns. The Blazers still need to do a better job of hanging on to the ball. Belhaven had four fumbles and two interceptions in last weeks game against Faulkner and six the previous week at Bethel. Against the Eagles, the Blazers were able to overcome the turnovers with good defensive pressure on the quarterback, five interceptions, and some big plays through the passing game. The biggest play on offense was Wallace's 81 yard touchdown strike to Jarius Foster in the second quarter of action.
For the second consecutive week,
Reginald Lumpkin led the team in tackles with eight including five that were unassisted.
Eric Ortiz along with Eric Duckworth added 2.5 sacks a piece for losses of 18 and 35 yards respectively. Duckworth also came up with a forced fumble and a deflected pass against Faulkner. The previously mentioned five interceptions were turned in by
Baqui Thomas,
Chaquille Lewis, Cameron Achord,
Jonathan Reed, and
Javian Johnson. As a team, the defense kept Faulkner off the board for the final 30 minutes of the second half.
Saturday's contest with West Virginia Tech is an opportunity for Belhaven build on what they established in last weeks game.
Jerred Wallace will be making is second start of season and the coaching staff is hoping he can put together another solid performance today. Also, a victory would put Belhaven at 2-1 in the Mid-South, keeping them in the hunt in the conference race. Either way, the game could be a high scoring affair with Belhaven's and WVU-Tech's high powered offenses. The Blazers are averaging 23 points per game while the Golden Bears put 28 points on the board per contest.
