Official Stats
Montgomery, WV-After starting the season 0-2, the Belhaven football team has won their last four games including a Mid-South Conference cross divisional victory on the road over West Virginia Tech Saturday afternoon 17-7. The Blazers got a couple of big plays on offense and the defense played well for the fourth consecutive week to help bring home the win.

                                 

Belhaven struggled early on offense and couldn't get much going in the first quarter. The Blazers took the opening kickoff and on the second play from scrimmage quarterback Alex Williams's first pass was picked off by the Golden Bears at the Belhaven 45 yard line setting up the first drive of the day for West Virginia Tech. The Golden Bears moved the ball down to the Blazer 24 yard line, but on fourth and one the defense held its ground and tackled Tech quarterback Murvin Johnson for a 14 yard loss ending the drive.

 

The game remained a defensive stalemate until late in the second quarter when the Blazers scored the first of two touchdowns on the afternoon. West Virginia Tech brought pressure on a consistent basis throughout the entire game, but Belhaven was able to take advantage of an over aggressive Golden Bear defense on a perfectly executed screen pass to Ricardo Bolton. On first down and 10 on their own 34, West Virginia Tech brought a blitz and avoiding the pressure Wallace dropped the ball off into the flats to Bolton who broke a couple of tackles and took it all the way to the house for a 66 yard touchdown. Justin Miller added the extra point and Belhaven jumped out to a 7-0 lead with 5:50 remaining in the second quarter.

 

The Golden Bears answered quickly on their next possession to knot the score at 7-7 with just over two minutes to play in the first half. West Virginia Tech engineered a six play 58 yard drive which was capped off by a six yard touchdown run by Jamel Shelton. Other than the touchdown run, the big play on the drive was a 36 yard pass from Johnson to JuJuan Smith on a second down and eleven play to put the ball on the Belhaven 14 yard line. Four plays later Shelton took it in for the score.

 

On the ensuing kickoff, Tramaine Brock who had an outstanding day on defense brought the ball back 55 yards to the Tech 20 yard line with just over two minutes to play in the first half. The Blazers worked the ball down to the three yard line and had it first and goal, but committed a couple of costly turnovers which moved the ball to the Golden Bear 25 yard line. Belhaven brought in the field goal unit on fourth down and Miller blasted the ball through the uprights to put Belhaven back on top 10-7 as the first half clock expired.

 

The Blazers struck early in the third quarter as the defense stonewalled the West Virginia Tech offense on their opening drive of the second half. Punter Dave Callison had to punt the ball out of his end zone and Belhaven took over on the Golden Bears 33 yard line after the 27 yard kick. On second and eight from the 31, Jerred Wallace swung the ball out to Bolton again who ran it all the way to the end zone for his second touchdown catch of the game. The extra point made it 17-7 with 11:35 left on the third quarter clock.

 

Belhaven had some more chances to score, but could not capitalize on some other opportunities. The Blazers had a field goal blocked, missed another field goal try, and a good defensive stand by the West Virginia Tech defense on a fourth and goal from the two kept Belhaven out of the end zone. However, the Blazers defense was just as strong and shutdown the Golden Bears for the entire second half. Brock came up with a pair of interceptions and Jonathan Reed added another to bring to bring three Tech drives to a halt.

 

The Golden Bears made one final push late in the game driving the ball down to the Blazer 29 yard line with about two minutes to go in the game. On fourth down and two, Blazer defensive tackle Jack Hayes blew up the running play to Branden Little throwing him for a four yard loss that essentially sealed the victory. The Blazers ran out the final 1:52 on the clock and locked up the 17-7 win.

 

Jerred Wallace, who came into the game early in the first quarter, led the Belhaven passing attack with 177 yards and had two touchdown passes to Bolton. He was officially 6 of 14 and also threw one interception. Alex Williams started the game and went 5 for 12 with a couple of interceptions and 32 yards.

 

Bolton led the Blazers in rushing with 59 yards, caught four passes for 106 yards with two scores, and racked up 165 all purpose yards. Bolton now has five TD catches this season which is second on the team to Cordario Calvin who has six in 2009. Calvin hauled in three receptions for 38 yards and carried the ball twice for 15 yards. As a team, the Blazer offense had 314 total yards with 240 of them coming through the air. Belhaven had the edge in time of possession holding the ball for 32:09 in the game.

 

On the defensive side of the ball, Reggie Lumpkin led the charge with a team high 10 total tackles including one for a loss. Lumpkin leads the team in tackles this season with 54. Jack Hayes collected eight tackles with 2.5 for a loss and was credited with half a sack. Brock had five tackles, a sack, and a pair of interceptions. He was consistently disrupting plays and putting pressure on the Golden Bear quarterbacks. Jonathan Reed had the other Blazer interception giving him a team high of three on the season.

 

The Belhaven defense held the Golden Bear offense to 140 total yards and took away the passing attack allowing only 44 yards through the air. West Virginia Tech also hurt themselves with penalties committing 16 infractions for 108 yards. The Blazers also had 10 penalties in the game for 89 yards.

 

West Virginia Tech was led on offense by Johnson who carried the ball 26 times for 52 yards at the quarterback position. The Golden Bears tried a number of unconventional formations and plays, but could not move the football consistently. Johnson completed three passes for 24 yards and threw one of the interceptions. Callison and Joey Christian were guilty of the other two picks for West Virginia Tech. JuJuan Smith was the Golden Bears leading pass catcher with five receptions for 35 yards. Jonathan Culbertson, Michale Peeples, and Chris Gray had 12, 10, and 9 tackles respectively to lead the Tech defense.