Jackson, MS-The Belhaven football team will be looking for win number one of the season on Saturday when they take on Millsaps College in the fifth edition of the Riverside Rumble. Belhaven leads the all-time series 3-1, but lost last year's contest 34-14. The Majors will also be gunning for their first win in 2009 after having lost a double overtime game at Mississippi College 47-44 this past weekend. The Blazers had last weekend off following a season opening loss to NCAA Division II University of West Alabama 47-3 on August 27^th.

 

In last year's Riverside Rumble, Major's quarterback Juan Joseph passed for 227 yards and three touchdowns against the Blazers. Joseph also carried the ball nine times for 54 yards. Eric McCarty and Michael Galatas went over the century mark in receiving yards against the Blazers in last year's game.

 

Belhaven's only two scores against the Major's in 2008 were turned in by running backs Ricardo Bolton and Damien Davis. The Blazers hope that Bolton can help ignite the offensive attack on Saturday afternoon.   

 

For the Blazers against West Alabama, 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.

 

Belhaven was hurt by the big play against the Tigers and will have to find a way to shutdown a Millsaps offense that put 44 points on the board last weekend versus Mississippi College. Offensively, the Blazers will need to make some big plays of their own having converted only 2 of their 17 third down opportunities in the West Alabama contest. Defensively, Belhaven will face a potent Millsaps air attack that put up 331 yards and four touchdowns in their matchup with the Choctaws.

 

Millsaps is led by Head Coach Mike DuBose who is in his fourth season and owns an overall record of 26-8 at Millsaps. Senior quarterback Chris Graves who replaced Joseph under center had an outstanding game at Mississippi College last weekend. Graves completed 16 of his 28 passes for 331 yards and four touchdowns. Galatas caught two of his touchdowns and racked up 98 yards on five receptions from the receiver position. Shane Bowser was the Majors leading rusher with 28 yards on nine carries. The Choctaws were able to shutdown the running game holding Millsaps to 1.1 yards per carry. However, Millsaps had an overall average gain of seven yards per play.

 

On the defensive side of the ball the Majors had three players record 10 or more tackles against Mississippi College. Mason Burrell led the charge with 15 total tackles including three for a loss. David Dale had 13 tackles and 1.5 sacks followed by Will Hawkins with 10 total tackles. As a team, the Majors tallied four sacks and forced three Choctaw fumbles. The Belhaven offense will face a 3-4 defense from Millsaps which will present somewhat of a different look for the Blazers who more frequently face a four man front. Look for the Majors to bring some pressure on the quarterback in a variety of ways Saturday afternoon.