Official Stats
Jackson, MS-It was a good day at H.T. Newell Field on Saturday afternoon as the Belhaven football team earned their first win of the season against Kentucky Christian University with a 41-14 decision in Mid-South Conference action. Not only was it the first win of the season, but it was Joe Thrasher's first victory as the Blazers head coach. Belhaven had a solid afternoon on both sides of the ball turning in their best performance of the season so far.
Belhaven began the afternoon with the football, but unlike last week struggled to move the ball going three downs and out on their first drive. The Blazers punted the ball on fourth down and gave the ball to Kentucky Christian just 55 seconds into the contest. However, the Belhaven defense shutdown the Knights in three plays and forced a punt which put the ball right back into the hands of the Belhaven offense.
The Blazers took over at their own 22 yard line following a 33 yard punt and engineered an eight play 78 yard drive that resulted in the first score of the contest. Belhaven took advantage of their “Wildcat” formation and caught the Kentucky Christian defense off guard when
Barry Johnson put the ball in the air instead of keeping it on the ground with a keeper or handoff to
Ricardo Bolton. Johnson, who was a quarterback in high school, found
Cordario Calvin wide open in the end zone for a 26 yard touchdown pass to put the Blazers up 7-0. It was Calvin's first of what would be three TD catches on the afternoon.
Later in the first quarter the Blazers would strike again for the second time in the game. Johnathan Reed intercepted a Beau Dailey pass and took it to the end zone for what appeared to be a touchdown. However, Belhaven was called for a hold on the return bringing the ball back to the Kentucky Christian 20 yard line. Following a running play by Bolton,
Alex Williams scrambled away from the Knight's pass rush and ran it in from the 16 yard line to make it 13-0 Blazers. A two-point conversion attempt by Belhaven failed and the Blazers maintained their 13 point advantage.
The Blazers extended their lead to 20 points in the second quarter when Williams found Calvin in the end zone on a second down and six play from the 15 yard line. It was Calvin's second touchdown catch of the day and at that point the Blazers were rolling. Belhaven tacked on their fourth touchdown in the final minute of the half as Calvin got open in the middle of the field, made the catch and weaved his way through a number of KCU defenders for the score with four tenths of a second on the clock. The extra point by
Justin Miller was up and good and Belhaven took a 27-0 lead into the locker at halftime.
Kentucky Christian made a bid to get back into the game at the start of the third quarter taking the opening possession of the half 71 yards on eight plays for the score. The drive was capped off by running back Jake Hughes who took it in from nine yards out to make it a 27-7 contest.
KCU then kicked off and Belhaven's
Antwon Hamilton was stripped of the ball by Mycdeang Tuner on the return and took it 28 yards the other way for another Knight touchdown. The TD made it a two score game at 27-14 with just over 11 minutes to go in the third quarter.
At that point, the Belhaven tightened up on defense despite being put into some precarious situations due to a couple of Blazer turnovers. Belhaven's offense regrouped and engineered an eight play 89 yard drive that culminated in a 10 yard touchdown pass from Williams to
Kevin Dizer. It was Dizer's first touchdown catch of the year and the drive took 3:35 off the clock.
The final score of the afternoon was setup by Belhaven safety
Cameron Achord who came up with the team's second interception of the contest. Achord picked off a pass by Dailey at the Knights 34 yard line and it did not take long for the Blazer offense to punch into the end zone for the score. Three plays later Bolton would get his first rushing touchdown of the season as he took the handoff from Williams and powered it in from 17 yards out on a sweep to the right side of the field extending the advantage to 41-14 with 1:45 left in the third quarter.
The Belhaven defense continued to play well down the stretch and the offense pounded the ball on the ground in the fourth quarter to run out the clock. Belhaven running back
Ryan Rice came in to spell Bolton in the fourth quarter and was very effective in the Blazer running game. Belhaven marched the ball down to the KCU five yard line as the fourth quarter clock expired securing the 41-14 win for the Blazers.
The Blazers were led in rushing by Bolton who had 84 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. Bolton averaged 10.5 yards per carry for the afternoon. Rice ended up with six touches late in the game and recorded 60 yards on the ground. Bolton also reeled in five passes for 63 yards and totaled 147 all purpose yards in the game.
Quarterback
had the other Belhaven TD pass on the afternoon. Calvin led all receivers with nine receptions for 139 yards and three touchdowns, all coming in the first half.
As a team, Belhaven racked up 445 yards of total offense with 214 of them coming on the ground. The Blazers had a team total of 231 yards passing in the game. They averaged 6.7 yards per rush and 6.1 yards per pass completion against Kentucky Christian.
Defensively, Belhaven had two players with eight total tackles in
Reginald Lumpkin and
Melvin Dyson. Two of Dyson's tackles were quarterback sacks and resulted in a loss of 11 yards for the Knights. Belhaven forced three turnovers thanks to the interceptions by Achord and Reed plus a recovered KCU fumble. As a team, the Blazers turned in four total sacks and held the Knights to just 20 yards of passing in the game.
Kentucky Christian was led by Jake Hughes who carried the ball 15 times for 68 yards and a touchdown. Knight quarterback Beau Dailey had 14 carries for 52 yards, but struggled in the passing game going just 6 for 22 with two interceptions. Hughes was also the leading pass catcher for the Knights grabbing three passes for 17 yards. As a team, KCU rushed for 159 total yards which was significantly lower than last week against Bethany College (WV). Both teams struggled on third down as KCU went 2 of 16 and Belhaven went 4 of 13 on third down conversions.
The Blazers will be back in action on Saturday when they host Bethel College (TN) at H.T. Newell Field on another Mid-South Conference matchup. The kickoff is slated for 6:30 PM. You can hear all the action of Blazer football via Stretch Internet though the Belhaven athletics website beginning with the pregame show at 6:15 PM.
