Jackson, MS-The Belhaven football team will be gunning for win number two of the season as well as in the Mid-South Conference when the Blazers play host to Bethel College (TN) on Saturday night at H.T. Newell Field. Belhaven lost at Bethel last season 31-21 and have not beaten the Wildcats since the 2003 season. However, the Blazers were awarded a forfeit win over Bethel in 2006 and Belhaven leads the all-time series 5-4. Belhaven comes into Saturday's game with an overall record of 1-2 and 1-0 in the Mid-South Conference and are coming off a win over Kentucky Christian University 41-14 last weekend.
Bethel is 0-3 overall, but has played some tough competition early in the season. The Wildcats lost their season opener to12th ranked St. Xavier University 26-13, fell in game two to Wisconsin-Eau Claire 21-7, who is ranked in the NCAA III Top 20, and lost to 6th ranked University of the Cumberlands 28-17 last week. Saturday's matchup with the Blazers will be the first conference game of the year for Bethel.
THE BELHAVEN REPORT
Belhaven will look to build on the momentum gained from last weekend's 41-14 win over Kentucky Christian. 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.
The Blazers were led in rushing by Bolton who had 84 yards and a touchdown on eight carries and averaged 10.5 yards per carry for the afternoon.
Ryan 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. On the season, Bolton is averaging 68.7 yards per game on the ground checks in with a season average of 47.7 receiving yards per contest.
Quarterback
Alex Williams led the Blazer aerial assault against the Knights going 18 for 35 for 203 yards. Williams threw three interceptions, but also tossed three touchdowns and ran for another in the game. In two games this season Williams has completed 52.8 percent of his passes and has averaged 189 yards per game in passing.
Cordario Calvin led all receivers with nine receptions for 139 yards and three touchdowns, all coming in the first half against Kentucky Christian. Calvin averages 13 yards per catch and 99.7 yards per game this season.
As a team, Belhaven racked up 445 yards of total offense with 214 of them coming on the ground versus the Knights. 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
Cameron Achord and Johnathan 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. Individually, Lumpkin, Maxwell, and Jones lead the Blazers this season with 24, 23, and 21 tackles respectively.
The Belhaven defense will face a solid Bethel offense today that can both run and throw the football. The Wildcats have a pair of good running backs and will look for the big play down the field in their play action passing game. The Belhaven offense will face a 3-4 look from the Wildcats that will bring pressure and blitz from various different directions. The Blazers are averaging 337 yards of total offense and 18 points per game this year.
THE BETHEL COLLEGE REPORT:
The Wildcats are led by Head Coach Dino Kaklis and come into Saturday's game looking to rebound off their 28-17 loss last week to the University of the Cumberlands. Bethel fell behind early 28-3, but made a fourth quarter comeback with a pair of touchdowns to get back in the game.
Cordarius Mann led the Bethel running attack with 85 yards on eight carries including a touchdown. Josh Boyd also got a number of reps at running back for the Wildcats in their last game taking the ball 13 times for 44 yards. Troy Watson completed 24 of his 32 pass attempts for 200 yards and Dominique Macon was his favorite target hauling in eight passes for 81 yards.
On offense the Wildcats average 227 yards per game as a team and have scored five touchdowns this season. Four of the five scores have come on the ground so the Blazer defense will have to be ready up front to stop the run. Fullback Alex Matlock, who checks in at 6'4 271 pounds, will lead the way for Mann and Boyd on Saturday.
The Bethel defense forced three fumbles and got to the quarterback for a sack once in the contest. Linebacker Alex Hayes led the Wildcats with nine tackles while safety Antonio Wardlow collected eight tackles and forced a fumble. Wade Vandergriff and Sean McCormick each had seven total tackles on the afternoon. Bethel counts on their linebackers to make a lot of plays and it will be important for the Blazer offense to pick them up in their blocking schemes.
The Wildcats have also forced seven fumbles and picked off four passes in three games. It will be crucial for the Belhaven to hang onto the football which is something they have not done well so far this year. The Blazers have lost seven fumbles and thrown a total of nine interceptions in 2009. The determining factor may very well boil down to who holds onto the ball the best. As a team, Bethel is second in the country in turnover margin at plus three.
The kickoff is slated for 6:30 and you can hear all the live play-by-play action via Stretch Internet by clicking on the link below.
Live Audio
