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Jackson, MS-The Belhaven football team turned in an impressive showing on Saturday night as the Blazers dominated Texas College 58-3 for their first win of 2010. Belhaven rolled up 462 yards of total offense while holding the Steers to only 59 total yards in the contest. The Blazers had three rushing touchdowns on the night which matched their season total from a season ago. Overall, it was a balanced attack on the offensive side of the ball with 172 yards coming on the ground and 290 through the air.

Belhaven (1-0) jumped on the board early on a James “Bo” Bryan 33 yard field goal to make it a 3-0 contest capping a six play 14 yard drive. Belhaven had a short field to work with most of the night due to some outstanding special teams play on top of the defense coming up with three fumble recoveries. Belhaven's average starting field position for the game was the Texas College 47 yard line.

Later in the first quarter, Quarterback Alex Williams found Wide Receiver Cordario Calvin for a 12 yard touchdown strike and with a two point conversion run by Barry Johnson the Blazers led 11-0. The touchdown pass capped a seven play 56 yard drive. Three minutes later Calvin hit pay dirt again this time on a 46 yard pass catch on a beautifully thrown pass by Williams and with the extra point Belhaven led 18-0. The flurry of first half points continued on a Williams three yard touchdown run, a D'Ambro Chatman 46 yard TD scamper, a Calvin 16 yard touchdown run on a reverse, and Williams third TD pass of the night to Kyle Henry from 35 yards out capped the first half scoring. The Blazers also picked up a safety on a botched punt by Texas College giving Belhaven a 48-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, Belhaven had the chance to get some of the younger players experience and they made the most of their opportunity. Jimmy Basford came in mid way through the third quarter and went 5 for 8 for 72 yards and touchdown. Basford and wide receiver Justin Kenyon connected on a 34 yard pass play to complete a nice eight play 64 yard drive with 12:39 to go in the game. Earlier in the second half, Bryan drilled his second field of the game from 20 yards out. The only score for Texas College was a Houston Creighton 30 yard field goal with 9:44 to go on the fourth quarter clock that produced the final score of 58-3.

Williams led the Belhaven offense completing 15 of his 30 passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns. Calvin had five catches for 75 yards and two scores while Henry caught three passes for 69 yards and a touchdown. Chatman led the Belhaven ground attack carrying the ball six times for 88 yards and a touchdown. He averaged 14.7 yards per carry with a long run of 54 yards. Williams and Calvin accounted for the other two rushing touchdowns in the game.

On defense, Craig McDonald had a monster game with eight total tackles including three for a loss. He also forced a fumble, recovered a fumble and assisted on a sack. The Blazers were very effective at bringing pressure from the secondary the entire night wrecking havoc in the Steer backfield. Jon Harper also played well for Belhaven collecting seven total tackles while Micahel Sellers had 1.5 sacks in the game. As a team, Belhaven had four sacks and 16 tackles for a loss Saturday night.

“I am very proud of the way our team played tonight,” said Belhaven Head Coach Joe Thrasher. “We did a great job on offense were very balanced with the pass and the run. Our running game and passing attack were both effective and kept the Texas College defense off balance the entire night. Our defense and special teams did a great job of setting up our offense in good field position enabling us to put points on the board.”

“One defense, we were very pleased with the effort by Craig McDonald in the defensive backfield,” adds Thrasher. “We are looking to McDonald to replace Tramaine Brock who is now with the San Francisco 49ers and tonight we did not miss a beat with him in there. I also thought John Harper played extremely well and the defense line stepped up and made some big plays for us. The win was a total team effort and we will need these type of games if we hope to get to where I think this team can go.”

Texas College (0-1) was led on offense by running back Hugh Howard who carried the ball 15 times for 62 yards. Quarterback Kieran Johnson was running for his life the entire game and could manage on 12 completions for 37 yards. He was also sacked three times by the Belhaven defense. One bright spot for the Steers was on defense as Willie Davis had nine total tackles and George Lee came up with an interception on a deflected pass from Williams.

Belhaven will be back in action on Saturday night when they host Louisiana College in their home opener at H.T. Newell Field. The kickoff is slated for 7:00 PM and you can hear all the live play-by-play action via Stretch Internet through the Belhaven Athletics website beginning with the pregame show at 6:45.