Official Stats
Clinton, MS-Despite forcing four turnovers, the Belhaven football team could only muster 14 points at Mississippi College Saturday night losing to the Choctaws 21-14. The Blazers were also just one of four in red zone opportunities after not being able to capitalize on great field position. Belhaven's average starting field position was on their 39 yard line compared to the Choctaws average starting field position at their own 25.

Belhaven (2-1) got off to a slow start in the first quarter as the Choctaws put 14 points on the board in the opening period. The Mississippi College (2-0) offense took the ball first and put together a textbook opening drive marching 84 yards on 14 plays for a touchdown. The drive was capped off on quarterback Tommy Reyer's 19 yard touchdown to Demetrius Randolph on a fourth down and six play that opened the scoring.

Mississippi College made it a 14-0 game with 1:33 left in the first quarter on another Reyer pass this time to Kenderick Johnson from nine yards out. The drive was setup when Belhaven quarterback Alex Williams was sacked by Qin Mobley and fumbled the football. The Choctaws had a short field to work with and moved the ball 35 yards on seven plays for the score.

Belhaven then settled down a bit in the second quarter and cracked the scoreboard early in the second period. This time it was the Blazer defense that would force a turnover as Jack Hayes ripped the ball out of the hands of running back Steven Knight and linebacker Ricky Wadlington was able to recover on the Choctaw 20 yard line. On the first play following the fumble, Alex Williams found wide out Kevin Dizer open for 19 yards putting the ball on the one yard line. Barry Johnson did the rest and ran it on the next play to make it 14-7 MC following the extra point by James Bryan.

The score remained 14-7 until the third quarter when Reyer ran the ball in from seven yards out giving the Choctaws a 21-7 lead. At that point, Mississippi College appeared to have things in hand but the Blazers had a different idea. With just over four minutes left in the third quarter the Choctaws had the ball back following a punt by Jacob Chancellor and moved the ball out near midfield. The Mississippi College drive came to an abrupt end thanks to a sack, forced fumble, and fumble recovery by Baqui Thomas giving Belhaven the ball at the 49 yard line. Three plays later, Williams fired a 36 yard touchdown pass to Cordario Calvin that put the Blazers right back into the game at 21-14.

However, neither team managed to score points the rest of the night although there were certainly opportunities for both teams. Blazer defensive back Jarrard Sterling blocked a field goal attempt by Choctaw place kicker Dale Wallace early in the fourth quarter. The Blazers then forced two more Mississippi College fumbles, but unlike earlier in the game they were not able to convert them into points. With 2:38 remaining in the game, Choctaw running back Austin Divinity fumbled the ball on an option play and Craig McDonald fell on it at the MC 23 yard line. A personal foul on the Choctaws placed the ball at the 11 with the Blazers needing just 11 yards to tie the game. Three straight incomplete passes by Williams and a sack on 4th and 11 by Brad Holt essentially ended the game leaving Belhaven on the door step of a potential game tying touchdown. Without any timeouts, the Blazers could not stop the clock as time expired giving Mississippi College the 21-14 victory.

Williams completed 20 of 36 passes for 232 yards, a touchdown, and had an interception. Calvin hauled in six passes for 66 yards and a TD. Dizer had another big game with five catches and a team high 71 yards. On the ground Johnson had 14 rushes for 31 yards and a touchdown. The Mississippi College defense held the Belhaven offense in check limiting the Blazers to 286 yards of total offense after having generated over 400 yards of total offense in the first two games of the season.

Defensively for Belhaven, Michael Johnsa led the way with 15 total tackles followed by Ricky Wadlington who had 11 tackles and a fumble recovery. Carlos Young garnered nine tackles with two for a loss including a sack. Jonathan Gamberi and Baqui Thomas also tallied a sack each against Reyer.

Speaking of Reyer, he led the Choctaw offense on Saturday night completing 18 of 26 pass attempts for 241 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for another and had a total of 17 carries for 33 yards. Divinity led all rushers in the game with 16 carries for 102 yards with a per carry average of 6.4 yards. Reyer's favorite target through the air was Johnson who had four catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. The Choctaw offense generated 406 yards of total offense in the win.

The Mississippi College defense was led by Jeremy Bertrand who had seven total tackles with two going for a loss. Willie Brown had six tackles and Luke Petitto came up with an interception.

Belhaven will try and regroup on Saturday afternoon when they return home to face Lindsey Wilson College at H.T. Newell Field. The kickoff is slated for 1:30 PM and all the play-by-play action can be heard via Stretch Internet through the Belhaven Athletics website beginning with the pregame show at 1:15 PM.