JACKSON, Miss. - The Belhaven football team dropped a hard-fought game to No. 17 East Texas Baptist, 60-47, in the inaugural game inside the brand-new Belhaven Bowl Stadium Saturday afternoon.
After the Tigers (4-0) got out to a 32-17 lead through the first half, the Blazers (1-3) fought back admirably, outscoring the 17th ranked team in NCAA Division III 30-28 in the second half of play.
ETBU quarterback Dru Smith scored the first touchdown of the game at the 8:39 mark of the first quarter, rushing three yards for the score. The Tigers' two-point conversion attempt was successful, giving East Texas an 8-0 lead.
On the ensuing Belhaven possession, the Blazers drove 34 yards to the ETBU 14-yard line, and
Alonso Acosta finished off the drive by kicking a 31-yard field goal through the uprights, making it an 8-3 ballgame. With that field goal, Acosta now ranks second all-time in program history with 19 career made field goals.
Smith passed to Richard Johnson for a 14-yard score with four minutes left in the first quarter, and another successful two-point attempt gave ETBU a 16-3 advantage.
After an ETBU field goal early in the second quarter, Belhaven quarterback
Hunter McEachern recorded the Blazers' first touchdown of the game, running it in from a yard out. Acosta's point after attempt trimmed the Tigers lead down to nine points. McEachern's run capped off an 85-yard for the Blazers, the longest of the game for either team. McEachern completed seven passes to five different receivers.
The Blazers put together another sustained drive just a few minutes later, marching 76 yards down the field, resulting in a 32-yard touchdown pass from McEachern to
Nate Williams.
ETBU would find the end zone for the fourth time in the first half just 44 seconds before the halftime break, taking a 32-17 lead.
Belhaven opened the second half with another McEachern to Williams touchdown, this time on an eight-yard strike.
Afer a 39-yard ETBU touchdown pass from Smith to Johnson, the Blazers drove 72 yards to the Tigers' one-yard line, only to be stopped short at the goal line. After the turnover on downs, the Belhaven defense forced the Tigers to punt from their own two-yard line, giving the Blazers the ball at the ETBU 29-yard line.
McEachern connected with
Deon Richardson for a 12-yard reception, then ran it himself for 10 yards to the ETBU seven-yard line. A seven-yard touhdown pass to
LaMiquell Roberts made the score 39-32 in favor of the Tigers through three quarters.
On the first play of the Tigers' second drive of the fourth quarter, Smith tossed a 59-yard touchdown to Chase Sojka, giving ETBU a 14-point advantage.
Jaquay Daniels caught a 26-yard touchdown pass from McEachern with 9:37 to play to once again trim the Tigers lead down to seven, but ETBU ran for two scores less than a minute apart to push its lead to 21 points with just over seven minutes remaining.
With just over a minute to play, McEachern found Roberts for a three-yard touchdown to round out the scoring for the Blazers.
ETBU tallied 592 total yards of offense - 385 in the air and 205 on the ground - while Belhaven finished with a season-high 506 yards. Both teams did a good job of taking advantage of their scoring opportunities, with the Blazers going 5-6 on red zone opportunities and the Tigers going 6-7.
McCeachern finished the game with 466 passing yards and five touchdowns on 38 completions in 65 attempts.
Daniels led the receiving corps with nine catches for 110 yards. Roberts added 102 yards on seven receptions while Williams recorded four catches for 81 yards. Thirteen different Blazers tallied at least one reception.
Isaac Nelson paced the Belhaven defense with a season-high 11 tackles while
Alvin McCaskey added six tackles.
Maurice Stewart,
Quentron Gallow and
Alvin Vaughn recorded five tackles each.
Next up, the Blazers travel to Alpine, Texas on Saturday, Oct. 8 to take on Sul Ross State University. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.
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