Defense Lifts Davidson Football to 16-10 Victory

Saturday, October 10

Davidson, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Davidson College Athletics

Morehead State

Daniel Astrop forces one of five Morehead State fumbles Saturday.

Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com

Defense Lifts Davidson Football to 16-10 Victory

10/10/2009 5:43:59 PM | Football

By: Marc Gignac

DAVIDSON, N.C. – The Wildcat defense forced five turnovers, and junior quarterback Michael Blanchard rushed for 93 yards and two touchdowns to lead Davidson to a 16-10 Pioneer Football League victory over Morehead State Saturday afternoon at Richardson Stadium.

The 'Cats had 10 tackles for loss and three sacks and held Morehead State to 75 yards on the ground and 180 yards of total offense. Daniel Astrop and Tyler Lemons each led the way with nine tackles, and Astrop forced two fumbles. Patrick Hunt had a sack and two tackles for loss, while Alex Griswold had two tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.

“When the defense played as hard as we did today, turnovers are going to happen,” said Griswold. “Our Red Zone defense really stepped up and forced them into field goals instead of touchdowns.”

Blanchard also completed four passes for 50 yards, and Kenny Mantuo rushed 12 times for 54 yards for the Wildcats (2-3, 2-1 PFL). Evan Sawyer threw for 76 yards and ran for 22 markers to lead the Eagles (2-4, 0-3 PFL), and Ronnie McDermott caught four passes for 48 yards.

All five Morehead State turnovers were fumbles, and the last three came on the Eagles' last three possessions of the game, proving to be costly.

With the score tied 10-10, Brendan McLaughlin muffed an Andrew Wohler 43-yard punt, and Davidson's Gianni Ricci recovered the ball at the Eagle 16-yard line. On 3rd-and-14, Blanchard broke free on a quarterback draw and raced 20 yards to the end zone. The 'Cats missed on the extra-point attempt, leaving the score at 16-10 with 8:43 to play.

Morehead State drove down to the Davidson 47-yard line with the help of a Sawyer to McDermott 18-yard completion. Hunt pushed the Eagles back two yards with a sack on second down, and on third down, Sawyer completed a pass to McLaughlin for what would have been a first down. But Pete Anderson forced a fumble on the tackle, and Tyler Hammett recovered it for the Wildcats.

The Wildcat offense was able to chew up some clock, and Wohler pinned MSU on their own 7-yard line with 1:58 to play and no timeouts left. Sawyer completed an 8-yard pass on first down, but his next two attempts were incompletions to set up 4th-and-2. He dropped back to pass, but Astrop was there for the sack and forced a fumble, which was recovered by Daniel Hauffe. The Wildcats went into victory formation to run out the clock and seal the win.

A Davidson fumble on its own 18-yard line on the first offensive play of the game helped Morehead State jump out to a 7-0 lead on a 3-yard run by McDermott. The score stayed that way until a 21-yard completion from Blanchard to Preston Eldridge helped set up a Ben Behrendt field goal with 6:12 left in the first half, cutting the margin to 7-3.

The Davidson offense put together a five-play, 89-yard drive late in the third quarter to give the 'Cats their first lead of the game. Mantuo had a 26-yard run, and Blanchard finished the drive with a 32-yard touchdown run, giving Davidson a 10-7 lead with 1:31 left in the frame.

“We got off to a slow start, but we didn't panic,” said Davidson coach Tripp Merritt. “We kept our cool and turned it around. Our defense was great today, and we had a lot of young guys step up and make big plays.”

A Wildcat fumble gave the Eagles the ball on the Davidson 18-yard line early in the fourth, but the defense held and forced a Rainer Duzan field goal to tie the score at 10-10 with 12:09 remaining.

The Wildcats are back on the road next Saturday as they travel to Dayton for a 1 p.m. contest.

Game Notes: The Wildcats ended a two-game losing streak to Morehead State and improved to 11-5 in their last 16 PFL games at Richardson Stadium… The 'Cats need one more victory to record the winningest decade in school history… Lemons reached the 200-tackle mark for his career… It was the most fumble recoveries for Davidson since the school began tracking the record in 1998.