Butler Earns Win Over Davidson Football, 31-20

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DAVIDSON, N.C. – Butler's Trae Heeter gained 256 total yards and rushed for two touchdowns as the Bulldogs held off Davidson, 31-20, in Pioneer Football League action Saturday afternoon at Richardson Stadium.

Jonathan Carkhuff completed 31-of-48 passes for 296 yards for Davidson (1-7, 1-3 PFL), with two touchdowns and one interception. Lanny Funsten caught 13 passes for 131 yards and Danny Martinez and Garrett Diehl both had career days, as Martinez caught four passes for 71 yards and two touchdowns, and Diehl caught seven passes for 46 yards.

Heeter led Butler (7-2, 6-0 PFL) with 231 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries, and also caught two passes for 21 yards. Quarterback Matt Lancaster completed 16-of-31 pass attempts for 277 yards and two touchdowns. JT Mesch led the Bulldog receivers with 121 yards on four catches and a touchdown.

Davidson closed a 24-10 halftime deficit to four after Carkhuff found Martinez for a 46-yard touchdown with 5:35 remaining in the third quarter, and Schick converted a 34-yard field goal with 11:58 remaining in the game. However, a 41-yard pass to Mesch setup another Butler touchdown, as Lancaster found Marquese Martin-Hayes with a seven-yard touchdown pass for a 31-20 lead with 8:59 to go.

Davidson moved into Butler territory on its next possession, but Thad Satre and Kyle Annis were able to sack Carkhuff for a nine-yard loss on 3rd-and-1 from the Butler 34, and David Burke intercepted a jump ball at the goal line on the next play, returning it 59 yards to give the Bulldogs the ball back with 5:32 to go. Butler was able to run 11 plays, converting a 4th-and-1 and a 3rd-and-4 to run out the clock and remain undefeated in conference play.

Davidson held advantages in time of possession (31:02-28:58), ran 81 plays to Butler's 69 and tallied eight more first downs, but Butler used big plays to total 498 yards on offense.

“We just gave up too many big plays defensively and they got out in front of us early,” said Davidson head coach Tripp Merritt. “I thought our offense at times was really good today. Trae Heeter is a good player though. When you give him a seam and miss a tackle, he's going to go the length of the field.”

Davidson linebacker Patrick Moynahan led all defenders with 14 tackles and now has a career-best 99 this season. Ben Prater, Lewis McAllister and Kacy Yuhas each had sacks. Jordan Ridley and Sean Grady had 12 and 10 tackles, respectively, for Butler.

Butler struck first in the game, as Jon Treloar converted a 33-yard field goal on the first drive of the game. Treloar missed his second attempt though, and Davidson answered with a 13-play, 80-yard scoring drive capped by a spectacular 13-yard touchdown reception in the back-left corner of the end zone by Martinez with 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Butler was able to open a 17-7 lead though with a pair of second quarter touchdowns. A 51-yard run by Heeter keyed Butler's next scoring drive, as Heeter was able to rush into the end zone from four yards out. Butler's Christian Eble then forced and recovered a Carkhuff fumble to give the Bulldogs the ball at Davidson's 37, and Lancaster completed a 32-yard touchdown pass to Mesch for the two-score lead with 10:55 remaining in the half.

A 27-yard field goal by Robert Schick for Davidson made it 17-10 with 7:15 remaining in the half. Heeter was able to break off a 78-yard touchdown run though with 1:17 remaining to give the Bulldogs a 24-10 lead going to the locker room.

That was the largest lead Butler would hold, as the 'Cats were able to score the next 10 points before Butler iced the game with another touchdown.

“I told our players that I thought it was a great effort today,” said Merritt. “Especially in the second half, we made some adjustments defensively and we played much better.”

Davidson will play its next two games on the road, traveling to Morehead State next Saturday. The Wildcats will then travel to face Valparaiso on Nov. 10 before concluding the season at home on Nov. 17 vs. San Diego.

Notes: Carkhuff (773) needs just two more completions to tie Ryan Alexander (2004-08, 775) for the most career completions at Davidson … Carkhuff now has 44 career passing touchdowns and is seven shy of Paul Nichols (1999-02), who ranks second with 51 … Lanny Funsten extended his Davidson career leads in receptions to 208 and receiving yards to 2539 and remains one touchdown shy of equaling the career record of 19 held by Barrett Johnson (2000-03) and Gifford Piercy (1977-80) … Danny Martinez became the first Davidson receiver to have a multi-touchdown day this season after scoring his first touchdown last week at Campbell … his 46-yard touchdown catch and 71 yards were both career highs, while his four receptions matched his career high set last week … Diehl's seven receptions were a career-best … freshman defensive back Myles Atkins had a career day as well with eight tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a pass break up.

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