Explosive start ignites (19) Football to win in home opener

Through the first two weeks of the season, Benedictine football has been sparked early by a big play to grab momentum from the start of the game. 

After William Penn elected to defer their choice to the second half, the No. 19-ranked Ravens made the Statesmen pay as Dalton Witherspoon returned the opening kickoff for an 83-yard touchdown run. On the Statesmen's first place from scrimmage, Javhi Blomquist picked off a pass and returned it for 26 yards for the second touchdown of the game for Benedictine. In the blink of an eye, Benedictine led 14-0 en route to a 45-27 win over the Statesmen to open up their five-game home schedule on Saturday afternoon.

Benedictine finished the game with a total of 5 interceptions with 3 sacks and 5 tackles for a loss as they held William Penn to just 40 yards rushing on 16 carries. 

The Ravens controlled both sides of the ball through much of the first half. The Ravens improved on their 14-point first-quarter lead with a pair of second-quarter touchdowns. Jackson Dooley factored in on both touchdowns, finding Joseph Lagafuiana on a 4-yard pass before scoring on a 1-yard keeper to push Benedictine ahead 28-0. 

A 24-yard field goal from Harry Balke was backed by a pair of touchdowns for the Statesmen to send the game into halftime with the Ravens leading 31-13.

Each team scored twice in the second half of play with each getting touchdowns in both quarters. Dooley hit Jacob Gathright on a 12-yard pass for Benedictine's third-quarter score and then connected on a 28-yard pass to Tyler Watson for the fourth-quarter score.

The Ravens finished the game with 480 total yards on offense rushing for 174 yards while Dooley finished the game 29 of 39 for 338 through the air. Witherspoon added 76 yards rushing on 20 carries while Xavier Ugorji added 66 yards on 13 carries. Gathright was the Ravens leading receiver with 82 yards on 8 receptions as Dooley connected on passes to 11 players. Tanner Zimmerman added 47 yards on 5 receptions while Lagafuiana and Watson finished with 34 and 26 yards respectively.

Defensively, Zachary LaCombe, the Heart's reigning Defensive Player of the Week, led the Ravens with 7 tackles while recording one of Benedictine's 5 interceptions. Blomquist finished with 2 interceptions while Trey Williams added the final two. Isaac Anderson Joseph Abrams, Heath Baker, and Tim Glaser combined on the 3 sacks for a loss of 15 yards. The Ravens finished with 5 tackles for a loss of credited Baker, Kyle Gibson, Isaac Anderson, Abrams, and Cole Johnson.

Balke went 5 for 5 on PATs while connecting on 1 of 2 field goals. Cullen Bruner averaged 50.3 yards per punt on four punts with three inside the 20 while he averaged 61.6 yards per kickoff over 8 kickoffs with 3 touchbacks.

Benedictine enters week three at 2-0, but can't rest on the first two weeks as the host current NAIA No. 5 Grand View University at 1 p.m. Sept. 14. The first regular-season NAIA Football GoRout Top 25 Rating is set to be released on Monday.

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