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Official Stats
JACKSON – The Millsaps College defense forced eight turnovers on the afternoon and had six total sacks, including a career-high 4.5 from senior \#David Dale\#, en route to a gritty, 27-10 victory over cross-street rival Belhaven College in the 5th Annual Riverside Rumble at Harper Davis Field.
The win for Millsaps marked its first of the year and second consecutive over the Blazers, who still own a 3-2 series advantage. The Majors also ran their regular season, home winning streak to seven games dating back to the 2007 season.
Millsaps (1-1) took a 14-3 lead into the locker room behind a pair of \#Chris Graves\# touchdown tosses to \#Tye Menist\# from 3-yards out and \#Jason O'Rear\# from 8-yards out before Belhaven closed the half with a 32-yard Justin Miller field goal as time expired.
The Majors' defense opened the second half with a big fumble recovery from senior \#Colby Langston\# after \#Kenny Reeves\# got a hand on the football, and proceeded to drive 65 yards on 11 plays in 3:52 to stretch their lead out to 21-3 with just over 8 minutes left in the third quarter.
Belhaven (0-2) finally found its offense on their ensuing drive, covering 74 yards on 10 plays, capped off by a Dewayne Whitten 6-yard touchdown strike to Ricardo Bolton to cut it to 24-10. Whitten carried the Blazers all the way down the field himself, completing 3 of 4 passes for 43 yards and also rushing for six yards on the drive.
After the Blazers forced a Millsaps three-and-out at the end of the third quarter, Whitten and Bolton led Belhaven down the field from its own 1-yard line into Majors territory before sophomore \#Brent Jerrell\# picked off Whitten's pass at the 2-yard line and returned it 52 yards back into Belhaven territory. The Blazers picked up six first downs on the drive and traveled 79 yards, but once again couldn't find the end zone after the Majors' fourth interception of the afternoon.
From there, junior kicker \#Taylor Russolino\# banged through field goals of 41 and 30 yards to make the final margin 27-10 in favor of Millsaps.
Lost in a spectacular defensive performance from Millsaps was the individual play of sophomore running back \#Shane Bowser\#, who went over the century mark for the first time of his career after carrying the ball 12 times for 119 yards (9.9 avg). He also caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Graves early in the second half.
Dale's monster game on the defensive line, totaling eight tackles, 4.5 sacks, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble will put him in the running for SCAC Defensive Player of the Week, while teammates \#Jonathan McNair\# and \#Miles Sager\# each set new career-highs with nine and eight tackles, respectively. Junior linebacker \#Will Hawkins\# also had a pair of interceptions and four tackles.
Millsaps will hit the road next weekend, traveling to Sherman, Texas for a showdown with the Austin College Kangaroos (2-0) at Jerry E. Apple Stadium. The Majors have won four straight over the 'Roos and seven of the last eight by an average margin of 16.8 ppg.
