Box Score JACKSON, Miss. – Despite a 17-7 lead at the half, the Millsaps College football team fell 25-28 to Belhaven in the 2016 season opener on Thursday, Sept. 1 at Harper-Davis Field.
Sophomore quarterback
Chance Clowers lead the Major offense with 34 complete passes on 52 attempts for 302 yards. He passed for three touchdowns and only suffered one sack. Clowers go-to receiver for the night was senior wide receiver
Beau Wells. Wells led the Majors in receiving with eight passes caught for a total 100 yards.
Hector Sandoval, senior linebacker, headed the Millsaps defense with seven solo tackles and five tackle assist for a 12 tackles total.
Jared Bullock,
Steele Liles, and
Reid Evans also put in work for the Major defense, recording five or more total tackles each. Liles, sophomore linebacker, was also credited with a sack.
The Majors were the first to make it to scoreboard with 11:50 left in the first quarter.
Thomas Reynolds caught a five-yard pass from Clowers for a touchdown and freshman kicker
Carson King landed the point-after to put Millsaps up 7-0.
King put his leg to work for the Majors with 2:10 left in the first to land a 21-yard field goal to extend Millsaps' lead to 10-0.
After struggling the entire first quarter to get around the Major defense, Belhaven put their first seven points on the board at the 7:21 mark in the second quarter to cut the Millsaps lead to 10-7.
The Majors answered Belhaven's progress at 4:16 before halftime with an eight-yard pass from Clowers to
Rashad Sims for a touchdown. King landed the point after again to put Millsaps ahead 17-7.
In the second half of the game, it was evident that the Blazers had adjusted to the Majors defense and was able to shutdown their pass game. Belhaven's offense was also able to put up 21 additional points while their defense held the Majors to just 8.
Andrew Warren rushed for one yard to score the Majors' lone touchdown in the second half with 1:15 left in the game. Clowers completed a pass to
Tanner Menist for the two-point conversion to put Millsaps in the position to tie the game or go for the touchdown kill.
During the punt return, King attempted an onside kick but Belhaven was able to recover the ball and their offense took the field.
With 1:13 left in the game, new life was sparked into the majors after senior safety
Jared Bullock recovered a Belhaven fumble.
The Millsaps offense was able to move the ball down the field at a rapid pace but was unable to convert the drive into points.
Major football will be back in action on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. Millsaps will host Trinity University at Harper Davis Field located on the campus of Millsaps College.
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