Benedictine Football earns a commanding Family Weekend win over Graceland University on Saturday afternoon on O'Malley Field at Larry Wilcox Stadium.
The No. 12-ranked Ravens scored touchdowns on the first three possessions with all three phases aiding the scoring. Rayshawn Mills scored on a 7-yard rush that was set up by an interception, Garrett Kettle connected on a 35-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Gathright and a blocked punt led to another Kettle touchdown pass, this time to JaShawn Todd on an 18-yard pass. Benedictine needed 9 plays to jump out to a 21-0 lead and never looked back en route to a 72-32 win over the Yellowjackets.
Benedictine held a 28-12 after the first quarter. After Graceland scored their first two touchdowns of the game, the Ravens answered with an 86-yard kickoff return touchdown from Todd to put the Ravens back up by 16 points.
The Ravens added three more scores before halftime – a Kettle to Todd 79-yard pass, a 35-yard Kettle to Gathright pass, and a 3-yard Kettle to Reed Levi Pass.
Benedictine took a 48-18 lead into halftime. They shut out Graceland in the third quarter while tacking on 17 more points before scoring their final points of the game early in the fourth quarter.
While Kettle finished the game with 5 touchdown passes on 12 of 16 passing for a total of 294 yards, the Ravens lead allowed them to play two additional quarterbacks in the second half, both of which added touchdown passes of their own. Luke Laskowski had two touchdown passes of 4 yards to Colin Payne and 18 yards to Tanner Zimmerman. Jackson Dooley added his passing touchdown in the fourth quarter, connecting on a 12-yard pass to Pete Cadena.
The Ravens finished with 587 yards of total offense – passing for 390 while rushing for 197.
Graceland, who entered the game as the NAIA's third-best passing offense, finished with 374 yards, but quarterback Cade Ross threw 4 interceptions and was sacked 4 times which helped the Ravens hold the Yellowjackets to just 59 yards rushing.
Zach Gill, Abram Phillips, Soloman Wallace, and Garrett Feiden combined for the 4 sacks. Lamont Shamburger, Gavin Spangler, Jackson Hoskins, and Joel Mewis all recorded interceptions. Blue Caplinger led the Ravens with 9 tackles, including 2 for a loss of 2 yards with a breakup. Joshua Morris added 6 while Javhi Bloomquist and Phillips added 4 each.
The Ravens wrap up the first half of the season next week, traveling to Canton, Mo., to take on Culver-Stockton College in their final Heart cross-divisional game. After a bye week, the Ravens host Central Methodist University on Oct. 15 at 1 p.m. back on O'Malley Field to open up Heart North play.
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