Benedictine Football secured a Homecoming Weekend win on Saturday behind a balanced offense and a timely defensive effort.
The No.18-ranked Ravens forced Missouri Valley College to punt the ball 5 times, turned the Vikings over on downs 3 other times, and had a fumble recovery and an interception returned for a touchdown en route to a 31-7 win.
Benedictine scored two first-quarter touchdowns, both through the air. Jackson Dooley connected with Jacob Gathright on a 40-yard pass for the first touchdown and then connected on an 8-yard pass to Kameron Dover to make it 14-0.
The Vikings scored the only points of the second quarter, which sent the game into the half with the Ravens in the lead 14-7.
Dooley found Dalton Witherspoon on a 14-yard pass for the Ravens third-quarter touchdown to send the game into the final 15 minutes with Benedictine in the lead, 21-7. Harry Balke added a 21-yard fourth-quarter field goal before Jagger Blubaugh scored on a 64-yard interception return for the final points of the afternoon.
The Raven defense finished with 9 tackles for a loss of 44 yards while recording 5 sacks. Blubaugh finished with 7 tackles to lead the defense. Jared Herron – who added 6 tackles and a forced fumble – Isaac Anderson, Cole Johnson, Heath Baker, and Dominic Stoneking combined for 5 sacks. Anderson recorded 2 sacks with 2.5 tackles for a loss. The Ravens forced 3 fumbles with Caleb Taylor tallying a fumble recovery. Javhi Blomquist added 3 pass breakups to make Joel Mewis and Anderson with 5 tackles while Anderson forced the fumble recovered by Taylor.
Benedictine finished with 319 yards on offense. Witherspoon finished with 84 yards on 11 carries to anchor the rushing attack. Gathright finished with 72 yards on 4 receptions while Dover added 39 yards on 3 receptions. Dooley finished with 185 yards on 15 of 24 passing to round out the offensive effort.
The Ravens take the road for two of their next three games. They travel to Baldwin City next week for a match-up with rival Baker University at 1 p.m.
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