Benedictine Football bounced back from a tough season-opening loss with a convincing week 2 win over Clarke University on Saturday.
The No. 7 ranked Ravens returned to form on offense with 620 yards of total offense and a 35-0 start en route to a 63-14 win over the Pride.
Benedictine benefited from a big-strike offensive attack, scoring 3 touchdowns on plays over 40 yards with three more from 30 or more.
Jackson Dooley connected on a 63-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Gathright on the first of his 5 touchdown passes on the day to open the scoring inside the first 5 minutes of the game. Tanner Zimmerman caught the second touchdown pass of the game on a 19-yard pass before JaShawn Todd scored on an 11-yard rush. Lebron Jackson scored the third passing touchdown of the game from Dooley on a 45-yard pass before Zimmerman scored his second touchdown of the opening quarter on a 30-yard pass to push Benedictine ahead 35-0 headed to the second quarter.
The Pride broke their scoreless drought inside the first 5 minutes of the second quarter only to have that score answered by the Ravens on a 33-yard touchdown reception from Todd and a 33-yard touchdown run by Derrick Overstreet to extend Benedictine's lead to 49-7 at the half.
Benedictine sandwiched 2 third-quarter touchdowns around the Pride's second score of the game. Reed Levi scored on a 50-yard pass from Luke Laskowski to start the third-quarter scoring. The Ravens answered the Pride's second touchdown of the game with a 9-yard reception by Matthew Sanford from Laskowski to round out the scoring for the day.
Harry Balke connected on each of his 9 point after attempts to set a new program single-game record for PATs. The previous record of 8 was held by 4 former Ravens, most recently Andrew Zubia in 2015. Cary Shaw (1976, 1977), Keith Kenny (1985), and Zach Kennan (2015) also held a share of the record.
Dooley finished with 304 yards on 13 of 17 passing with 5 touchdowns while Laskowski added 141 yards on 8 of 12 passing with 2 touchdowns.
Gathright anchored the receiving corp with 109 yards on 4 catches. Todd added 94 on 4 catches while Levi finished with 73 on 2 receptions.
Defensively, Blue Caplinger was the Ravens leading tackler with 7. Jagger Blubaugh and Carson Anderson added 6 each, combining for 3 of the Ravens 8 tackles for a loss. Jared Herron, Isaac Anderson, and Joseph Burke combined for the Ravens 2 sacks while Victor Terry III had a forced fumble that was recovered by Abram Phillips.
Benedictine travels to Lamoni, Iowa, for week 3 of the schedule as they take on Graceland University at 6 p.m.
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