PERU, Neb. – Benedictine Football bounced back with a convincing road win on Saturday night, taking down Peru State College 47-6.
The Ravens scored 33 unanswered points after a blocked PAT attempt from the Bobcats was housed by Isaiah Hasten for a 97-yard return.
Benedictine finished with 430 yards of total offense on 75 plays, averaging 5.7 yards per play.
The Ravens opened up the scoring, capping off a 5-play, 68-yard drive on the first possession of the game when Patrick Heitert connected on an 18-yard pass to Xiomar Hernandez. The Kyler Haarhuis PAT was good and the Ravens held an early 7-0 inside the first three minutes of the game.
Peru State pulled within a point, scoring on a 1-yard rush before the blocked PAT led to the Hasten return.
Matthew Sanford scored on a 6-yard pass from Heitert to end the first quarter and Zemar Cheatam scored a 1-yard rushing touchdown to open the second quarter scoring for the Ravens. Haarhuis connected on a 38-yard field goal to push the Ravens to a 26-6 halftime lead.
Hernandez scored on rushes of 2 yards and 1 yard in the third quarter before Joey Burke capped off the scoring on a 10-yard reception from Mark Harris midway through the fourth quarter.
Hernandez finished with 66 yards rushing and 45 yards receiving with a total of 3 touchdowns. Heitert added 96 yards rushing while going 11 of 19 with 127 yards passing.
Joseph Lagafuaina led the Raven receivers with 48 yards on 2 receptions as 8 Ravens caught at least one pass from Heitert and Harris.
Defensively, Benedictine finished with 3 sacks for a loss of 21 yards while adding 2 interceptions and a fumble recovery to the blocked PAT and return.
Ben Gilliland and Kolbe Sexton led the Ravens with 4 tackles each as 24 players recorded at least 1 tackle in the win. Dylan Witherspoon finished with 3 tackles to go with an interception while Luis Vasquez recorded the second interception.
Gabe Adams, Kyle Jordan, Brody Morgan and Christian McAfee recorded the four sacks for the Ravens.
Benedictine returns home Saturday, hosting (13) William Penn University at 1 p.m. inside Larry Wilcox Stadium. The Statesmen enter the game at 2-0 and are coming off a 14-13 road win over Missouri Valley College.
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