JACKSON, Miss. — Quan Weaver and Seth Millar busted through the Belhaven defense for 143 and 125 rushing yards, respectively, to push the University of Pikeville football team to a 41-31 win on Saturday.
Belhaven, coached by air-raid pioneer and former Kentucky head coach Hal Mumme, moved the ball, racking up 621 yard of total offense, but fumbled twice and threw a costly interception to keep the Bears in the game.
Trailing 13-10 late in the first quarter, UPIKE (4-6, 3-2 MSC East) tallied 21 unanswered points to take a 31-13 lead into halftime.
Sani Warren started the rally with a 14-yard keeper, followed by Donald Styles picking off Brian Ensminger for a 44–yard return to the two-yard line. From there Jamar Kirksey punched it in to go up by 11 and a few drives later Weaver broke a 30-yard run to set up Millar for a short run to make it 31-13.
Millar and Weaver both finished with one rushing touchdown each, while Warren went 8-of-20 through the air for 113 yards, a touchdown and one interception. Shawntez Johnson was his leading receiver with three catches for 49 yards, while Aaron Jackson had the lone receiving touchdown on his only catch of the game in the first quarter to go up 10-6.
Styles was a hit on defense for UPIKE, posting a game-high 11 tackles to go along with his interception. Eight of his tackles were solo stops and 1.5 were for a loss. John Dudley Hilton chipped in with 10 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble and converted tight end Chad Conway registered a pair of sacks.
There was a brief scare in the second half when Belhaven (2-8, 0-4 MSC West) scored 12 straight points to cut the deficit to six, but Damir Karapandzic hit his second field goal of the day from 27-yards out to go back up by nine and Weaver added a 50-yard run in the final two minutes for safe measure.
Down 41-25 with just seconds remaining, Belhaven’s Greg Livingston got free for a 45-yard touchdown catch to trim the Bears’ lead to 10. Belhaven then recovered an onside kick, but with just six seconds on the clock, it completed one 15-yard pass before time expired, giving UPIKE back-to-back wins for the first time this season.
UPIKE finished with 411 yards of offense, including a 298-242 advantage on the ground, as the Blazers had possession for more than 10 extra minutes and ran 103 plays, compared to 60 for UPIKE. That also led to Belhaven tallying a 33-21 advantage in first downs.
The Bears play their regular-season finale at 1:30 p.m. ET next Saturday, Nov. 15, at Union in Barbourville, Ky.
[adsenseyu2]
Comments
