Saturday, September 26, 2009
Contact: Chris Kilcoyne

Second-Half Surge Sends Randolph-Macon Past Catholic 31-21

WASHINGTON, DC - Randolph-Macon scored 21 unanswered points to start the second-half as the Yellow Jackets downed Catholic 31-21 in Washington, D.C. Saturday afternoon in the ODAC opener for both teams. R-MC is now 2-2 on the year, while CUA drops to 0-4.

The Jackets rushed the ball 52 times for 236 yards leading to a 38:02 time of possession, while the Cardinals only had the ball for just under 22 minutes on the day. Thaddeus Scruggs led the R-MC ground attack with 82 yards and a score. Steve Mathews rushed 19 times for 77 yards, Vance Hendren had 53 yards on five carries and quarterback Austin Faulkner posted 24 yards and a score on 10 carries.

Faulkner was 14-of-20 for 156 yards through the air, including a 10-of-10 showing in the second-half.   Faulkner connected with Earl Peoples eight times for 79 yards.

The Yellow Jackets' defense was led by Jayrd Grimsley and Christian Stahl with nine tackles each. Stahl also had a key interception deep in side R-MC territory.

Trailing 14-10 at the half, R-MC's first possession of the second-half stalled at the CUA 40. Punter Ben Keyser pinned the Cardinals at their own three yard line and on the second play of the drive, Jehmel Williams intercepted Catholic quarterback Matt Cantafio and returned it for a touchdown to put R-MC up 17-14.

Catholic drove down to the R-MC 24 on its ensuing possession, but Stahl picked off Cantafio to get the ball back in the hands of the Jackets offense.

Randolph-Macon took advantage of the turnover, driving 86 yards on seven plays, hitting pay dirt when Scruggs scampered 16 yards to put R-MC up 24-14.

The Yellow Jackets tacked on another score with just under 10 minutes to go in the game when Faulkner used a draw play from the two for a touchdown, putting R-MC out in front 31-14.

Randolph-Macon will be back at home next Saturday when it hosts Washington and Lee at 1:00 p.m.

-Yellow Jackets-