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Shenandoah tops Randolph-Macon, 51-38

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The Shenandoah University football team earned its first win over Randolph-Macon since joining the Old Dominion Athletic Conference with a 51-38 ODAC victory over the Yellow Jackets Thursday night at Day Field.

shenandoah universityQuarterback Hayden Bauserman was virtually unstoppable in the Hornets (3-1, 1-0 ODAC) win – the junior finished his night 32-for-60 for a school-record 558 yards and six touchdowns.

Bauserman completed passes to eight different receivers with senior Leonard Scott grabbing seven balls for 162 yards and three touchdowns and classmate Michael Ashwell added eight catches for 64 yards and a TD.

Three men – Scott, Casey Stewart and Cory Bell – had at least 93 yards receiving as Bauserman threw for 357 yards in the first half and had 500 yards by the end of the third quarter.

Bauserman had TD passes of 40, 12, 2, 31, 39 and 11 yards.

But with all of that offense, it was a defensive touchdown that sealed the victory over Macon (2-2, 0-1).

With Shenandoah leading 44-31 but having just turned the ball over on downs deep in R-MC territory, junior Chris Grady picked off a Burke Estes pass and returned it 27 yards at the 6:10 mark of the fourth.

Macon made matters interesting with a TD 41 seconds later, but the Hornets picked off Estes two more times in the waning moments (one by Weldon Gilchrist, Jr. and the second by Nate Hill) to ice the victory.

“Great team win tonight,” Hornets coach Scott Yoder said. “Offense, defense and special teams all battled. We earned this one.

“The pick-six sealed the game though and our defense came up with timely stops.”

After a first half in which the two teams combined for 51 points and the Yellow Jackets were 6-for-8 on third down conversions, the SU defense had three three-and-outs in the third quarter and held Macon to just a field goal as the Hornets increased their lead from 30-21 to 44-24.

Bauserman just missed the ODAC records of 611 yards passing and eight touchdowns, but he was nearly perfect on the night.

“Hayden was awesome,” Yoder said. “His throw-aways were smart and he was in total control.”

The junior directed SU to 23 first downs and had six third down conversions and two on fourth down.

Tre Frederick had 160 yards rushing and Estes 381 passing for R-MC.

Shenandoah is back in action next Saturday in a 1 p.m. home game versus Emory and Henry.

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