The Bridgewater College football team kicked off ODAC play with an impressive road win, pulling away from Shenandoah in the second half for a 39-21 win in Winchester, Va.
Quarterback Ross Rushing rushed for 79 yards in the first half alone and broke the century mark in both categories, throwing for 109 yards and a score while rushing for 108 on 12 attempts with a touchdown. Dylan Horne had 69 receiving yards, including a first half touchdown and a 43-yard catch to set up Nick Ollie‘s fourth quarter TD, and even recovered an onside kick after Shenandoah had scored to cut the Bridgewater lead to 11 points.
Tyler Miller led the defense with 10 tackles, while Davey Hardesty, Anthony Moton III and Sonny Romine all intercepted passes to set up Eagle scores.
Bridgewater opened up a 15-14 game late in the third after an uneventful early second half. Romine picked off a pass and Chandler DeHaven split the uprights on a field goal for an 18-14 lead.
Bridgewater put together an 8-play, 72-yard drive that ended with Ollie’s touchdown and a two-score lead at 25-14.
Logan Whitaker, back on the field after missing the first half, sacked SU quarterback Hayden Bauserman back at the three yard line. Hardesty soon picked off a Bauserman pass, leading to a Will Hill-Pensamiento touchdown and a 32-14 Eagle advantage.
The Bridgewater defense had come out strong, holding the Hornets to just five yards on their first two possessions of the contest. After stuffs from Hardesty and Muhammad Kahn/Miller, Matthew Johnson blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety to open the scoring.
The Eagles started to move the ball, finding Kevin Barr and Horne for 12 yards each. Shenandoah’s Javonte Rose cut in front of a Matthew Pisarcik pass at the 25 yard line however, intercepting the throw to end Bridgewater’s threat.
Bridgewater would go ahead 9-0 soon after, as Rushing kept the ball on third down, cut outside and bulldozed over a tackle into the Hornet end zone.
Rushing’s score was set up by Moton’s interception at midfield, which the Eagle senior returned to the 31 yard line.
BC’s defense had punctuated an impressive first quarter with a fourth down stop. After forcing Shenandoah to take a timeout, the Hornets’ offense came back onto the field and threw incomplete at the BC 25-yardline to give the ball away on downs.
Shenandoah went for it on fourth down again in the second quarter, with a much different result. Delaney picked up the yards he needed and then broke a tackle and went all the way, with his 17 yard rush cutting the SU deficit to 9-7.
Josh White’s 75-yard punt return down to the 9-yardline helped the Hornets take their only lead of the first half on Delaney’s one-yard score.
The Eagles took the lead back at halftime with a nice touchdown drive. Pete Monteleone picked up a first down with a tough catch over the middle, and Rushing escaped a sack to scramble down to the five with 1:03 remaining. BC lost major yardage on a failed cut outside, but Rushing hit Horne down the seam for the go-ahead score and a 15-14 lead at the break.
Bridgewater wins its third straight and improves to 3-1, 1-0 ODAC. The Eagles will travel to Emory & Henry next Saturday as they continue a stretch of four road games in five weeks. Shenandoah falls to 3-1, 0-1.
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