DANVILLE, Va. – Shenandoah University forced seven turnovers Saturday afternoon on its way to a 35-20 USA South Conference victory over host Averett University.
The win allows Shenandoah (6-2, 4-1) to clinch its first ever winning season and gives SU four conference victories for the second year in a row. The Hornets will attempt to get a school record fifth USA South victory at Methodist in the November 15th season finale.
The win also snaps a school record three-game winning streak for Averett (4-3, 2-2). Shenandoah also now possesses a game and a half lead on the rest of the USA South field for second place in the league. Current league leader Christopher Newport University, who is a game ahead of SU at 4-0, is idle this week.
As with their big win last week, the Hornets wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard. Taking the opening kick, SU took just five plays to drive 67 yards and score the initial touchdown of the contest. Sophomore Anthony Frates (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) completed that drive with a three-yard run on first and goal from the 3.
Averett provided an omen of things to come on its next possession when it fumbled on 2nd down, giving the ball back to SU on the Cougars 36 yard line. Junior Chris Delfin (Burke, Va./Lake Braddock) took the first down play to the AU 4, but the Averett defense stiffened and held the Hornets for four consecutive plays. The fumble was one of five that the Cougars had in the first 30 minutes and one of three that they lost.
Shenandoah closed out the first quarter with a 17-yard TD run by Anthony McGhee (Reston, Va./South Lakes) to put the Hornets in control at 14-0.
Then, the fun started.
In the next 15 minutes of game action, the two teams combined for 26 points, 303 yards of offense and a couple of controversial plays. Averett appeared to get its initial touchdown early in the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Tracey Smithers, but officials ruled that Smithers fumbled the ball despite the line judge signaling a touchdown. Shenandoah received the ball on its own 1 yard and after three dives into the line, punted the ball back to its hosts.
The Cougars eventually scored on the next possession, but SU answered that score with one of its own to lead 21-16 with 1:45 to play in the half. In that remaining 105 seconds, both teams scored an additional touchdown, the Hornets coming with 10 seconds left and after a disputed play gave Shenandoah a 1st and goal on the AU 5 with 18 seconds remaining. Junior Mike McVearry (Bowie, Md./South River) caught a 32 yard pass along the near sideline and just got one foot inbounds before being pushed out. The officials immediately ruled the catch good, much to the dismay of the Averett crowd. After a brief officials conference and two AU timeouts, Shenandoah scored to make the halftime margin 28-12.
SU erased all doubt as to a second half comeback by the hosts when it forced another Averett fumble and then drove 25 yards in six plays to make it 35-12. This would be the last scoring play until the final play of the game when Cougars backup quarterback Bubba Rosenbaum dove in on 4th and goal from the 4-yardline with 1.5 seconds remaining.
Senior Wayne Hogwood (Arlington, Va./Wakefield) led the Shenandoah offense with a 9 for 14 for a school record 181 yards passing while McGhee had 90 yards rushing and two TDs on 19 carries.
Scott Swann was 17 for 29 for 243 yards for Averett while Rosenbaum added another 83 yards. Each was intercepted once and Swann had a TD pass in the second quarter.
Anthony Morris had 12 tackles for AU while Jesse Hardesty (Broadway, Va./Broadway) had 10 for Shenandoah. SU had a school record seven sacks on the afternoon.
Shenandoah travels to Salisbury next Saturday for a 1:00 non-league contest.
