WINCHESTER, Va. – No. 24/25 Hampden-Sydney used a dominating middle half of the contest to defeat host Shenandoah 45-27 before 3087 football fans Saturday afternoon in ODAC action.
Shenandoah (4-3, 2-2 ODAC) took advantage of three H-SC (6-1, 4-0) first quarter fumbles to jump out to a 10-0 lead, but could not hold off the Tigers offense.
Led by quarterback Nash Nance and his 381 yards passing, Hampden-Sydney scored 38 of the game's next 41 points after spotting SU that 10-point lead.
All but the first touchdown of this run, a Brady Macko 4-yard blast, came in the second and third quarters.
Nash directly accounted for 21 of those points, throwing touchdown passes of 70 and 24 yards while scoring on a 1-yard rush of his own.
SU attempted to get back in it on Drew Ferguson to Levi Hardy 26-yard TD pass open the fourth quarter scoring, but the Nash answered back, scoring on a second 1-yard TD run before finding Holton Walker for a 72-yard TD strike to take a 45-20 lead with 5:53 remaining.
Shenandoah closed the book on the day's scoring with 1:56 remaining when Ferguson found Qlyl Middelijn for a 13-yard scoring strike.
SU appeared to be in total control after forcing a fumble on the Tigers' first play from scrimmage and turning that turnover into a Jacob Newton 32-yard field goal.
A Nance fumble on the Hampden-Sydney's third possession gave Shenandoah the ball at the Tigers 6.
From there, it took just three plays for Kye Hopkins to blast over from the 1 to give the hosts the 10-0 advantage.
The bulge threatened to grow even more as H-SC fumbled the ensuing kickoff, but Newton hooked a 30-yard attempt wide right to allow the Tigers to escape unscathed.
Hampden-Sydney finished with 491 yards of total offense with Nance accounting for 381 and three touchdowns through the air.
Walker had 167 yards receiving on just five receptions.
Shenandoah had 375 yards of offense split nearly even (198 passing, 177 rushing) with Ferguson rushing for 47 yards on top of his 198 passing.
SU is back in action next Saturday at 1 in its home finale against Randolph-Macon.
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