DANVILLE, Va.- Shenandoah University pitched its third shutout of the 2022 season Saturday with a 45-0 ODAC football victory over Averett University.
Shenandoah (6-2, 3-2 ODAC) also clinched its fifth winning season in the past six years of NCAA championship play with the win over the Cougars (2-6, 0-5).
IN DEPTH
The shutout, which comes on the heels of 45-0 and 20-0 whitewashes of N.C. Wesleyan and Ferrum, respectively this season, is the second-ever over Averett. In 2000, the inaugural year for intercollegiate football for both Averett and Shenandoah, SU was a 30-0 victory over the Cougars on the very same field.
Coach
Scott Yoder's club used six turnovers, including two that went for touchdowns, in recording the victory.
At the 7:30 mark of the first, first-year
Matt Conroy scooped up a Ryan Curle fumble and rumbled 22 yards for the initial score of the game. Curle coughed up the ball as a result of a
Maxwell Moore strip sack on a 3
rd-and-10 play from the Cougars 32.
After the Hornets drove 39 yards in eight plays and 3:02 to make it 14-0 with 6:47 remaining in the second, All-America
Ben Burgan picked off Curle for and went 47-yards for the pick six.
The interception was one of five on the day for the Shenandoah defense.
Another interception, this one by
Keyshawn Wilder, set SU up on the Averett 30. It took just one play for the visitors to make it 28-0 as quarterback
Steven Hugney hit
Bryar Wheeler for what would prove to the first of two touchdown passes on the day.
The interception was one of a program and ODAC-record-tying four for Wilder. He ties the SU mark originally set by Dionte Beatty '09 versus Waynesburg on Sep. 16, 2006 while this is the sixth time in league history that a player has picked off four passes in one game.
Shenandoah took the second half kickoff and drove it 80 yards in eight plays and 4:25 with Hugney hitting Wheeler on the same pattern for a 26-yard TD.
Scott Martin completed the third quarter scoring with a 30-yard field goal. The Hornets final TD was a
Markell Jackson 3-yard run with 6:18 remaining.
Conroy had a team-high 11 tackles in addition to his scoop-and-score while Wilder made four tackles on top of his career day.
UP NEXT
Shenandoah completes its regular season home slate next Saturday with a 1 p.m. Senior Day contest versus Hampden-Sydney.
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