WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University football team celebrated Senior Day Saturday with a 23-7 ODAC victory over Hampden-Sydney.
Shenandoah (7-2, 4-2 ODAC) allowed a first quarter touchdown, but forced three turnovers and kept Hampden-Sydney (5-4, 4-2) off the board for the final 50 minutes of the contest.
IN DEPTH
Taking the opening kickoff, SU drove 75 yards in 13 plays and 5:12 to take an early, 6-0, lead.
Rashadeen Byrd Jr., who broke the program's all-time touchdowns record last week, blasted over from the 4 to give the hosts the lead.
H-SC, which was playing with its backup quarterback, answered back with a 13-play, 52-yard drive to capture a 7-6 advantage.
That lead would only last 10 minutes of game time.
At 10:04 of the second, the Hornets completed a three-play, 33-yard drive with a 22-yard
Steven Hugney-to-
Ethan Bigbee touchdown pass. SU had taken over at the Tigers 33 after a missed Andrew Puccinelli-to-Melik Frost pass was ruled a lateral and
Ethan Brown fell on it for Shenandoah.
A second Frost fumble, this one on 1
st-and-goal from the SU 2, allowed the Hornets to take the six-point lead into the halftime break.
David Agyei forced the Frost fumble with
Ben Burgan recovering it at the 6.
H-SC had the initial second half possession, but the Shenandoah defense continued to step up and forced a punt after allowing one first down.
SU took over on its own 32 and used 12 plays to drive 60 yards to the Tigers 8. An incomplete pass on third down resulted in a 25-yard
Scott Martin field goal attempt, and the sophomore split the uprights for the nine-point, 16-7, advantage.
The Shenandoah defense then forced a three-and-out, and the offense made the final stanza academic by driving 72 yards in nine plays and 4:06 to extend its lead out to 23-7.
The Hornets possessed the ball for 9:57 in the third and outgained H-SC 137-42.
The fourth quarter was all about ball control, and SU was on offense for 9:04 of the final 15 minutes and allowed just Hampden-Sydney just 30 yards in offense.
Byrd led the SU offense with 98 yards rushing on 26 attempts with Hugney 15-of-24 for 150 yards through the air and adding 63 yards rushing on 10 attempts.
Burgan and
Matt Conroy had eight tackles each.
UP NEXT
Shenandoah completes its season next Saturday with a 1 p.m. ODAC contest at Washington & Lee.
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