Bison Football drops road season closer to Juniata College
HUNTINGDON, Pa. - The Juniata College football team took out a season's worth of frustration on Gallaudet University, amassing 588 yards of total offense on its way to a 56-38 win over the Bison, in a Saturday afternoon shootout in front of 1,200 fans at Knox Stadium in Huntingdon, Pa.
Quarterback Jay Leonard (Newville, Pa./Big Spring) accounted for
282 yards through the air on a 20-of-34 performance, his eighth
200-yard passing performance of the season and 15th of his
career.
The Juniata ground game had its finest performance of the season
with 306 net yards, the first 300-yard rushing performance by the
Eagles since a 41-16 loss to King's College back in 2003."I
consider today a team effort, a team victory," said Juniata head
coach Darrell Alt. "This was the linemen blocking, and the
linebackers making plays."
The Eagles scored on their first possession of game for just the second time this season. After opening the drive on the 50-yardline following a 32-yard kickoff return by Andy Miller (Lancaster, Pa./Manheim Township), Juniata moved the remaining 50 yards on just six plays. David Nicklaus (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter Strasburg) pulled in a 14-yard reception while Kyle McKechnie (Shillington, Pa./Governor Mifflin) rambled for 23 yard to fuel the drive, which was capped by McKechnie's two-yard touchdown run - one of his three rushing TDs on the day.
Gallaudet (4-6) responded two plays later with a 58-yard TD passing play from Jason Coleman to Shawn Shannon, after Coleman had been handed the ball by Bison quarterback Fletch Kuehne on a reverse.
The Eagles responded with a big play touchdown of their own just
five plays and barely a minute-and-a-half later, when Leonard
connected with Lance Tippett (Altoona, Pa./Altoona) on a 54-yard
scoring strike. Tippett finished the day with three TDs out of his
four receptions for 131 yards.
That left the score 13-7 in Juniata's favor, with just 4:49 used on
the first quarter clock. Both Gallaudet and Juniata would each add
yet another touchdown on its side of the scoreboard by the end of a
first quarter that took approximately 45 minutes to complete.
Gallaudet's Coleman briefly gave the Bison a 14-13 lead following a three-yard TD carry with 2:23 left in the opening frame. McKechnie responded for the Eagles with eight seconds left in the quarter, scoring on a three-yard run that began a run of 24 unanswered points by Juniata that broke the game wide open.
The Eagles widened their lead to 36-14 by halftime, thanks to a
24-yard TD reception by Tippett, a 29-yard field goal by Davis
Smith (Lemont, Pa./State College Area), and a 68-yard interception
return by Josh Roy (Fredericksburg, Pa./Northern Lebanon).
Leonard closed out the Eagle scoring with 7:47 remaining in the
fourth quarter with a 15-yard TD run that finished an eight-play,
44-yard drive that consumed 4:13 - Juniata's longest scoring drive
of the day.
Gallaudet actually outscored the Eagles in the second half, but
were never able to score without Juniata responding on its next
drive, thereby smothering any momentum-building by the Bison.
The two teams combined for 977 yards of total offense, in a game
that took three hours and forty minutes to complete. "We prepared
for these guys like any other team, and they made it interesting,"
said Alt. "The difference was those four or five plays in every
game that are critical, we got them today."
The above from Juniata College Sports
Information_______
All told, the Buff and Blue posted 389 yards total offense with Fletch Kuehne going 14-for-27 and 200 yards in the air with five touchdown passes. Kuehne also picked up 46 yards off 14 runs. Receiver Kevin Alley notched 187 yards off five receptions and two touchdowns. Senior Jason Coleman closed out his Bison career with 52 yards off 6 catches and two touchdowns, with 58 yards passing and another pass touchdown collected. Receivers Shawn Shannon and Chester Kuschmider each had touchdown catches as well.
Defensively, linebacker Calvin Doudt had 11 tackles (10 solo/2 assists). Safety Rantz Teeters added another interception that he returned for 18 yards. Linebacker Adam Tygart also had a pick-off. Teeters and Tygart backed up Doudt's lead with 7.5 tackles apiece to round out the top three for Gallaudet's defense.
The loss gives the team a 4-6 mark in its return to Division III football for 2007. Head Coach Ed Hottle has already begun preparations for 2008, and has his eye on continuing building the Bison program into a winning one--he is currently 19-8 in three seasons as head coach.
