COLLEGE FOOTBALL: E&H Drops Third Straight

EMORY, Va. — The magic has vanished for the Emory & Henry football team.

After opening the season with four straight non-conference wins,  including two dramatic rallies at home, the Wasps dropped their third straight Old Dominion Athletic Conference contest Saturday.

Once again, the problem was defense. E&H allowed 517 total yards en route to a 38-34 loss to the Bridgewater Eagles.

“Bridgewater is a good team with a lot of options on offense, but we were still in position to win and that’s been the case in our last three losses,” said E&H head coach Don Montgomery. “What this game boils down to us is not making the plays when we needed to make them -  on both sides of the ball.”

The biggest play of the wild game came with seven minutes and 45 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Following the crunching lead block of 228-pound fullback Ryan Richmond, junior tailback Thomas Tate gave the Eagles a 38-34 lead with a 54-yard run.

Bridgewater rushed for 321 yards as a team, with Tate contributing 173 yards and two scores.

“I knew that we were going to have trouble stopping Bridgewater’s running game from watching film,” Montgomery said.  “I just wish they didn’t have prove it to me so much.”

E&H junior running back Caleb Jennings delivered another jaw-popping performance. The 175-pound fan favorite weaved and bounced through the BC defense for 192 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.

Jennings has been targeted by opposing defenses in recent weeks. The E&H offense kept the Eagles off-balance Saturday by spreading the field and designing creative answers off play-action. The counterattack almost resulted in a victory.

With 12 seconds left in the first half, Jennings took a handoff and then flipped the ball to receiver Josh Castle. As BC defenders closed in, Castle found an open Frederick George for a 63-yard touchdown.

The Wasps led 20-10 at halftime, then the Eagles (5-2, 2-1) responded with a 21-point third quarter barraged capped by an 80-yard run from junior speedster Rudy Jackson.

“The third quarter made the difference. It wasn’t the last play,” said Montgomery, referring to Tate’s final touchdown

E&H (4-3, 0-3) also took a 34-31 lead with 8:34 left in the game when quarterback Drew Piscopo connected with running back Cain Ringstaff on a four-yard scoring pass.

“Today was going to be about who had the ball last,” said BC head coach Mike Clark.

Clark, the former defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, admitted that his strategy centered on slowing Jennings.

“I think [Jennings] is one of the greatest players in small college football,” Clark said. “You can focus on Caleb and still not beat him. He bounces off and keeps going.”

While the postgame scene for E&H was somber, the Eagles had extra reason to celebrate as Clark earned his 100th career win.

“This win wasn’t about me, it was about our 100th as a team,” Clark said. “I knew Emory would come with a great emotional charge because they didn’t play well last week, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.”

Piscopo completed passes to six different receivers. The poise 5-11 sophomore also kept the BC off-balance with clever runs and scrambles. It wasn’t enough.

“When we sell the run with Jennings, the safeties are going to come down,” said Piscopo. “We did a better job running the ball than we did last week against Randolph-Macon, but we missed some opportunities.”

According to junior linebacker Ed Smith, the biggest deficiency for E&H Saturday was a bevy of missed tackles.

The Wasps are playing without senior linebacker Evin O’Sullivan, who suffered his second straight season-ending ankle injury at midseason.

“O’Sullivan is our emotional leader, but we’ve got other leaders on our defense as well,” Smith said. “We’ve got to make some changes on defense, come together and just make plays. That’s the bottom line.”

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