RU Football Continues to Steamroll Through the AAC

Waleska, GA - It was a busy day on the campus of Reinhardt University. The University was honoring David Friedberg's National Championship for Javelin in Track & Field and the Men's Lacrosse National Championship Team with a ring ceremony. In addition to this, Reinhardt Football was celebrating its 10-year anniversary and recognized the past players during halftime. With all this going on, we did find time to get in a football game where Reinhardt came out on top beating Point University 48-21.

The Eagles got it done early and often with the combination of Bryce Burgess and Devyn Collins in the backfield. They combined for over 170 yards rushing in the game and 4 total touchdowns. Collins recorded both of his touchdowns in the first quarter while Burgess got one in the second quarter and one at the very end of the third quarter. These two put on a performance on Saturday which the Skyhawks had no answers for. They both have speed to run by you and power to run through you and they can wreak havoc on a defense. 

The offense in general had a great day with Hunter Arters leading them as usual. Arters is "Mr. Consistant" on the field and keeps this offense running at a smooth pace. He was 14 of 20 on the day throwing for 141 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also ran 6 times for 25 total yards. His touchdown passes were thrown to wide receiver Jevarsia Meadows and tight end Jake Wallace. He hooked up with Louis Morris 4 times for a total of 56 yards. Morris is a versatile weapon that can both run out of the backfield or line up at receiver to punish a defense.

The defense is one of the highlights for the Eagles led by linebacker Kenneth Lowery and defensive end Jon Perry. Lowery led the Eagles in tackles in this game with 8 total and a quarterback sack. Kellen Neal and Markell Sutton both got important interceptions in the game to stop the Skyhawks' offense.  

The defense held the Skyhawks scoreless for three quarters which allowed the offense to put up big numbers. The Eagles enjoyed a dominating 35-0 lead at the halftime break and then added one more score in the third quarter to make it 41-0!

The fourth quarter would get a little tricky for the Eagles as they would turn the ball over and have a few other costly mistakes, which allowed Point to creep back into the game. It was not enough to change the outcome, but it did raise some concern as to what can happen if you start to lose focus.  Point turned a few mistakes by the Eagles into 21 points really quickly. The damage was already done to the Skyhawks earlier in the game so the Eagles still had a comfortable lead.

Freshman runningback Jerdavian Colbert took his fourth-quarter opportunity to show the Eagles fans what he can do and also shut down any thoughts of the Skyhawks getting back into the game. Colbert made the most of his one carry taking it to the house for a 60 yard one play touchdown. This brought life back into the stadium as the Eagles finished out the fourth quarter and sending the fans home with a smile!

On special teams, both kicker Reid Schratweiser and punter Colby Harrison had good days keeping the Skyhawks from having much in returns. Schratweiser had 4 touchbacks on 8 kickoffs and 500 total yards. Harrison had 2 touchbacks from 7 punts and one punt pinned inside the five-yard line. His average was 40.1 per punt with 64 yards being the longest of the day.  Schratweiser went 6 of 7 of PATs for the day.

Next up for the Eagles will be a road game at Union on Saturday, November 12th, which will be the final regular season game and the AAC Champion. The NAIA National Playoffs will begin the weekend after so stay tuned to www.reinhardteagles.com to see where our #9 ranked RU Eagles end up.