Presbyterian Hammers Virginia-Lynchburg for Fifth Straight Win in a Home-Opener
September 16, 2024
The Presbyterian College football team utterly dominated the Dragons of Virginia-Lynchburg on Saturday afternoon at Bailey Memorial Stadium, outgaining the opposition by 370 yards and securing their first shutout since 2018, 52-0.
Winning back-to-back bouts and allowing only 14 combined points in doing so, the Blue Hose have obtained a victory in their home-opener for five consecutive years. This is the first time that PC has achieved that feat since the period between 1964-1968.
Denying the other side a single point for the first time since a 10-0 decision over Lindsey Wilson in 2018, head coach Steve Englehart‘s defense got off the field on 3rd down in 12 of their 15 chances.
Altogether, the Blue Hose assembled 448 yards of total offense, the fourth time in Englehart’s tenure reaching at least 400. They averaged seven yards per play in a surgical performance, scoring either a touchdown or a field goal on six of eight first-half drives.
FINAL SCORE: Presbyterian, 52 – Virginia-Lynchburg, 0
RECORDS: Presbyterian (2-1) – Virginia-Lynchburg (0-3)
NOTABLES
– Preseason All-PFL’er Dominic Kibby erupted after a quiet start to the season by catching seven balls and producing 155 yards in the passing attack. Tight end Nathan Levicki chimed in with two touchdown hauls (both in the 2nd period), part of seven TD’s for the Blue Hose overall.
– After notching seven sacks in the VUL win last fall, Presbyterian garnered five more on Saturday (11 tackles for a loss in total).
– Raymond McCray was responsible for a pair of those sacks, registering the first two-sack day by a PC footballer since Campbell Watson two years back against Morehead State.
– Five different quarterbacks saw the field for the Scotsmen on a day where redshirt-freshman Collin Hurst moved to 2-0 as the starter. He’d go 8-of-15 as he and Ty Englehart added up for 210 passing yards.
– Numerous PC players saw their first touchdowns in a Blue Hose uniform during today’s mauling. Levicki, Antonio Wright, and Jayden Pressey were three of those recipients, while redshirt-junior QB Warner Bush threw his inaugural passing TD.
HOW IT HAPPENED – FIRST HALF
– Coach Englehart’s gang waltzed to a 38-0 advantage after two quarters, forcing a punt in the game’s first series and going 46 yards in six snaps to get on the board first.
– Senior running back Zach Switzer accounted for the first of many touchdowns from six yards away, his third score of the past eight days.
– Prompting a three-and-out in VUL’s second set, Presbyterian increased the margin to 10 on a 33-yard boot from sophomore Mack Mikko, his third connection of the young season in as many tries.
– Englehart found Kibby for a 29-yard pickup on the last play of the 1st, allowing PC to punch it back in the end zone just three snaps into the 2nd with a five-yard loft to Levicki.
– Now ahead by 17, the Blue Hose defense never took their foot off the gas and forced the Dragons into seven consecutive punts over the course of the opening half.
– Levicki’s hot hand led to another touchdown with 10:21 left until the break, this one a 19-yarder where he bulldozed past a would-be tacker and spun past the pylon.
– The Scotsmen hoisted the deficit to 31 on a six-play drive where five of them were handoffs, as Wright put the finishing touches on TD number three with a four-yard scamper.
– With the rout now fully churned, Presby poured salt on the wound with under a minute remaining in the period. The culprit was Hurst on a one-yard plunge, giving PC its largest first-half cushion of the Englehart era.
HOW IT HAPPENED – SECOND HALF
– After compiling a 28-point 2nd quarter, PC remained level-headed and never turned the ball over from beginning to end. A 47-yard bullet from Englehart to Kibby ballooned the lead to 45, capping off an eight-play series that trudged 91 yards.
– Bush found Pressey on a 35-yard touchdown to put the cherry on top of the VUL dissection. Presby’s quarterbacks finished the contest with a 62 percent completion rate, while a remarkable 13 players recorded at least one carry.
Photo credit: Tim Cowie Photography
