Key Turnovers and Morgan Running Takes Cavs Over Tigers

October 6, 2007
Game Stats

Campbellsville, Ky. – Three key turnovers and the running of Ra’Shad Morgan enabled 11 th-ranked UVa-Wise to get back in the win column at Campbellsville Saturday afternoon. The Cavs picked off two passes and forced another fumble to lead to 21 points while Morgan scored four times to defeat the Tigers, 49-28.

The victory made it two wins in a row of the series between the two schools for UVa-Wise and the second-straight on Campbellsville’s field. The last game in 2004 was a 52-45 win for the Cavs. The win also takes UVa-Wise to 5-1 for the first time since the 1996 season, where the team went 10-0 in the regular season, while Campbellsville is now 0-5.

Morgan (Chesterfield, Va.) led a UVa-Wise ground game that amassed 298 yards on 44 carries. He accounted for 191 of those yards on 24 attempts including three touchdowns. Morgan added a fourth score with a four-yard touchdown. Bruce McMullen (Richmond, Va.) and Jyron Barclay (Stone Mountain, Ga.) each rushed eight times for 63 and 43 yards.

Quarterback Randy Hippeard (Stafford, Va.) attempted just 20 passes and completed 13 of them for 172 yards and three touchdowns. He set the Cavs’ career total offense record on the day and now has 6,488 yards. Hakeem Abdul-Saboor (Powhatan, Va.) paced the receivers with three grabs for 62 yards including a 45-yard touchdown catch.

Linebacker Ben Robertson (Morehead City, NC) posted a career-high 17 tackles for the defense with a sack and tackle for loss. Chas Johnson (Newport News, Va.) added 11 stops, a sack, one tackle for loss and intercepted a pass. Reggie Dorsainvil (Va. Beach, Va.) forced a fumble to go with seven tackles while Gio Watford (West Carteret, NC) snatched his first pass.

Leading 21-7 with 3:24 left in the first half, Watford intercepted a heavily pressured Tigers’ quarterback Ben Meffert and returned the pick 51 yards to the home six-yardline. Three plays later, Morgan took a middle screen pass four yards for a 28-7 halftime tally.

Campbellsville scored quickly on the first drive of the third quarter to pull within 28-14. Morgan was all UVa-Wise needed to answer on just two plays where he ran for 13 yards and then blazed through the Tiger defense for a 38-yard scoring scamper, 35-14.

On the second play of the next drive, Johnson picked off Meffert’s second pass while having heavy pressure for 19 yards to the home nine-yardline. It took Morgan just one play to sliced through to paydirt and ice the game at 42-14 with 11:01 left in the third stanza.

The home team took 5:55 to answer for its third score of the day. Greg Fountain, who had 177 yards rushing on 32 carries and two touchdowns, plunged in from a yard. After a UVa-Wise punt, Dorsainvil hit Campbellsville wideout Sean Thompson forcing a fumble recovered by the Cavs’ Bryan Tolbert and returned it five yards to the 14-yardline. McMullen punctuated the three turnover with a third score to make it 49-21 before the Cavs pulled the starters for the whole fourth quarter in the 49-28 final.

For the second week in a row, the Cavs offense scored on the game’s opening possession. Hippeard drove the unit 65 yards on 11 plays capped by a leaping grab in the back left part of the endzone by Matt Barbour (Brookneal, Va.) from 17 yards. After Campbellsville tied the game at 7-7 at 1:41 in the first quarter, Hippeard found Abdul-Saboor down the right sideline from 45 yards with the second Cavs touchdown.

UVa-Wise will host Belhaven next Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. kick-off at Carl Smith Stadium.