Box Score
The Mount St. Joseph University football team jumped out to a 14-3 second quarter lead, but saw visiting Millsaps out-score them 27-0 by the mid-point of the fourth quarter and the Lions fell, 30-22 at home on Saturday. The Mount, 1-1 on the season, gets back into action on Sept. 20 when they open HCAC play at Defiance College.
Mike Williams (Cincinnati, OH/Taft) connected with teammate John Peters (West Chester, OH/Lakota West) on an 11-yard pass play for the Mount's first points in the game, at 7:52 of the first quarter. Shane Kelly (Cincinnati, OH/Turpin) converted the PAT kick giving the Lions a 7-0 lead. Millsaps was successful on a 22-yard field goal with under 30 seconds to play in the opening quarter, cutting the lead to 7-3. The Mount's De'Marco Thomas (Cincinnati, OH/Princeton) then recorded a long TD run for the Mount, and Kelly's PAT made the score 14-3 at the 8:37 mark of the second quarter. The Majors, however, would connect on two TDs passes in the remaining minutes of the second quarter, to take a 17-14 halftime lead.
Millsaps would score 13 unanswered point in the second half, building their lead to 30-14, before the Lions added a late TD on a 34 yard pass from Greg Simpson (Cincinnati, OH/Sycamore) to Leonard Riston (Cincinnati, OH/Withrow). Denzel Norvell (Dayton, OH/Thurgood Marshall) added the two-point conversion run with 2:36 to play to make the final score 30-22.
The Lions were hampered by two turnovers early in the fourth quarter, throwing an interception and turning the ball over on a fumble. Millsaps recorded 20 first downs to the Lions 10 first downs, and controlled the clock 36:44 to 23:16. The Majors were also eight-of-19 on third down, while holding the Mount to four-of-14 on third down.
Thomas led the Mount in rushing while Simpson had 86 yards passing. Riston had five receptions for 79 yards. Konnor Blevins (Cincinnati, OH/Lakota West) had a game-high 11 tackles, while Judge Love (Louisville, KY/Ballard) had 10 tackles.
