Braner and Thornton Help Randolph-Macon Top Denison 42-16

Braner and Thornton Help Randolph-Macon Top Denison 42-16

GRANVILLE, OHIO- Randolph-Macon’s Brandon Braner threw three touchdown passes and Zak Thornton rushed 36 times for 162 yards as the Yellow Jackets upended home-standing Denison 42-16 on Saturday afternoon.

Denison opened up the scoring when Kevin Schneider connected on a 33-yard field goal with 10:53 left in the first quarter.

Braner put the Jackets up for good when he hooked up with Rod Nelson on a seven-yard touchdown pass after a nine-play drive on the ensuing R-MC possession.

Nate Shook helped pad R-MC’s lead when he sacked Big Red quarterback Tom Simeone in the end zone, giving the Jackets a 9-3 advantage with 2:08 left in the opening quarter.

Randolph-Macon took an 18-9 lead into halftime but took all of the momentum with them following a 29-yard touchdown pass from Braner to Rod Nelson just one second before time expired in the second quarter.

Prior to the buzzer-beater by Braner, Denison pieced together a 12-play 67-yard drive that ended with an 11-yard touchdown pass from Tom Simeone to Mike Brienzo.

In the third quarter, the Yellow Jackets took a 25-9 lead after a 12-yard run by Thornton that capped off an 11-play drive. The DU defense would hold Randolph-Macon scoreless the rest of the quarter, but a Spencer Bolen 30-yard field goal bumped the Jackets up to a 19-point lead with 14:47 left in the game.

On the ensuing kickoff , DU’s Mike Barnes took the ball at his own 4-yard line and raced up the middle of the Randolph-Macon kick off coverage and scored a 96-yard touchdown runback to cut the R-MC lead to 28-16

On their next possession, the Yellow Jackets put together another methodical, 10-play drive that resulted in a 5-yard TD pass from Braner to Scott Pickett, putting the game out of reach at 35-16. Nelson would tack on his third receiving TD of the day with 7:48 to play when he caught a 26-yard scoring strike from Tyler Ball.

R-MC grinded out 461 yards on the afternoon while the Jackets defense held DU to 176 yards. Nelson had seven catches for 115 yards and three touchdowns while the offense converted on 10-of-18 third-down conversions. The 42 points is the most for the R-MC program since the 2001 season when it scored 43 points in a win over Denison.

The Big Red was paced on the ground by junior Jon Berg who finished with 12 carries for 53 yards, highlighted by his 46-yard scamper on the game's opening play. Simeone was 10-of22 for 80 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Brienzo led the DU receiving corps with three catches for 33 yards and one TD.

The Randolph-Macon defense was led by Kyle Wiggins' nine tackles and two tackles for a loss. Eric Dardozzi and Shook each had seven tackles in the win.Defensively, Joe Ulrey led DU with eight tackles and one interception.

-Yellow Jackets-