COLUMBIA, South Carolina -- The Benedict College Tigers got a pair of second-half touchdown runs from Phillip Brown and defeated the Virginia University of Lynchburg Dragons 30-16 on Saturday afternoon in Charlie W. Johnson Stadium.Benedict improves to 4-1 overall on the season with its fourth straight victory. The Dragons fall to 3-3 overall.
Brown, Benedict's back-up quarterback, saw action as a running back in last week's win over Central State, and continued in that role on Saturday, as well as taking a couple of snaps under center when Dominique Harris sat out a couple of plays after being roughed up on a tackle. Brown finished the game with a team-high 91 yards rushing on seven carries and two touchdowns.
The Tigers had a 14-13 lead at the half, and changed tactics for the second half. Benedict attempted just two passes the entire second half – completing one with the other attempt intercepted – and ran the ball 29 times for 181 yards.
"That was the game plan," Benedict head coach Mike White said. "The coaches got together and thought we could run it."
White said the coaching staff knew Brown was too good of an athlete to keep on the bench and wanted to get him some opportunities with the ball.
"He's a playmaker," White said. "We want to try and throw him some passes and get him running the football."
The Tigers took the second-half kickoff and drove 57 yards on 11 plays to get a 25-yard field goal from Rigoberto Tinoco to make it 17-13 with 5:33 remaining on the clock. Later in the third quarter, Brown took the handoff on first down, slipped through the opening in the line, and raced 72 yards for the score to put the Tigers ahead 23-13 with 57 seconds left in the third quarter.
The Dragons added a 39-yard field goal at the start of the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 23-16.
After Traviontae Brown intercepted a VUL pass on the Dragons' next series, the Tigers took over at their own 36-yard line and drove 64 yards on 10 plays, keeping the ball on the ground the entire time and chewing up 6:22 off the clock. Brown carried in from 11-yards out for the score and Tinoco's PAT made it 30-16 with just 26 seconds left in the game.
Benedict got on the board first as Harris completed a 40-yard pass to Danye Washington to set up a 15-yard scoring throw to Washington for a 7-0 Benedict lead in the first quarter. The Dragons answered with a 93-yard kickoff return to tie the game at 7-7.
VUL took a 13-7 lead with 1:27 left in the first quarter on a four-yard touchdown run by To'mas Newman.
Robert Cummings intercepted a pass and 27-yard return in the second quarter that led to a nine-yard touchdown run by Raheem Jennings to give the Tigers a 14-13 lead with 10 minutes to go until halftime. Benedict held that lead into the locker room.
"We looked so ugly in the first half. We've got to try and clean up a lot of things. That was real ugly," White said. "It was similar to last week where we had a lot of opportunities and good field position, but did nothing with it."
Benedict held the VUL passing game in check, limiting three different Dragon quarterbacks to 9-of-24 passing for 78 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. Benedict's nationally-ranked run defense limited the Dragons to 66 yards rushing on 35 attempts.
BOX SCORE
Amari Andrews led the defense with seven tackles, while Darryl Rolle had five. Collins Tensley recorded five tackles, with 2.5 sacks.
The Tigers return to SIAC action next week, traveling to Atlanta to take on the Clark Atlanta Panthers. After that, Benedict returns home for Homecoming on Oct. 20 to take on undefeated Morehouse College.
BENEDICT COLLEGE TIGERS SPORTS INFORMATION
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