Brevard Wins First-Ever Bowl Game; Tops Carnegie Mellon in Scotty Whitelaw Bowl
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – HISTORY! Playing in its first bowl game in program history, Brevard College took down Carnegie Mellon in the first meeting between the institutions 42-28 Saturday, Nov. 23 in the Scotty Whitelaw Bowl in Gesling Stadium on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University.
The Brevard Tornados conclude the season with an 8-2 record while the Tartans end the year with an 8-3 record and move to 3-4 in bowl games in program history. Brevard scored 14 points in the first quarter and matched Carnegie Mellon with seven in the second to take a 21-10 lead at the half. BC tacked on 21 more in the third quarter holding CMU to 14. The Tartans then converted a late touchdown late in the fourth and held the Tornados to no points with two turnovers.
Dalton Cole completed 12-of-18 passes to finish with 128 yards and two touchdowns for Brevard. Aaron Bennett ran for a career-best 136 yards on nine touches and one touchdown with a long of 81 yards in the third quarter. Mitchell Yoder carried three times for 47 yards and one touchdown. Jamerial Parks and Aaron Bennett each caught a touchdown pass in the win for the Tornados as Parks led the way with 73 yards on just two catches.
Matthew O’Hea went 16-for-34 for 168 yards through the air for a career day and completed his first two career touchdown passes in the loss for Carnegie Mellon. Chris Haas carried nine times for 35 yards with a long of 21 yards. Luke Bikulege had seven rushes for 16 yards with the lone rushing touchdown for the Cardinal and Gray. Alec Oshita and Jamie Greenwell each caught a touchdown pass from O’Hea, as Oshita led Tartan receivers with 61 yards on four completions.
For the Tartans, Brandon Nguyen went 2-for-2 on field goals and 2-for-2 on extra points while his counterpart Stamati Damalos (Brevard) was 0-for-1 in field goal attempts but converted all six extra point possibilities.
Brevard received the first half kick and marched 72-yards to score on its opening drive. The Tornados used a 38-yard connection from Cole to Jamerial Parks to setup a seven-yard touchdown pass from Cole to Bennett to go up 7-0 on the first drive of the game.
Carnegie Mellon got on the board on a 45-yard field goal by Nguyen. Brevard’s Rook Tate later returned an interception to the house to add to the Tornados’ lead, 14-3. The Tornados closed the first quarter with back-to-back sacks on the Tartans’ JD Dayhuff.
Carnegie Mellon recovered a fumble on the Brevard 44 to open the second quarter. The Tartans then cut the deficit to 14-10 with a four-yard run by Luke Bikulege to the left side. Forcing a Tartan punt, the Tornados would get to the ball and block it before recovering the ball in the endzone for a touchdown to add to their lead. Neither team would score for the remaining 7:49 of the first half going into the break 21-10 in favor of the Tornados.
The Tartans drove the second half kick down the field for 53-yards, ending in a 30-yard field goal by Nguyen. Brevard used 12 seconds and just one play to extend the lead after a 81-yard run by Bennett made it 28-13 Tornados. BC would strike again with 8:09 to play on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Cole to Parks, 35-13.
CMU answered the BC touchdown with a 73-yard drive capped by an 18-yard connection from Matthew O’Hea to Oshita before converting the two-point conversion to make it 35-21. Four plays were all the Tornados needed to add to their lead on a Mitchell Yoder 46-yard carry to the house to make it 42-21.
Carnegie Mellon would convert on a turnover late in the fourth to make it 42-28 after a five-yard touchdown pass from Matthew O’Hea to Jamie Greenwell over the middle. Brevard would not find the endzone in the fourth quarter but would hold Carnegie Mellon to just seven points in the final stanza to go on to win 42-28.
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