Neville Breaks Single-Season Rushing Yards Record, Jund Breaks 100 Career Touchdowns in Win Over RMC

The Bulldog Football team finishes their season 7-4 after they won today's rematch with the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears by a score of 44-21. The Bulldog offense totaled 566 yards, 229 yards rushing and 337 yards in the air. The defense allowed just 78 rushing yards from the Battlin' Bears and had a total of nine tackles for loss in the game.

"I am proud of everyone in the program for finishing strong. We were able to reset back to the way we do things and get back on track. I am proud of our guys for giving their best effort. I am glad we are sending our seniors out with wins and thankful for these guys for showing the rest of the team what level of competition we expect to play at each week." Head Coach Ryan Nourse stated at the end of the game. How It Happened The Bulldogs started the game out slow as they struggled to get into a rhythm offensively. The Bulldogs opened the game on offense, going on a 5:48 drive that saw the Bulldogs gain four first downs. A holding penalty set the Bulldog offense back, forcing them to punt on the following fourth down. The next drive for the Battlin' Bears kicked off with a sack for a loss of 10 yards by Tanner Harrell that set a tone for the day. After trading possessions back and forth, the two teams would end the first quarter going scoreless throughout the first fifteen minutes of the game. The second quarter kicked off with a bang as Reese Neville rushed it in for a touchdown with the clock at 12:47 left in the half. Up 7-0, the Rocky Mountain offense drove 77 yards down the field in just over three minutes to score their first touchdown of the day. Tied up at seven all, the Bulldog offense stalled on the next drive as the Battlin' Bears forced a three and out. Rocky Mountain was moving the ball quickly on their next offensive drive before a sack for a loss of nine yards by Bulldog linebacker Ben Howerton changed the momentum of the drive. On the next drive, Jon Jund completed a 70-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Thomas to give the Bulldogs the lead at 14-7. Just before the half, Bulldog kicker John Mears completed a career-long 46-yard field goal attempt to give the Bulldogs the lead 17-7 going into the second half.

On the Bulldog's second possession of the third quarter, Jund found Trey Mounts for a 49-yard touchdown pass that would push the Bulldog lead to 24-7. Latrell McCutcheon picked off Rocky quarterback Trent Nobach with 2:16 left in the third quarter, but the Rocky defense was able to force a fumble on the next drive to give them the ball back for the start of the fourth quarter. Rocky Mountain struck on a Nobach pass to Battlin' Bear receiver Joseph Dwyer to bring the score to 24-14. However, the Bulldogs answered right back on the next drive as Neville rushed for a 66-yard touchdown. With the score 31-13, Rocky Mountain jumped right back on the next drive and scored in just under three minutes, bringing the score to 31-21 Bulldogs. Again, the Bulldogs got back into their groove as Jund threw for a 27-yard touchdown pass to Thomas. With the Bulldogs hanging onto the lead at 37-21, the Bulldog defense would force two straight three and outs. With three minutes on the clock, the Bulldogs drove74 yards down the field once more and Jund threw his 100th career touchdown pass to Mounts to seal the victory 44-21 over Rocky Mountain College.

Notables

• Today's win pushes the Bulldogs final season record to 7-4 overall.

• Jund threw for a total of 337 passing yards and completed four touchdown passes. He also added 42 rushing yards.

• Neville rushed for 177 yards, averaging 7.1 yards per carry, and had two rushing touchdowns.

• Mounts and Thomas each had two receiving touchdowns in the game. Mounts had 132 receiving yards and Thomas had 114 total receiving yards. Thomas also caught a game long pass for a 70-yard completion from Jund.

• Harrell and Howerton each had two sacks in the game. Howerton also had another tackle for loss in the game.

• Howerton and Kameron Rauser each picked up nine total tackles in the game.

• Mears completed a career long field goal attempt from the 46-yard line. He also went 4-5 on extra point attempts.

Final Season Notes

The Bulldogs finished up the season going 4-0 on the last four games. After battling through a few tough losses in a row in the middle of the season, the Bulldogs finished their season on a high note. Of the final four wins, two of them were against nationally ranked teams.

The Bulldog offense led the Frontier Conference with a total of 425 yards of offense per game, totaling 4675 total offensive yards on the season. The Bulldog defense averaged 64.2 tackles per game and led the conference in sacks with a total of 32 on the season.

Neville broke the single season rushing record in today's game after he rushed for 1,065 yards for the Bulldogs this season. The previous record was held by Sam Rufferford from the 2014 football season. Neville was tied for first in the conference with nine rushing touchdowns on the season. Jund broke 100 career touchdown passes in the game, just five passes shy of breaking the career touchdown pass record held by Jason Truman from the years of 1993-96. He also led the conference in yards per game with 218.3 passing yards and 22 passing touchdowns. Mounts led the conference in receiving touchdowns after he totaled seven on the season.