Reinhardt Eagles (1-2) at Faulkner Eagles (3-0)
John Mark Stallings Field Montgomery, Alabama
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Kickoff at 5:00 CT
The Reinhardt Eagles travel to Montgomery this weekend to challenge the unbeaten Faulkner Eagles in the Mid-South Conference South Division opener for both teams.
Reinhardt comes into the game with a 1-2 record after claiming the first win in program history last Saturday. The RU Eagles handled Kentucky Christian on the road by a score of 19-14. Sophomore RB Deonte Davis rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns, and freshman RB L.J. Stegall plunged in for the winning 1-yard touchdown with 15 seconds left to secure the victory.
Stegall leads the Eagles with 6 touchdowns and over 200 yards rushing on the season. The freshman from Jeff Davis High School in Hazelhurst, GA, is making quite an impact for the Eagles; Stegall has scored at least once in each of Reinhardt’s contests thus far.
Two freshmen quarterbacks run the Reinhardt attack – #7 Ryan Thompson and #11 Johnathon Chamblee. Thompson is from Fort Walton Beach High School in Florida, and Chamblee is from Savannah Christian High School in Georgia. This two-QB system has been effective for Reinhardt as the Eagles have scored 101 points in three games so far, averaging 33.67 points per game.
Spearheading the defensive side for Reinhardt is #40 LB Jarred Johnson. The junior transfer from Benedict leads the Eagles with 35 tackles this season. Johnson hails from Ellenwood, Georgia, and has been a stalwart on the young squad (the team is in its first year of competition and comprised almost exclusively of freshmen and sophomores). While Reinhardt in some ways lacks experience at the college level, the young Eagles are flying high after the program’s first win.
They will be taking on a powerful Faulkner squad.
The Eagles from Alabama are averaging 51 points per game, and have won their three games by an average 40-point margin. Last week Faulkner trounced Union College on the road by a score of 59-20.
The team is led by #33 Demetre Baker, a junior running back out of Orange Park, Florida. He has rushed for 283 yards thus far in the season. Baker, a transfer from the University of South Alabama, is making a big impact for Faulkner with an average of 94.3 yards rushing per game. Also, leading the way is senior quarterback #14 Josh Hollingsworth from Hamilton, Alabama. Hollingsworth is a transfer from Furman University. The senior has thrown for 881 yards this season, with an average of 293.7 yards per game. Leading the Faulkner Eagles on defense will be #42 Kelepi Nau, the senior linebacker out of Salinas, California, who has already tallied 26 tackles in the first three games (8.7 tpg). Nau provides a big obstacle on the defensive side of the ball. Faulkner is a hotbed for Division I transfers and the Eagles are filled with talent and experience which might give them an edge in this game.
Will it be enough to stop the Reinhardt Eagles, a team coming off a huge win against Kentucky Christian?
On Saturday we will see which team of Eagles is flying high.
Contributors – SSP Majors Carrie Blackwell and Ben Sparks contributed to this article.
