Danville, Va. - Junior Adrian Minondo rushed for two touchdowns, including the gamewinner late in the fourth, to lift his Battling Bishop football team to a 21-15 victory over USA South foe Averett University on Saturday in Danville. Wesleyan has now won two straight to even its conference record at 3-3 on the season.
After trading punts to open the game, Wesleyan managed to tally the only points of the opening quarter with an 11-play, 79-yard drive on the Bishops' second possession. A pair of 20-yard completions from sophomore quarterback Donielle Totten to juniors Trey Lancaster and Darian Curley set up a 1-yard scoring run by Minondo midway the period.
The Cougars' red zone troubles began on their next possession with a lost fumble deep in Bishop territory. AU's defense, however, held serve by forcing the Bishops into back-to-back punts. Averett enjoyed two more trips to the red zone in the second quarter, but the Cougars were forced to settle for 34- and 28-yard field goals that made the score 7-6. Wesleyan countered quickly after the latter score, with Totten connecting with Lancaster on a 75-yard bomb just before the break. Senior Codan Breckenridge's PAT made it 14-6 Bishops at the half.
Averett's Cole Westbury provided the only scoring the third quarter when yet another AU trip to the red zone resulted in a field goal, this time from 23 yards out. As the Cougar defense continued to force the NCWC punting unit onto the field, Averett finally got the break it needed when a 64-yard punt return by Kye Nuffer set up a go-ahead score by tailback Sean Bowman. A failed 2-point conversion left the Cougars clinging to a 15-14 lead with 9:53 to go.
Totten was intercepted on Wesleyan's ensuing drive, but the Bishop defense came up big with a 3-and-out to get the ball back. It was then that Totten orchestrated a 7-play, 86-yard drive that saw Minondo put the Bishops back on top with an 8-yard scoring run with 2:44 remaining.
AU's final drive began on its own 29-yardline and featured a handful of key plays, beginning with a bad snap that left the Cougars with 2nd-and-23 with under two minutes left. That same set of downs saw quarterback Christian Miles pull off a 22-yard run on 2nd-and-14, while a 15-yard run by Bowman two plays later set AU up with 1st-and-Goal at the 6-yardline with 57 seconds left.
Wesleyan's defense, however, proceeded to step and deliver one of its biggest stops of the season. NCWC's Jaylon Johnson stopped Bowman at the 4-yardline to force second down, while Anthony Janezic and Keyon Washington combined to take down Bowman at the 3-yardline on the game's next play. Forced to used their final timeout, the Cougars saw Miles dropped for a 1-yard loss by Wesleyan's Camara Rawls on 3rd-and-Goal. With time running down, AU was whistled for a false start on 4th-and-Goal with less than 10 seconds left, resulting a runoff that ended the game and sealed the Bishops' 21-15 victory.
Minondo finished with 61 yards on the ground, while Totten threw for a career-best 208 yards. Defensively, Antonio Johnson racked up a game-high 16 tackles. Janezic added 10 takedowns of his own, and sophomore Eddie Graham picked off his fifth pass of the season.
Bowman finished with 127 rushing yards to pace Averett, which included the Cougars' lone TD.
The Bishops will wrap up their home slate next Saturday when Brevard College visits Rocky Mount Athletic Stadium for a 1:00pm kickoff. Wesleyan will be honoring its 2017 Senior Class prior to the game.