Despite the friendly crowd of nearly 1,400 fans gathered at Randolph-Macon’s Day Field, the Yellow Jackets’ were an unwelcome host for Catholic on Saturday. R-MC (6-0, 2-0 ODAC) ranked #20 (d3football.com), ran out to a 28-0 lead by the half before closing out the game with a 56-28 win.

  Though happy with the victory, Yellow Jackets head coach Pedro Arruza felt his team played a sloppy first half and it left him with plenty to address in preparation for this week’s ODAC matchup at Washington & Lee.

  Arruza was not completely sour about the win.  “We’re 6-0. That’s obviously a positive,” he said. “I thought today was sloppy, really, really, sloppy; and we obviously have things we need to fix if we’re going to have a chance down the stretch.”

  Part of the concern involved special teams, most notably the kicking game. R-MC was penalized three times on kickoffs that went out of bounds, allowing Catholic to start from their 40.  Another fell into the arms of Catholic’s Andrew Oulette’s at the 25 and from there he ran it back untouched to score. 

  Arruza’s summary of the kick-off performance was “abysmal” and getting it fixed a notable priority. “I wasn’t very impressed by what I saw in the kicking game,” he said. “That’s been our Achilles’ heel the entire year.”

  Problems notwithstanding, particularly with kickoff coverage, the Yellow Jackets dominated the first half, getting on the board in the first three-and-a-half minutes with a 3-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Austin Faulkner to Dan Crouch.

  Doing the lion’s share of work on the ground was sophomore running back Drake Sanders, who finished the day with 26 carries for 141 yards and two touchdowns.

  R-MC ran a multi-faceted attack working Sanders and Will McGhee (18 carries for 109 yards) on the ground and Earl Peoples (10 receptions for 151 yards) in the air.

  Faulkner scored on back to back 1-yard touchdown runs to put R-MC ahead 21-0.
  R-MC seized the game when sophomore cornerback Brandon Harrison intercepted a tipped pass thrown by Catholic quarterback Greg Cordivari and returned it 52 yards for a touchdown.

  Harrison’s play sent R-MC into intermission with a 28-0 lead.

  Catholic stirred in the second half. Its revival, however, was a case of too little, too late. Cordivari completed 17-of-43 passes for 308 yards, but he was overshadowed by the efficient Faulkner (19-of-29 for 231 yards). As the game wore on, Faulkner was content to hand the ball to Sanders and McGhee.

  Cordivari threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter. One was a 14-yarder to junior Lawrence DeSimone. The other was a spectacular 76-yard pass to Alonzo Cooke, who finished with seven catches for 207 yards and a pair of TDs.

  Faulkner punched in his third and final TD on a 3-yard keeper.

  It wasn’t until the Jackets’ last possession that Arruza began replacing key players…and only a few.  Sophomore QB Luke Sellers closed out RMC’s scoring with a 61-yard drive capped by a 12-yard TD pass to sophomore halfback Vance Hendren.

  Arruza justified the lack of replacements earlier due to the caliber of the Cardinals’ play.  “I think this was a different game,” he said.  “They kept throwing the ball; they kept blitzing.  My thing was that they’re not ready to concede. So I wasn’t ready to concede either.  It’s a different ball game.  They were scoring.  We weren’t stopping them at the end; so, you gotta do what you have to do.  If you start pulling out your starters, and they score a couple of times, and you have a ball game; and you have to bring your starters in off the bench—I don’t want to find myself in that kind of scenario.  We’re going to do what we have to do to win games.

  “You win a game; but there are a thousand things that you can do better; and we’re going to have to find every one of those things and try to get better at them,” Arruza said.  Perhaps it’s this attitude that has allowed the Yellow Jackets the success they’ve earned so far.

  R-MC came into the game toting notable numbers. The Yellow Jackets were the sixth highest scoring team in NCAA D-III at 43.80 per game, Faulkner was fourth in passing efficiency while Peoples third in receptions per game, sixth in receiving yards per game and fourth in total receiving yards.

  Undefeated and high-scoring, Arruza feels his coaching ability has been put to the test to keep his team sharp.  “I think [winning by large margins] definitely tests my patience, because, I always tell our guys ‘There’s no such thing as a perfect game.’” he said. “I talk to our guys the entire year about the ills of hubris and letting our pride stand in the way; and not taking your opponents seriously…and I don’t think that’s been a problem so far.  I think our kids have a lot of respect for the schools in our league, for what can happen on any given Saturday; and so far they have proven to me that they are motivated, and they want to play well.  They want to do well.  I don’t think we’ve come out flat necessarily.  We’ve done some boneheaded things—made some critical mistakes.  But, you know the thing I love about this team is you walk in that locker room after a sloppy win, and the kids know it.  They look at you and they say, ‘You know what…that was.  We can do a lot better.’  That says a lot ‘cause I’ve had teams that were thin-skinned, and go into a shell when you say, ‘Hey, you can do a lot better.’ 

  “I always say, my mark of a great team would be that we beat an opponent 55 to nothing, and I walk in on a Sunday and say, ‘Hey guys, we can get a lot better.’  And they respond, ‘You’re darn right, Coach.  That was not our best.’”

  As part of a team with a potential to go far, Faulkner understands Arruza’s unrest and knows that there was always room for improvement. “We know coach is a perfectionist,” he said. “We all understand that. We all understand that there are things you can do better regardless of the score.”

  And getting better will be key this week at Washington & Lee.

  “That’s going to be a battle,” said Arruza.  “They’re going to do a great job of running the football.  They present a huge challenge from the standpoint of what they do offensively.  They’re playing at home.  We have not played well there the last couple of times that we’ve been there.  So, I guarantee you that our guys are going to be up for this game; and I’m going to be up for this game.  And, as far as I’m concerned, Catholic week is over and W & L week starts right now.”

Catholic ...................0 0 14 14 — 28
Randolph-Macon..7 21 14 14 — 56
R-MC — Crouch 3 pass from Faulkner (Storm kick)
R-MC—Faulkner 1 run (Storm kick) R-MC—Faulkner 1 run (Storm kick)
R-MC — Harrison 52 interception return (Storm kick)
R-MC—Sanders 1 run (Storm kick)
CUA — Cooke 23 pass from Cordivari (Maloney kick)
R-MC—Sanders 4 run (Storm kick)
CUA — Ouellette 77 kickoff return (Maloney kick)
R-MC—Faulkner 3 run (Storm kick)
CUA — DeSimone 14 pass from Cordivari (kick failed)
CUA — Cooke 76 pass from Cordivari (Pitsenberger run)
R-MC — Hendren 12 pass from Sellers (Storm kick)
RUSHING: Catholic — Pitsenberger 20 rushes, 91 yards, Smith 4-25, Cordivari 1-(minus-9); Randolph-Macon — Sanders 26-141, McGhee 18-109, Hendren 3-17, Faulkner 6-16, Peoples 1-11, Team 1-(minus-1).
PASSING: Catholic — Cordivari 17 completions, 43 attempts, 308 yards, 2 interceptions, Maloney 0-1-0-0; Randolph-Macon — Faulkner 19-29-231-0, Sellers 3-3-30-0.
RECEIVING: Catholic — Cooke 7 receptions, 207 yards, Pitsenberger 5-47, McGarry 3-33, DeSimone 1-14, Smith 1-7; Randolph-Macon — Peoples 10-151, Hendren 5-50, Phillips 2-18, McGhee 2-6, Sanders 1-17, Midulla 1-16, Crouch 1-13.