After giving up 427 yard rushing in their loss to Washington and Lee last week, Randolph-Macon (7-1, 2-1) tightened the screws on the Guilford (0-7, 0-3) ground attack Saturday, holding the Quakers to 34 yards on 24 carries and running away with a 59-21 Homecoming win.

  The game marked the first start for Yellow Jacket sophomore quarterback Luke Sellers as a replacement for senior Austin Faulkner, lost for the season after suffering a broken foot and ankle last week.

  On the game, Sellers was solid going 10-of-20 for 145 yards and one touchdown.

  “I thought Luke did a good job of managing the game and played pretty hard,” said R-MC head coach Pedro Arruza.

  If there was one downside to Sellers performance it came in being picked off twice by the Guilford defense after throwing three interceptions last week.

  Arruza believes it’s simply a matter of Sellers trying too hard. “I think he’s pushing too much,” Arruza said. “I think he’s got to get better about that.”

  Before closing out the game last week, Sellers saw most of his time at receiver and admits there has been an adjustment period moving into the pocket.

  “It’s a different speed,” he said. “Playing receiver is a little bit different than playing quarterback. You have to see the whole field. You have to make different decisions. I just have to be more decisive in my decision making.”

  Though they put a halt to Guilford’s ground game, R-MC showed that even without Faulkner they could run the ball effectively, recording 353 yards rushing on 61 carries. Drake Sanders (112 yards, 3 TDs) carried the ball on six of the Jackets first seven plays, covering 38 yards, capped by a 4-yard touchdown 3:19 into the game.

  After both teams went three and out, R-MC got the ball back deep in Quaker territory thanks to sophomore David Fetter (Lee-Davis), who is turning into an up-and-coming face on the defense.

  “He’s aggressive,” Arruza said. “He’s a guy that I think can make our defense better.”

  Fetter finished the day with four tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery to give R-MC the ball back at the Guilford 13 yard line.

  “Our D-line got a great push causing the quarterback to mishandle the ball,” Fetter said. “It seemed like the whole defense was going after the ball and it was fumbling around a little bit…it got kicked to me and I just got on it.”

  Sanders then used three straight runs to cover the distance to the goal line, giving the Jackets a 14-0 lead with 6:33 to play in the first.

  R-MC closed out the quarter with an 8-yard touchdown run from Thaddeus Scuggs (162 yards, 2 TDs) for what looked to be a comfortable 21-0 lead.

  But Guilford made things interesting by opening the second quarter with a 10-play 72-yard drive that was capped by a 16-yard touchdown pass from Billy Watkins to Ben King.

  It appeared R-MC would come back with a quick answer sitting at third and one from the Quaker 10-yard line. But Sanders fumbled and Guilford defensive tackle Brad Gayhardt scooped up the ball for an 88-yard fumble recovery that pulled the Guilford within seven, 21-14.

  However, the Yellow Jackets struck back with a demoralizing one-two punch when Sellers lofted a 26-yard pass to Earl Peoples, who made a remarkable one-handed catch at the five and carried in one-handed for a touchdown.

  R-MC downed the ensuing kickoff at the 10 and on Guilford’s first play, sophomore Brandon Harrison snatched Watkins out-pattern pass at the 12 and took it home untouched, allowing the Jackets to score two touchdowns in six seconds of game time for a 35-14 lead.

  “I just had a pretty good break, read my keys, do what I had to do and was just in the right spot at the right time,” Harrison said.

  In the second half the Yellow Jacket defense held Guilford scoreless until the closing minutes while the R-MC offense widened the margin on touchdowns by Sanders (4 yards), Scruggs (29 yards), Dontae Thorne (1 yard) and a Josh Storm 36 yard field goal.

  With a comfortable lead, freshman quarterback Greg Petrovich looked impressive debuting in relief. The graduate of Benedictine was 4-of-5 for 56 yards and had an 18-yard run.

  “I think he’s a sharp kid and I think he really cares about being good,” Arruza said. “He’s got a long ways to go but I like Greg a lot. I think he’s going to be good.”

  After being unsettled by large-margin sloppy wins earlier in the season, Arruza had no such complaints in this victory.

  “We needed to get a win, especially with Austin being out,” Arruza said. “I thought it was good for our morale and I thought our kids played really well. I was happy with the way we bounced back.”

  R-MC has a week off before heading into its final two games of the season; a home contest against Bridgewater on Nov. 6 followed by a trip to Hampden-Sydney the following week.

Guilford….................... 0 14 0 7—21
Randolph-Macon. 21 14 10 14—59

  R-MC – Drake Sanders 4 yd run (Josh Storm kick)
  R-MC – Sanders 3 yd run (Storm kick)
  R-MC – Scruggs 8 yd run (Storm kick
  GC – Kin 16 yd pass from Watkins (Hull kick failed)
  GC – Gayhardt 88 yd fumble recovery (Parker pass from Watkins)
  R-MC – Peoples 26 yd pass from Sellers (Storm kick)
  R-MC – Harrison 12 yd interception return (Storm kick)
  R-MC – Sanders 4 yd run (Storm kick)
  R-MC – Storm 36 yd field goal
  R-MC – Scruggs 29 yd run (Storm kick)
  R-MC – Thorne 1 yd run (Storm kick)
  GC – Crego 4 yd run (Hull kick) 

RUSHING: Guilford –Bailey Crego 6-41; Thomas Kicinski 2-5; Justin Parker 1-3; Ray Brown 5-1; Mike Williams 1-1; Zac Halbert 2-0; Billy Watkins 5-minus 5; Team 2-minus 12. Randolph-Macon –Thaddeus Scruggs 25-162; Drake Sanders 21-112; Dontae Thorne 8-27; Vance Hendren 2-19; Greg Petrovich 1-18; Earl Peoples 1-9; Luke Sellers 3-6.

PASSING: Guilford –Billy Watkins 13-24-2-106; Zac Halbert 9-14-1-68; Team 0-1-0-0. Randolph-Macon – Luke Sellers 10-20-2-145; Greg Petrovich 4-5-0-56.

RECEIVING: Guilford –Justin Parker 10-109; Tyler Hasty 4-34; Mike Williams 3-9; Ben King 2-16; Cody Latimer 1-4; Ray Brown 1-2; Timmy Boyd 1-0. Randolph-Macon –Earl Peoples 8-124; Chase Phillips 2-22; Michael Atkinson 1-17; Jesse Naccarato 1-17; Drake Sanders 1-12; Dan Crouch 1-9.