Home Woes Continue As Hatters Fall to JU 30-7 Facing the top offensive team in the Pioneer Football League, it was the lack of offensive production on the part of the homestanding Stetson Hatters that was the biggest issue as Jacksonville defeated Stetson 30-7 Saturday night at Spec Martin Stadium. Jacksonville improved to 6-1 overall on the season, 5-1 in league play, while the Hatters fell to 2-4 overall, 0-3 in conference play and 0-4 at home. Despite being on the field for long stretches of time, the Stetson defense held its own against the Kade Bell led Jacksonville offense. The Dolphins’ junior threw for 332 yards, but most of those came after the catch as the JU backs and receivers proved to be difficult for the Stetson defense to tackle. The Dolphins were held without a TD pass in the game and the Hatters forced JU into six turnovers. “We didn’t handle the ball very well tonight,” Hatters coach Roger Hughes said. “We ran the ball in spurts tonight, but I’m just frustrated with the way we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. Our turnovers are coming off the hands of our own players and we have to clean that up.” In 15 total offensive possessions in the game, the Hatters’ offense produced 10 punts, turned the ball over twice on interceptions and two more times on downs, and had one touchdown. Among those 15 possessions, only the last one, in the fourth quarter, lasted longer than six plays and only four times did the Hatters gain as many as 15 yards on a possession. “For whatever reason, we just didn’t get in a rhythm tonight and I thought everything was just an effort,” Hughes said. “Nothing went smooth. We saw spurts of things happen well, and we just weren’t able to sustain them.” Hatters quarterback Ryan Tentler, who was held to a season-low 36 yards passing while also getting sacked twice, said Jacksonville had good speed and a good scheme for the Stetson offense. “We expected them to be fast and we schemed for them to be fast,” Tentler said. “It is just the small things that are killing us. Not to take anything away from JU, the played great and have a great defense. They are really physical and they flew around all over the field, but we are still keeping ourselves back.” While the Hatters managed just 187 yards of total offense in the game – 71 of which came on the final possession of the night – Jacksonville piled up 536 yards against the Hatters while dominating the time of possession. Bell completed 26-of40 passes for 332 yards while running back Ulysses Bryant had 109 yards rushing on 20 carries. The Dolphins managed just two offensive touchdowns to go along with a pick-six by Dallas Jackson in the first quarter and three Brandon Behr field goals. Most of the yards JU piled up in the game came between the 20s thanks to five turnovers on offense and another on special teams. “We were able to stop them once they got to the red zone, which I’m very proud of,” Hughes said. “We can be very proud of the effort and the fact that they hung in there and got the turnovers, which is what we want them to do. With that said, we have to play the screens better, the screens killed us tonight, and we have to tackle better in space.” Stetson’s only score of the night came immediately after one of those turnovers. Linebacker Ignacio Madrid, who had a shot at an interception earlier in the game, got his first career pick in the third quarter and returned the ball all the way to the Jacksonville 21. The Hatters went to a play that has worked well all year, getting the ball to fullback Mike Yonker on a seam route down the middle of the field on a pass from Tentler for the score. While that was the only offensive highlight of the game for Stetson, there were plenty of defensive standouts for the Hatters. Defensive end Davion Belk had eight tackles, five for loss including a sack, and also forced a fumble while Chris Atkins had a pair of interceptions, running his season total to four. But the hands down star of the defense for Stetson was Donald Payne. All Payne did was set a school record by recording 21 tackles, including 16 solo stops. Payne had one tackle for loss and an interception but, after all was said and done, he wasn’t satisfied. “We didn’t come away with a win, so I won’t sleep very well,” Payne said. “It felt like a close game, but it really wasn’t that close. It doesn’t matter if I had a good game or anyone else on the defense had a good game or played well, we still won’t sleep well because we didn’t come away with a win.” “He’s always around the ball,” Hughes said. “He’s clearly our best player on defense. I know that people in the league look at his number s and say, ‘can this really be real? They’re padding the stats,’ but we’re not. He’s around the ball all the time and comes up with interceptions and turnovers and I’m certainly glad he’s on our team.” Now that the Hatters have completed the three-game Murders Row of Butler, San Diego and Jacksonville, the Hatters have a five game stretch to close the year, with three on the road, against teams the Stetson players and coaches feel they will match up against better. “We play better on the road,” Tentler said. “We did that last year and we have done that this year. We feel like we have already played the best teams on our schedule this year and while it is not going to get any easier, we should be in a lot better situation. We think that we are going to have a lot better mindset for the rest of the year. We just have to go back to the drawing board to see what we can do.” Even with consecutive road trips to North Carolina coming up, Payne said he still hopes to show the home fans this year what the Hatters are all about. “We have been winning and playing well on the road this year,” Payne said. “The thing about it is we get away from the atmosphere and are more tuned into football. We have a little more focus when we are on the road. We have to get that here at home because we want to get a win here to show the fans here in DeLand that we are good.” Ricky Hazel Assistant Director of Athletics for Communications Stetson University
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 13:51:24 +0000
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