Butler Falls At Home To League-Leading Jacksonville
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.. -- Butler held league-leading Jacksonville
more than 20 points below its season scoring average, but still
came up on the short end of a 24-16 final score in a Pioneer
Football League game at the Butler Bowl on Saturday. The loss
dropped the Bulldogs to 4-6 on the season and 2-5 in the PFL with
one game remaining.
Jacksonville quarterback Josh McGregor led the Dolphins on a pair
of fourth quarter scoring drives to help his team pull out the
come-from-behind victory. He found wide receiver Josh
Philpart with a 27-yard touchdown pass just under four minutes into
the final period to give Jacksonville its first lead in the game,
17-13, and then took advantage of a Butler turnover to engineer a
second touchdown drive five minutes later.
The back-to-back scores proved enough to lift Jacksonville to its
eighth straight win.
“We gave them three short fields there in the second
half” said Butler head coach Jeff Voris after the game.
“The defense played their hearts out, but in a game like this
you’ve got to force them to make plays and put yourself in
positive positions.
Butler, playing its final 2010 home game, jumped to a 10-0 lead
over the Dolphins. Quarterback Andrew Huck found tight end
Carter Walley with a three-yard touchdown pass with 5:06 remaining
in the first quarter for the game’s first score, and junior
David Lang added a 26-yard field goal at the start of the second
quarter for the early lead.
McGregor countered with a five-yard touchdown pass to Chris Kuck
with 11:26 remaining in the half, but the Bulldogs carried a 10-7
lead to the locker room at halftime.
The Dolphins tied the game on a 40-yard Josh Hostetler field
goal in the third quarter, but Lang put Butler back on top with a
32-yard field goal early in the final period. McGregor then
engineered a seven-play, 77-yard drive to put his team back on top
for good and the Dolphins took advantage of three Butler turnovers
in the final 12 minutes to hold on to the lead.
Lang finished the scoring with a 33-yard field goal in the final
minute, his school-record 14th field goal of the season.
Jacksonville (9-1, 7-0 PFL) entered the game as the top offensive
team in the NCAA Division I FCS, averaging 45.4 points and 512.6
yards per game. Butler’s defense limited the Dolphins
to 341 yards, including just 78 on the ground!
“We played well on defense and got (Jacksonville) off the
field,” said Voris. “They don’t punt the
ball very much. I thought we did an outstanding job getting
the ball out of (Josh McGregor’s) hands and did an even
better job against the run. But we gave them too many chances
in the second half.”
Linebacker Jordan Ridley, the leading tackler in the PFL, led
Butler's defensive effort with 12 tackles and one forced
fumble. Senior cornerback Tadd Dombart, playing his final
game in the Butler Bowl, finished with five tackles and a fumble
recovery, while senior linebacker Andrew Cottrell
(right) had a pass interception and 16-yard return to set up
Lang’s second field goal.
McGregor, the PFL’s leading passer, completed 23 of 35
passes for 263 yards. Huck countered with 28 completions out
of 48 attempts for 248 yards, but he was intercepted twice in the
final period. Butler wide receiver Zach
Watkins (above) finished with nine catches for 92 yards,
while senior Scott Gray led Butler’s ground attack with 48
yards on 15 carries.
Butler will close out the 2010 campaign on the road with a PFL
game at Drake on Saturday, Nov. 13.
