Benedict, Limestone Set For Potential Defensive Showdown

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Benedict College’s 5-3 victory over Livingstone in last week’s season-opening football game could be viewed as a defensive masterpiece or offensive futility by both sides. Whichever is the case, the Tigers could be set for another low-scoring, defensive battle when they host the Limestone College Saints on Saturday night.

Limestone is coming off a 35-6 victory over Shaw last week, holding the Bears to -79 yards rushing and 97 yards of total offense, both school records for the Saints, who are starting just their third year of football. After just one week of play, Limestone ranks first in NCAA Division II in rushing defense and second in overall defense.

Benedict is also coming off one of its best defensive performances in school history. The Tigers held the Blue Bears to eight yards rushing and 119 total yards. The eight rushing yards allowed is the fifth-best performance since 2003, when statistical records were available. It was also the eighth-best performance in NCAA Division II last week.

While the numbers look good, Benedict head coach Mike White said the Tiger defense can play better.

“When you go back and evaluate the film, you see how many mistakes we got away with on defense and how many times we could have played it a lot better,” White said. “We hope to play better this week, but it was a huge momentum booster for our whole squad to pull that out and win that game the way we did.”

The Tiger defense will have another tough challenge this week against the Saints. Limestone had 281 yards of offense last week. Freshman quarterback Ivan Corbin went 11-of-28 for 122 yards and a touchdown in his collegiate debut. Redshirt-sophomore Ga’Quan Maize had 92 rushing yards, including a program-record 72-yard touchdown run.

The Tigers held Livingstone last week to 111 passing yards and had three interceptions. Linebacker Kendrick Frazier picked off two passes, while cornerback Harmon Brown had one interception. Brown had another interception that he returned for an apparent touchdown called back because of a penalty.

“They’re a team that likes to throw the ball down the field. They have very tall receivers on the outside. They do a good job of getting them the ball,” White said. “They’ve got a real good running back who can bounce it outside and take it the distance. I think he had a 70-yard run last week, so we’re going to have to play a little bit better and not make as many mistakes as we made this past week.”

Offensively, the Tigers are looking to drastically improve on the offensive side from last week. The Tigers finished with just 19 rushing yards and 188 total offensive yards.

“Offensively, we need to take advantage of some scoring opportunities that we missed on last week,” White said. “We’re just trying to improve on our overall performance.”

But White knows moving the ball against the stingy Limestone defense will be tough. The Saints forced eight turnovers, had eight sacks, and scored two defensive touchdowns in last week’s game.

“They’re defense does look good,” White said. “I’m hoping that offensively we will be able to be more effective running the ball. They did hit Shaw with a lot of negative yards in terms of sacks and hitting them in yards for loss on some of the running plays. I hope our defense can stand up and keep these guys from making the big plays, and I do believe we could be in the game at the end and find a way to win it at the end. That’s the plan.”