Football Weathers the Hurricanes of Louisburg (NC) 21-13

September 28, 2009

Louisburg, NC---- Yesterday afternoon, the ASA football team took the trip down south to Louisburg, North Carolina to take on the #21 ranked team in the nation, Louisburg College Hurricanes. Louisburg would win the coin toss and chose to receive to start the game. The choice allowed ASA to set the tone on defense, which would dictate the rest of the game. After giving up very little yardage on its first defensive possession, the ASA offense would take over and wasted no time establishing its running game with Freshman running back Wandy Saintilien (Miami, FL/Miami). Santilien would score on a 20-yard run, giving ASA the early lead 7-0. Louisburg would answer with a drive of their own, tying the game at 7 still early in the first half. Early in the second quarter, ASA went to its passing game. Freshman quarterback, Travis Eakin (Toney, AL/Madison Academy), threw a strike down the middle to freshman wide receiver, David Valdes (Miami, FL/Felix Varela), for a 60-yard reception and run where Valdes split Louisburg's two defensive backs and hurry for the score. Louisburg would answer with a field goal to make the score 14-10 on the very next possession. However, with less than 5 minutes left to play in the half, sophomore cornerback, Andre Kates (Washington D.C./Surrattsville), would make an interception at the 50-yard line, giving ASA great field position to score. And they would! After screen passes to freshman receivers Malcolm Eugene (Huntington, NY/John Glenn) and Brandon Brown (Newark, NJ/Freehold Boro), Eakin would hand-off to Wandy Saintilien again for a 7-yeard run and score giving the Avengers the half-time lead 21-10.

In the second-half, the Avenger defense finished what they started, only allowing a field-goal the rest of the contest. It was a great homecoming for freshman linebacker JoJo Blanks (Pembroke, NC/Purnell Swett) who put pressure on the Hurricane offense all afternoon long and recorded 2 sacks on the day.   Freshman defensive back, Kendrick Butler (Ft. Lauderdale, FL/Dillard), made two key interceptions in the second half. One robbed Louisburg of a touchdown, late in the 3rd quarter. His second came on a key defensive possession with 1:24 to go, allowing the offense to down the ball to end the game 21-13.

The Avengers take the gridiron again on Monday, October 5th, where they will take on Delaware Valley away at 3pm.