MURFREESBORO - It was a tale of two halves at Garrison Stadium this afternoon as Chowan's first half performance put them down 25-0 at halftime to the visiting Dragons of Tiffin University. The Hawks were picked off four times in the first half and managed just two first downs on 38 yards of total offense.
The second half was quite the opposite for the home standing Hawks. They collected 10 first downs, 4 more than the Dragons and put up 210 yards of offense. The Hawks defense stepped up to shut down the Dragon's offense, keeping them out of the end zone for both quarters of the second period.
Tiffin's Steve Davis put his team on the board first on a 19-yard interception return for a touchdown. Gabe White blocked Tiffin's point-after-attempt, giving the Dragons a 6-0 lead with just over 10:00 to play in the first quarter. Tiffin hit pay dirt again with 2:05 to go in the first quarter but their two-point conversion failed, putting them up 12-0 over Chowan. At the 12:15 mark of the second quarter Tiffin's Jon Hemmelgarn scored on a 6-yard pass completion from Donnie Johnson. Andrew Breen split the uprights to give Tiffin a 19-0 lead. Breen went on to hit field goals from 34 and 27 yards out to give Tiffin a 25-0 lead heading into halftime.
Chowan made some adjustments for the second half and came out moving the ball down the field. Freshman Randy Gilbert completed 7 of 15 passes for 118 yards in the third quarter but the Hawks failed to put one in the end zone. Chowan's defense stepped up to shut down Tiffin's offense in both quarters of the second half.
Chowan finally got on the board after capping of a 12 play, 78 yard drive with a 10 yard touchdown pass by Gilbert to James Fox. Cory Cline split the uprights on the extra point to cut the Dragon lead to 25-7. Tiffin's defense stifled Chowan's scoring efforts in the final minutes of the game to keep Chowan out of the end zone and take the game with a final score of 25-7.
Offensively Gilbert completed 12 passes on 25 attempts for 191 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. Fox led the wide receivers core with 5 catches and 73 yards to go with his one touchdown. Jeremy Lee caught 3 balls for 76 yards while Sam Williams hauled in 2 passes for 21 yards. Jack Ross paced the Hawks on the ground with 33 yards on 12 carries in the game.
Shatae McEachin led the defensive efforts with 9 tackles while Jomo Brown had 8 tackles, 2 of which were for a loss. He also tallied 1 sack for a loss of 6 yards. Kjell Cordero had 8 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss, and one forced fumble while fellow linemen Kevin Cheek and Melvin Rodgers had 8 and 7 tackles respectively.
Chowan travels to Southern Virginia next Saturday looking for their first win of the 2006 season. Tiffin improves to 5-0 after today's win.
