JAMESTOWN, N.D. – For openers, NAIA Preseason No. 1 University of Saint Francis took any drama out of its first game of its 20th season . . . early on Saturday.
USF scored three touchdowns in the first quarter and racked up 55 consecutive points before the University of Jamestown scored for a final of 55-7. It was the Cougars 10th consecutive win going back to 2016 and USF won its 18th consecutive season opening game.
Junior running back Justin Green scored three touchdowns, USF quarterback Nick
Ferrer completed 85 percent of his passes for two TDs and the Cougars’ veteran defense limited the 0-2 Jimmies to 175 yards of total offense.
“Overall, we played pretty good football,” USF Head Coach Kevin Donley said after his 303rdcareer win. “Guys were flyin’ around, playing hard with passion, and we’ll fix what needs to be fixed in the week ahead.”
Eric Dunten led USF on defense with seven tackles, four solo. Piercen Harnish, Wilmer Cole and Caleb Hankenson had six tackles apiece. Ryan Johnson picked off a Dylan Klatt pass to set up USF’s second TD in the first quarter.
The Cougars finished with 586 yards total offense on 57 plays with Green leading USF rushing with 94 yards. Ferrer finished 17-for-20 passing for 254 yards. Rocky James led receiver with 75 yards and one TD on three receptions. Sean Boswell caught five passes for 73 yards.
“I thought we came out really fast,” Ferrer said. “It was exactly what we wanted to do. We scored on our first four, five possessions. Our goal was every time we got our hands on the football, we wanted to scorea. J had a good game running the ball. Ryan Cinadr did really well running the ball when he came in. Up front we protected really well, handled their pressure, gave me time to go through my progressions, and receivers got open.”
Green scored USF’s first TD this season on a 1-yard scamper with 9:21 to play in the first quarter. Ryan Cinadr dove into the end zone for the Cougars’ second TD with to complete a 9-yard rush with 5:10 left in the quarter. Ferrer connected with James for USF’s third score of the quarter, James making a leaping two-handed snag in the back of the end zone with 12 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Green scored twice in the second quarter, the first on a 30-yard dash, and the second on a 9-yard sprint with 1:05 left in the first half.
Harnish took a direct snap on fourth down in the third quarter and made a beeline to the end zone for a 52-yard TD at 12:38 to push the USF lead to 41-0 after Gavin Gardner‘s extra point. Nate Carson scored on a shovel pass from the 5-yard line and in the fourth quarter Clay Seneriusconnected with Duke Blackwell for a 5-yard score and a 55-point lead.