Drake University football secured its 21st Pioneer Football League win out of the last 22 games when the Bulldogs took down the Davidson College Wildcats in Drake Stadium on Oct. 18. The Bulldogs have now outscored their opponents 127-7 at home for the season, and are 3-0 overall in PFL gameplay.
“Today was a great team win, every side of the ball was playing well and it was a total team win,” senior Duke Frye said. “Now we’re focused on the next week, though.”
In the first quarter, freshman Nick Herman secured a touchdown just minutes into the game. With the help of freshman Logan Inagawa at quarterback and senior Harry Balke kicking the extra point, the Bulldogs took an early lead of 7-0 before two more touchdowns were added to the scoreboard. Sophomore Hank Foley and senior Taj Hughes both followed up Herman with touchdowns of their own, and quickly moved the Bulldogs to a score of 21-0, with Balke’s help, going into the second quarter.
Balke started the second quarter with a field goal for the Bulldogs to move them to 24-0 before sophomore Jackson Voth put his own score on the board. The Bulldogs led the Wildcats 31-0 going into the second half of the game, and it was clear at this point that the game was far from over.
“We challenged the kids today … you have to respect the opponent and respect the process throughout the week,” Drake head coach Joe Woodley said. “Our guys went out and executed on a very high level on both sides of the football, namely running the football and stopping the run. Just about everything we did today was clicking. All kinds of individual performances on the offense and defense … the poise and composure of Logan [Inagawa], great day for Nick Herman, and a bunch of others stood out.”
To start the third quarter, Voth scored his second touchdown of the game with the help of Inagawa and Balke to move the lead to 38-0 over the Wildcats. This would not be the end of the scoring for the Bulldogs, though.
In the fourth and final quarter, graduate student Jaden Meizinger finished out the scoring for the game with the help of Balke yet again to secure the final score of 45-0 Drake.
“Another great team win,” senior Sean Allison said. “All three phases played very well, the offense was able to score on almost every drive and it felt like the defense was getting three-and-outs left and right. It always feels good to get a shutout, but still have things to work on as a team. Thought this game was a good example of the depth on our team.”
This game was a complete shutdown of the Wildcats and saw many records broken by the Bulldogs. The team saw 337 rushing yards and a high of 570 total yards, which marked the most in a single game from a team since 2015, while players like Herman secured their first over 100-yard rushing game.
“At the end of the day, it’s our third PFL win, right where we want to be, so we’ll enjoy this one for another day before getting ready for Marist [University],” Woodley said.
The team will now get ready to take on Marist on the road on Oct. 25 before it battles the Butler University Bulldogs in Indiana on Nov. 1. Drake will then return home to play St. Thomas University on Nov. 8.
