(CINCINNATI, Ohio) - The 25th-ranked Thomas More College football team defeated across-the-river rival, the College of Mount St. Joseph, 59-13, today (Saturday, November 16, 2013) in Bridge Bowl XVIII at Schueler Field in Cincinnati, Ohio. The win was the Saints' sixth-straight win in the series.
With the win, the Saints improve to 9-1. Thomas More must wait until tomorrow evening to see if it receives one of the five at-large bids to the 2013 NCAA Division III Playoffs. The tournament field and brackets for the NCAA Championship will be released on the NCAA championship website (www.ncaa.com) at 6 p.m. tomorrow. With the loss, the Lions end the season at 6-4.
Thomas More led, 14-3 after one quarter, 28-13 at halftime and 35-13 after three quarters.
Thomas More took a 7-0 lead when sophomore wide receiver Goose Cohorn (Independence, Ky./Dixie Heights) caught a 45-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Jensen Gebhardt (Kings Mills, Ohio/Kings) senior place kicker Tim Gormly (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) added the point-after-attempt with 13:28 to play in the first quarter.
MSJ cut the lead to 7-3 with 9:32 to play in the opening half when Shane Kelly made a 42-yard field goal.
Junior running back Domonique Hayden (Lexington, Ky./Lexington Christian Academy) scored on a one-yard touchdown run and Gormly added the PAT with 5:02 to play in the first quarter to increase the lead to 14-3.
The Lions cut the lead to 14-10 when Antonio Banks scored on a one-yard run and Kelly added the PAT with 10:37 to play in the first half.
Gebhardt and Cohorn connected on a 20-yard touchdown pass and Gormly added the PAT and the Saints led 21-10 with 8:15 to play in the second half.
Kelly made a 32-yard field goal with 1:09 to play in the half to cut the Saints' lead to 21-13.
Thomas More took a 28-13 halftime lead when Gebhardt threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Hayden and Gormly added the PAT with 18-seconds to play in the second quarter.
The Saints extended the lead to 35-13 lead with 10:37 to play in the third quarter when Gebhart threw a 36-yard touchdown pass to Cohorn and Gormly added the PAT.
Hayden gave the Saints a 42-13 lead when he scored on a one-yard run and Gormly added the PAT with 14:32 to play in the fourth quarter.
Thomas More increased the lead to 49-13 when Hayden scored on an eight-yard run and Gormly added the PAT with 11:24 to play in the game.
With 8:07 to play in the game, sophomore running back Scootie Middleton (New Albany, Ind./New Albany) scored on a six-yard run and Gormly added the PAT to increase the lead to 56-13.
The Saints closed out the scoring with 2:33 to play in the game when Gormly made a 19-yard field goal for the final score of 59-13.
Thomas More out-gained MSJ 579 yards of total offense (332 rushing, 247 passing) to 220 yards (175 rushing, 45 passing).
Gebhardt was 14-of-20 passing for 252 yards and four touchdown and had three carries for 22 yards to lead the offense. Hayden had 27 carries for 216 yards and three touchdowns and also had one catch for 12 yards and one touchdown. Cohorn had six catches for 142 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior defensive linemen Tyler Combs (Fort Thomas, Ky./Highlands) and Sean Lang (Ross, Ohio/Ross) led the defense as they each had six tackles. junior linebacker Nate Dorsey (Henderson, Ky./Henderson County), freshman linebacker Austin Copeland (Cincinnati, Ohio/Kings), senior linebacker Alex Taylor (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) and senior defensive back Adam Rauch (Yorkville, Ind./East Central) all had five tackles.