CLEVELAND, Mississippi – The No. 6 Delta State University Statesmen held Kentucky Wesleyan to just 194 total yards in a 51-18 victory on Pig Pickin', Saturday night at Parker Field-McCool Stadium.
 
The Basics

• Score:  Delta State 51, Kentucky Wesleyan 18
• Records: No. 6 Delta State (3-0), Kentucky Wesleyan (0-3)
• Date: Saturday, Sept. 19 | 6:00 p.m. (CT) Kickoff | 30^th Annual Pig Pickin'
• Location: Parker Field-McCool Stadium | Cleveland, Miss.
• Series: Statesmen lead 1-0.

 
How It Happened
 
Offense:

• Junior running back D'Juan Bellaire marched into the end zone for the first score of the game, a two-yard rush, giving DSU the early 7-0 lead after a Vince Sciorrotta PAT.
• Kentucky Wesleyan responded quickly when Keelan Cole returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown. A blocked PAT made the score at 7-6 just two minutes into the contest.
• The Statesmen turned up the intensity with 20 unanswered points to end the first quarter, a three-yard rushing from Eddie McCadney, a 71-yard receiving touchdown from K'Shun Evans and a 30-yard catch from Justin Leavy.
• Bellaire found another hole for his second rushing touchdown of the night to open the second half, giving the Green-and-White a 34-6 advantage with 10:08 remaining in the half.
• Cole shattered the Panther scoring drought in the closing seconds of the half as he caught a two-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dalton Oliver in the right corner of the end zone to make the halftime score 34-12.
• DSU opened the second half with a Bellaire rushing touchdown to extend the lead to 41-12. It was his third score of the night, surpassing his previous season total of two.
• On his second reception of the night, Collin Floyd recorded his third touchdown of the season on a seven-yard pass from Tyler Sullivan to push the lead to 48-12.
• In the next possession, Sciorrotta sent a 23-yard field goal through the uprights.
• With the score at 51-12, Malik Malone forced a DSU fumble and returned it for a 27 yard touchdown, which proved to be final points of the contest. The PAT was blocked to make the score 51-18.

Defense:

• The defense combined for four interceptions, the most since two consecutive games in 2013 season against Concordia and West Georgia. The total was one shy of the school record, that took place Sept. 28, 1996 against Central Arkansas.
• Twelve tackles-for-loss were recorded by eight Statesmen defenders. Kentarius McDonald and Randal Boyd led the way with three apiece.

 
Special Teams:

• Sciorrotta was 6-of-7 in PATs for the second straight week and 1-for-2 on field goals. He has made 12 of his last 14 attempts, dating back to last season.
• Cody Mills punted five times for a 46.2 average.
• Greg Sims and Darius Powell had three punt returns apiece and totaled 124 yards.

 
Key Stat

• DSU's defense held the Panthers to only eight yards rushing and 186 yards passing for a total offense under 200. The last time DSU held a team to eight yards rushing was last season against Concordia.

 
Game Changer

• The defense blocked all PAT attempts from KWC. That paired with two Statesmen contributing three tackles-for-loss and four Statesmen picking off passes kept the Panthers at bay.

 
Notables

• The Green-and-White have outscored their opponents 150-69 in 2015.
• Sullivan moves up to No. 5 in the record book for career total offense with 6,544, passing DSU great Josh Bright with 6,363.

 
From DSU Head Coach Todd Cooley
"I was proud of the community for coming out. I was proud of the crowd for coming out. I thought the win was going to help us get back some normalcy. I'm glad we won the game. From a football aspect we have a ton of things to work on to get better."
 
"I thought our defense played extremely well. That was a very good positive. We created some turnovers and shutdown the running game. I thought they did a great job some other positives were I thought our kicking game except for two plays was really good. I thought our offense played well in spurts. We didn't get into a good rhythm and that's a lot of credit to Kentucky Wesleyan for that."

Up Next
The Statesmen continue a three-game home stretch on Saturday, Sept. 26 against in-region opponent Albany State University. Kickoff is set for 2:00 p.m.