LATROBE, Pa. (Oct. 15) – Saint Vincent used a balanced offense and opportunistic defense to earn a 41-25 victory over Presidents' Athletic Conference foe Geneva College at Chuck Noll Field.
 
The Bearcats (2-4, 2-2 PAC) amassed a season-high 410 yards of total offense, while the SVC defense forced four Geneva (1-5, 1-3 PAC) turnovers, as Saint Vincent earned its first victory over Geneva since 2017.
 
Through the air, Brady Walker completed 16 passes for 221 yards and a touchdown. Seven different receivers made at least one catch, with Molayo Irefin, Nick Domico and Ryan Whitman each securing touchdown grabs. On the ground, D.J. Gray Jr. ran for 93 yards and Ja'Tier Berkley 92 yards and a score, while Walker recorded his first rushing touchdown of the campaign.
 
While the Bearcat offense turned in an impressive showing in producing its highest scoring output of the season, the SVC defense was just as impressive. The Bearcats recovered three Geneva fumbles, including a fourth quarter fumble return touchdown by Joanes Polynice. Ahmad Shaw recorded his second interception of the season, while the Bearcat held the vaunted Golden Tornadoes rushing attack to 67 yards below its season average.
 
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with the teams trading five leads.
 
After a 64-yard kick return to open the game, the Golden Tornadoes were primed to take an early lead, needing just three plays to advance inside the SVC 10-yard line. The Bearcat defense promptly came up with its first big play of the afternoon, with Jaden Edmonds forcing a fumble recovered by Nathan Sullivan on first-and-goal.
 
The Bearcat offense would then need just seven plays to cover 84 yards, with Walker's scramble around the left end giving his team a 7-0 lead with 10:30 left in the quarter. The opening SVC possession was highlighted by a 25-yard reception by Jeffrey Downs II and a 28-yard run from Berkley.
 
On Geneva's ensuing drive, a 41-yard pass from Brutus Ogilvie to Hilton McClain Jr. set up first-and-goal on the SVC 10. A fumbled snap would then back the GT's up 11 yards and the Bearcat defense would hold in the red zone, limiting Geneva to a 35-yard field goal to make it 7-3 at the midpoint of the quarter.
 
The Saint Vincent defense came up big yet again on Geneva's final drive of the quarter. Another long pass play from Ogilvie to McClain would again advance the ball inside the SVC 6-yardline, before the visitors would eventually face a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line. The SVC defense held, with Dwight Collins Jr. and Derius May teaming up to snuff the run and force the turnover on downs.
 
In a second quarter filled with scoring, Geneva would take a 10-7 lead on a 4-yard rush by Logan Kent with 11:50 left.
 
The Bearcats wasted little time in regaining the lead, with Berkley capping off a 5-yard, 61-yard play drive with a 43-yard touchdown run to make it 14-10 with 8:52 left in the half.
 
Geneva would again utilize another long pass from Ogilvie to McClain, this time covering 68-yards, to set up its next scoring drive, which was capped off with an 8-yard Josh Syster touchdown run to go in front 17-14 with 7:20 left in the half.
 
Saint Vincent countered by riding the right arm of Walker to regain the lead for good late in the second frame. The veteran fired back-to-back 13-yard completions to Berkley and Kaelib McElroy to advance the ball into Geneva territory, before Walker and Irefin hooked up for a pair of passes covering 33 yards to set up first-and-goal at the Geneva 7. The duo would then team up once more for a 9-yard scoring strike to give SVC a 21-17 lead with 4:42 remaining, which is how the score would stay at the half.
 
The Bearcats added onto the lead with just over nine minutes left in the third quarter. After Gray opened the drive with two rushes covering 14 yards, Walker fired a 24-yard completion to Irefin and a 9-yard pass to Downs to advance the ball to the Geneva 21. Walker would then flip a pass over the middle to Domico, who scampered in from 21 yards out for his first career touchdown to push the SVC advantage to 27-17.
 
The SVC defense would force a missed Geneva field goal with 4:43 left, before the quarter ended with the Bearcats' Max Pisula recovering a Geneva fumble on the GT's 29.
 
SVC made Geneva pay for the miscue, with a 17-yard run from Gray setting up a 14-yard touchdown pass from Walker to Ryan Whitman, who made a leaping, fully extended grab in the end zone to increase the Bearcat lead to 34-17 57 seconds into the final frame.
 
Shaw's interception on the sideline ended Geneva's next possession prematurely, but the visitors would cut into the deficit on a 4-yard touchdown run from Syster with 7:57 left in regulation. The successful two-point conversion closed the gap to 34-25.
 
Though SVC's next trip would come up empty, punter Kyle Murray pinned Geneva inside its own 6-yard line, setting up another big SVC defensive play when Polynice scooped up a fumble at the 3-yardline and coasted into the end zone with 4:32 left to make it 41-25.
 
Geneva advanced to midfield on its final trip, but a Pisula sack on third down and a fourth down incompletion sent SVC into its victory formation.
 
May led the SVC defense with eight tackles, with Polynice and Caleb Green finishing with seven apiece.
 
For Geneva, Ogilvie completed 10 of 13 passes for 235 yards, with McClain recording 161 receiving yards on three grabs. Syster ran for a game-high 139 yards on 27 carries. Gabe Trexler totaled a game-high 11 tackles, while Ray Richard made five tackles, including three for loss.
 
The Bearcats will return to action on Saturday, Oct. 22, traveling to northwestern Pennsylvania to take on new PAC foe Allegheny College in a 1 p.m. matchup. It will mark just the second all-time meeting between the two squads, and first since 1929.