BRIDGEWATER, Va. -- The Bridgewater College football team is set to face off with Gettysburg, on the road, to start off the 2022 season.
Bridgewater (0-0) at Gettysburg (0-0)
When: Saturday, Sept. 1, 2022
Where: Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Stadium: Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium
Kickoff: 1:00 pm
Series Record: Bridgewater leads all-time series, 6-1
Live Video:
https://www.centennialconference.tv/gettysburgbullets/
Live Stats:
https://gettysburgsports.com/sidearmstats/football/summary
SCOUTING THE BULLETS: Gettysburg returns to the field for the 2022 season after a 1-9 finish a year ago. The Bullets faced a challenging schedule that included three games against nationally-ranked opponents throughout the season. The team returns its top quarterback from a season ago, Mason Stolarik, who tossed for 979 yards and four touchdowns. The Bullets boasted a pair of All-Centennial Conference selections as Alex Raimondo and Matt Lynch both garnered spots on the league-wide listing with Raimondo achieving first-team status. Chris Lessel returns as the team's leading tackler from last season sporting a total of 61 tackles.
GETTYSBURG HEAD COACH: Maurice Banks begins his third season as head football coach at Gettysburg College in 2022. Banks was named head coach in February 2020, but had to wait until Sept. 4, 2021 to lead the Bullets onto the turf with the 2020 campaign cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His first season saw a pair of defenders earn All-Centennial Conference honors and Banks' initial win in the form of a 48-42 Homecoming win over Juniata on Sept. 25. His squad also played two of its other four home contests to one-score games.
LAST MEETING: Bridgewater walked away with a 31-7 victory on home turf against Gettysburg to kick off the 2021 season, which served as head coach
Scott Lemn's first win.
Da'Sean Davis had a school record 4.5 TFLs, while
Nazeer Jordan had 2.0 tackles for loss to go with a fumble recovery and a game-high 8.0 tackles.
Matt Lawton tossed for 264 yards on 21 completions, while
Chad Jones grabbed five passes for 70 yards and a TD. In total, the stout Bridgewater defense forced 15 negative yard plays.
ALL-TIME SERIES: Bridgewater leads the all-time series with Gettysburg with a 6-1 record. The two sides have started off the season with each other dating back to 2014, outside of the 2020-21 COVID season. The only time the Bullets walked away with victory was by a 49-10 count in 2015.
ODAC PRESEASON POLL: The Bridgewater College football team was picked to finish sixth in the annual ODAC Football Preseason poll. Randolph-Macon walked away with six of the eight first-place votes to top the yearly head coaches' survey, while Washington and Lee received the last two first-place tallies and Hampden-Sydney rounded out the top three.
IMPACT PLAYERS: A plethora of new faces will dawn the starting lineups on both sides of the ball for the Eagles in the 2022 season, but several impact players from a season ago return for more action. Offensively,
Viante Tucker who ranked second on the team in catches and receiving yards is back for more, while
Derrick Jenkins and
Dylan Maclachlan return as two more of the top five receivers from last season. Defensively, defensive backs
Shawn Harris and
Val West step into team leadership postiions as the top returning tacklers from last season. With one of the top special teams units in the ODAC, the Eagles sported a pair of All-ODAC selections at punter and kicker as
Jackson Hendren and
Garrett Graves each return after sitting near the top of the league in all of their stat categories in 2021.
EAGLES STAFFING ADJUSTMENTS: Prior to the start of the sesaon, head coach
Scott Lemn announced several adjustments to his staff. Defensive coordinator
Mike Giancola has been elevated to assistant head coach and will also remain as the DC and secondary coach.
Kyle Purkey added special teams coordinator to his linebacker coach duties, while
Kyle Rigney adds run game coordinator to his offensive line coaching resume. In addition,
Justin Williamson takes over as the team's recruiting coordinator. Also, former player
Dustin Green will help out with the secondary, and
Deion Richardson will join the sidelines as a student assistant.
ALL-AMERICAN MAN: After claiming fourth team All-America honors from D3football.com at the end of last season, senior punter
Garrett Graves earned a spot on the first team list for the 2022 Preseason All-American selections by the same organization. A year ago, Graves led the league in average, punts inside the 20 and longest punt (62 yards).
BEST OF THE BEST: Bridgewater College featured 10 selections on last season's All-ODAC listings, including six defensive picks. The six honorees tied for the second-most in the conference with only Washington and Lee featuring more defensive players claiming a spot on the league listing (7).
AROUND THE ODAC (WEEK 1): With a busy first weekend of action for the ODAC, Ferrum is set to kickoff the league's football season with a Thursday contest with Virginia-Wise at 7 pm. Other league games for Week 1 include Guilford traveling to its crosstown rival Greensboro, Shenandoah heading to Methodist, Hampden-Sydney visiting Wabash, Washington and Lee facing off with Christopher Newport, Averett hosting The Apprentice School and nationally-ranked Randolph-Macon hosting the Battling Bishops of North Carolina Wesleyan to round out the slate.
OTHER BRIDGEWATER TEAMS IN ACTION: Bridgewater College has several teams competing on Saturday as the volleyball team plays in the Battlefield Classic, also hosted by Gettysburg, on Friday and Saturday, while the men's soccer team begins its home slate against Ferrum. Meanwhile, the women's soccer program travels to Swarthmore for its first road contest of the young season before returning home on Monday evening.
OTHER GETTYSBURG TEAMS IN ACTION: In addition to hosting Saturday's football game, the Bullets also host the annual Battlefield Classic volleyball invitational featuring a total of 22 matches across two days. The men's soccer team travels to St. Mary's (Md.), while the women's team plays host to Elizabethtown on Saturday night beginning at 7 pm.
ABOUT BRIDGEWATER COLLEGE: The student experience at Bridgewater College has been shaped and defined by connections since 1880.Bridgewater's commitment to building connections for life gives you more opportunities to flourish. More opportunities to participate in sports, theatre, music, clubs and organizations. To exercise leadership. And to develop and achieve your potential through the support of faculty mentors.
NEXT TIME OUT: Following the game with Gettysburg, Bridgewater returns home to Jopson Athletic Complex for its home opener as it hosts Southern Virginia on Sept. 10 at 2 pm for Family Weekend.
