The 25th ranked Benedictine football team opened up their 2015 campaign on Saturday with a 24-14 win over Evangel University thanks in large part to two big defensive plays in the first half.

The Ravens Dre Graves returned a Brett Diers pass for 80-yards to score the first touchdown of the season in the first quarter for Benedictine and then a blocked field goal set up a five-play, 70-yard drive that was capped off by a Diego Rodriquez two-yard run pushing Benedictine ahead 14-0 early in the second quarter.

After a Derek Rodgers 22-yard field goal extended Benedictine’s lead to 17-0 at the half, the Crusaders were finally able to break through on the scoreboard late in the third quarter.

The Ravens answered on a 18-yard touchdown pass from Jacob Koester to David Claypool in the fourth quarter before Evangel closed out the scoring with one minute left in the game.

Koester finished with 244 yards passing off 16 completions for the Ravens while Tyler Henness anchored the rushing attack with 85 yards on 19 carries. Henness finished with 128 all-purpose yards as he added 43 yards receiving off four catches. Christian Haack led the Raven receivers with 69 yards off three receptions.

In all, Benedictine gained 403 yards off 67 plays with a total of 159 on the ground to go with Koester’s total through the air.

Defensively, Shane Baumann led the Ravens with 11 tackles while Josh Rhodes and Graves each added eight tackles. The Ravens recorded two sacks for a loss of 15 yards and four tackles for a loss of 25 yards. They finished with three interceptions as Burl Brisbane and Kenny Barrow accounted for the remaining two.

The Ravens take to the road for the second game of the season as they travel to Kansas City, Mo., for a 1 p.m. game against Avila University.

— BC Athletics —