University of Richmond Athletics
University of Richmond
UAlbany
David Jones Collects Four Interceptions In 38-31 Spider Win
11/01/2015 | Football
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND, Va. – It was a Homecoming to remember for DB David Jones who guided the No. 6/8 University of Richmond football team (7-1, 5-0 CAA) to a 38-31 victory over UAlbany (2-6, 1-3 CAA) with a Richmond and CAA record four interceptions and a fumble recovery.
The redshirt-junior came into the game with three picks so far this season that were already tied for the CAA lead. He added five tackles to cap off his historic effort. He is the first player in Richmond football history to collect four picks in a game and just the fourth player in CAA history to do so. The last CAA player to collect four picks in a game was Rhode Island's Kevin Smith who did so in October of 1988.
Not to be overshadowed was RB Jacobi Green who had another monster game on the heels of his sterling effort opposite JMU that earned him CAA Offensive Player of the Week honors. He galloped for 186 yards on the ground to with a pair of scores on 34 attempts. The senior now has 779 rushing yards this season, which are a career-best mark with at least three games left to play in 2015.
Junior WR Brian Brown continued his career-year, adding 178 yards through the air to his season total, giving him 876 for the season in just seven games. He also added a touchdown, which ties his career-high for a single season with four. Reggie Diggs continued to compliment Brown in a big way, gaining 71 yards through the air on seven catches with a touchdown mixed in. QB Kyle Lauletta threw for 293 yards on 20-33 passing with a pair of touchdowns and three picks.
The Spiders took control of the ball to begin the game and for the sixth-straight outing they would march down the field and put a touchdown on the board with their first offensive drive. Lauletta hit Brown for gains of 16 and 22, respectively, then after a 13-yard rush by Green the QB galloped for a 15-yard touchdown.
On the first play of the first Albany drive, freshman QB Neven Sussman, who was making his first start of the season, dropped back and had his pass intercepted by Jones and returned for a big gain. The Spiders would not, however, put any points on the board after a missed field goal.
The very next play for Albany was a hand off but Richmond LB David Norris punched the ball loose and it was Jones on the spot once again to recover the fumble. Two plays, two turnovers for the Great Danes.
Richmond took over and had their drive stall inside the 20 for a second-consecutive drive but this time PK Peter Yoder's try was on line and lead rose to 10-0 with just over six minutes gone in the first quarter.
The defense held Albany to just one first down on the next drive and forced a punt. Richmond took over on its own 12-yard line and Gordon Collins rushed for four yards to get things started. Brown would catch a 13-yard pass and Collins picked up 10 more yards on the ground before Lauletta dropped back and hit Brown for a 40-yard touchdown to make it 17-0. That score would hold through the end of the first quarter.
The Great Danes found their way onto the scoreboard with their first drive of the second quarter, sparked by a 47-yard rush from Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks. The drive was finished off with a nine-yard pass from Sussman to Anthony Manzo-Lewis, bringing the score to 17-7 following the extra point.
With 7:41 to play in the first half the Spiders took over and offense went to work, focusing on short gains and first downs. Diggs caught a pass and ran for 11-yards, shaking a tackler along the way and Green followed with runs of five and six, respectively, to move the ball past midfield. Lauletta hit Diggs for six more and Green continued to plug away on the ground, gaining six again.
The first big gain of the drive came when Garrett Hudson came open in the middle of the field, made the catch and leveled the first would-be tackler en route to a 29-yard gain. Green finished off the drive with his first rushing score of the afternoon (11th of the season) to push Richmond ahead 24-7.
David Jones added his second interception but Lauletta surrendered one of his own with the first half clock ticking down. Albany drove down the field and added a field goal as time expired to send this one to the locker rooms with Richmond leading 24-10.
The Richmond defense continued to take center stage with the second half now underway. On just the third play of the drive for Albany, Omar Howard broke through the line and sacked Sussman, jarring the ball loose in the process and Justin Rubin right there to recover the fumble.
The offense took over and more specifically Jacobi Green took over; gaining 21 yards during the short drive and scoring his second touchdown of the game to make it 31-10. Reggie Diggs added his fourth receiving score of the season on the next Richmond drive to make it 38-10 to complete the scoring for the home squad.
Albany managed to put together back-to-back touchdown drives midway through the third quarter to make it a two-score game but then both teams started trading interceptions. Jones snagged two more balls out of the air on back-to-back Albany drives but the Great Danes scored with 8:49 to play in the game making it 38-31.
With 4:14 to go Richmond lined up for a field goal but Yoder's try was no good, giving Albany the ball with a chance to tie the score. The Richmond defense stood up and forced a punt. Nobody but Jacobi Green saw the ball during the ensuing Richmond drive. The senior gained 27 yards on the drive to lock this one up for the Spiders on Homecoming.
After a brief visit home Richmond will head back out of the road for a pair of crucial road games opposite New Hampshire (4-4, 2-3 CAA) and Villanova (3-4, 2-2 CAA), two squads picked ahead of the Spiders in the preseason, respectively. In fact, all three of the Spiders remaining regular season contests are against programs picked ahead of them in the preseason pecking order. The game at New Hampshire is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. on the NBC Sports Network.
The regular season will conclude on Nov. 21 at Robins Stadium when Richmond welcomes rival William & Mary (6-2, 4-1 CAA) for the 125th battle for the Capital Cup at Noon. The two programs make up “The Oldest Rivarly in the South” and the game will serve as a celebration of the rivalry and could determine the 2015 CAA Championship.
