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Furman downs College of Charleston, to face Citadel

RJ Bradley breaks through for a try against the College of Charleston. (photo by Deborah Miller)

Last updated September 24, 2015

By Web Admin

RJ Bradley breaks through for a try against the College of Charleston. (photo by Deborah Miller)

RJ Bradley breaks through for a try against the College of Charleston. (photo by Deborah Miller)

Fresh from a 62-5 win over the College of Charleston, Furman will face conference rival The Citadel 11 a.m. Saturday at Roberts Field.

Both teams enter the contest with a 2-1 record.

It took 10 minutes for the Paladins to get on the scoreboard against Charleston. But once the scoring began, the trys came in troves. The Paladins, looking to shore up shortcomings in the loss to Coastal Carolina, shifted some personnel in the scrum and tweaked their line up. The changes appeared to have worked as Furman fairly dominated the set pieces against Charleston.

Offensively, Furman’s off-loading, passing and quick recycling kept the Cougars off balance. Charleston scored their only try late in the contest.

“I was pleased with our progress today,” said Furman Coach John Roberts. “We worked to correct some things in practice last week and put those things into place this Saturday with a positive result.”

Roberts said freshman Jeffrey Rein (playing scrumhalf) and 8-man Patrick Musua had particularly strong games. The Paladins were missing lock Thomas Trankle, scrumhalf Michael Anthony and fullback John Stumpf who are recovering from minor injuries.

The Citadel game will mark the return of Matty Newman. A sophomore fullback from Lincolnshire, England, Newman had an outstanding fall 2014 season before rupturing his ACL. He had surgery last spring. Newman has been practicing with the Paladins this fall but was only cleared to play earlier this week.

“Matty has had a long and difficult rehab,” said Roberts. “He is not in match shape yet, but we hope to get him on the pitch for awhile and he continues down the road to full recovery.”

The Citadel is coming off a 47-7 win over Lander. The Furman-Citadel rivalry goes back to 1998. Furman has held the upper hand in the series of late and has not lost to the Bulldogs in four years.

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