By Chantal Fountain, Sports Journalist
The UNC Pembroke Football team picked up a big Mountain East Conference win Saturday afternoon inside Grace P. Johnson Stadium when they hosted the Wheeling Cardinals in a MEC showdown. After a close first half of action the Braves took off in the second half outscoring Wheeling 28-7 en route to a 41-20 win at home. This win marks the first time the Braves have won three of the first five games for the first time since 2016.
“I was really proud of the guys, they played well and Wheeling was 3-1 and we were trying to get our season back on track and these are the type of games we wanna be in, we wanna play good football teams and I thought the kids responded and we had a good week of practice,” UNCP football coach Mark Hall said.
The Braves struck first with 7:06 to go in the first quarter when Colin Johnson found Jayden Smith for a touchdown pass but the PAT was no good giving the Braves a 6-0 lead early. The Cardinals drove down the field looking to even the score or even take the lead but were stopped by the Braves defense and forced to settle for a field goal making it 6-3 after a Joao Lima 31-yard field goal. Braves led 6-3 after one quarter complete.
The Cardinals took the lead in the second quarter with 8:20 to go in the first half when Landon Lutz connected with Jermawn Ford for a 15-yard touchdown pass giving Wheeling a 10-6 lead. The Braves took back the lead with less than five minutes to go when Johnson found a wide open Trey Dixon for a 32-yard score the put the Braves in front 13-10. The Cardinals eventually tied it up with a 21-yard field goal as time expired as it was tied 13-13 at halftime.
“We talked about starting fast and we were able to score the first drive. The first half we made a few mistakes and the second half we separated ourselves and I thought it was a really good win,” Hall said.” We made a few little adjustments but I think we knew offensively we were right there, we were moving the ball we made some plays and we just had those turnovers in the first half that stopped our momentum.”
The Braves started the second half like the first half driving down the field and taking the lead on a wide open 75-yard touchdown on a Johnson to Dixon connection to give UNCP a 20-13 lead. The Cardinals would respond and tie the game up again when Lutz found DaeDae Drummer for a 13-yard touchdown with 10:29 to go in the third quarter. The Braves then started to pull away starting with a another Johnson to Dixon connection this time 18-yards out for the score and then another touchdown pass from Johnson to Malik Tobias to make it 34-20 to close out the third quarter. The Braves put the finishing touches in the fourth quarter when Johnson connected with Dixon for a 73-yard touchdown to secure the win at home.
“We had a couple good drives in the first half so we all knew that we can just get down field with the ball with the matter of being consistent, so we still had that confidence every series , they were a good defense but we just had to go out there and trust each other and execute,” Johnson said.
Dixon finished with 240 yards receiving on seven completions and four touchdowns while breaking a school record for the most receiving yards in a game. Johnson finished the game with 17-for-28 completions for 334 yards passing , six touchdowns and 94 yards rushing tying a passing touchdown record set by Luke Charles.
“All praise to the most high, I had a minor setback last week so I had to come back and do it for my team, it was on my mind the whole week,” Dixon said. ” They (Wheeling) were playing aggressive , they were breaking a lot on slants and go’s so coach Hall did a great job of dialing stuff up.”
On the defensive side Jordan Gregg recored ten tackles and an interception, Justin Foreman finished with six solo tackles and two assist tackles. Sean Hill had seven tackles, one fumble recovery a sack for a loss in the win.
“Our boundary safety came down and knocked somebody out, balls on the ground and I thought the play was dead and I didn’t hear no whistle so I picked it up and tried to get back on it,” Hill said about his fumble recovery.
The Braves (3-2, 2-2 MEC) will hit the road when they travel to Maryland for a Mountain East Showdown with Frostburg State (3-1, 2-1 MEC). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.