By Zack Ciboth, Sports Editor
It was a record breaking afternoon for the UNC Pembroke Football team in a dominant 49-7 win over Mountain East Conference foe Fairmont State Fighting Falcons in Pembroke Saturday afternoon. In the win the Braves offense broke the school record in rushing yards and total rushing touchdowns. The Braves set the new rushing record with 470 yards rushing and then the rushing touchdown record with six.
” I told you guys this two weeks ago when we had the passing record for Trey (Dixon) and you know we want to break records and we’ve been fortunate to be pretty good offensively over the years and we do it in a variety of ways but we wanted to show that we’re better at running the ball,” UNCP Football coach Mark Hall said.
The Braves found the end zone first when Colin Johnson connected with Keshawn Jefferson on a shovel pass to make it 7-0 early. After the Braves defense forced a punt from they took back over on offense they went up 14-0 when Johnson kept for a three yard quarterback keeper for the score. UNCP led 14-0.
The Braves added to their lead in the second quarter when Sincere Baines broke free for a 27-yard touchdown run. The Fighting Falcons responded on the next drive for there first score of the game when Donovan Washington found the end zone up the middle to make it 21-7. The Braves answered back right before when Johnson ran one in for a 12-yard touchdown run as the Braves led 28-7 at the half. The third quarter scored three touchdowns to pull away for good starting with JaQuan Kelly 44-yard touchdown run, then Johnson made it 42-7 with his third rushing touchdown of the night and then Banes finished off the scoring with a 69-yard touchdown run.
” I thought the team played extremely well, you know we played in all three phases really well offense, defense, special teams. We showed up in the game and hats off to the kids you know like I told them in the locker room you know they set the standard for what it should look like. Fairmont State was a heck of a football team came in here 5-1 and averaging 38 almost 39 points a game and our kids showed up and played for 60 minutes and got the job done,” Hall said.
Johnson finished the day with 9-for-15 passing attempts throwing for 90 yards and rushing for 153 yards are 12 attempts racking up four total touchdowns. Banes rushed for 186 yards on 19 carries and a pair of touchdowns Jamae Blank led the way on the defensive side coming up with a pair of tackles to add up to a team total of eight sacks in the win.
” I think this past week we just been going hard, a few things have went on. Offense knew we had to execute we knew we had to score this game I think everybody just played with heart”, Banes said. ” I just stay down keep working, you know everybody the goal is always higher you just got to keep working.”
“Defensively we played with a standard we played with a certain standard and there’s no if, and, or buts there’s no in between. We just try to exemplify that week by week,” Blank said. “We just got a bunch of guys that like to get after it and you once we stop the run which we did we forced them to throw the ball and you know that’s where we feasted.”
The Braves (4-3,3-3 MEC) will travel to Buckhannon, W.Va to take on. West Virginia Wesleyan (0-6, 0-5 MEC). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.
” I just told the team you know they actually set a new standard I believe for our team, you know it really doesn’t matter who we play or where we play if our guys are ready to go and they play to their capability,” Hall said. “West Virginia Wesleyan I don’t care what their record is they’re going to be ready to play so we got to have a great week of practice we got to work this week and we got to go up there with intentions of winning another football game.”