By Jayden Berkin, Sports Journalist
The UNC Pembroke football team shutout the Glenville State Pioneers in a highly anticipated homecoming game. The Braves took over fast and rolled to a 49-0 shutout. This marks the second straight shutout for UNCP and extends there win streak to three games.
The Braves were excellent on all fronts from beginning to end, but the first defensive drive for the Braves set the tone for the rest of the game. Beaten and battered after the Pioneers had the longest drive of the day, the Braves had their backs against the wall on their own one yard line, with everyone expecting the Pioneers to score on the opening drive. In a turn of events, the Braves stepped up to the challenge and forced a turnover on downs.
Scoreless in the first quarter, the Braves came out strong for the second quarter, scoring 3 times thanks to the likes of Colin Johnson’s 7-yard touchdown run, JaQuan Kelly’s 78-yard touchdown run and a 35 yard touchdown pass to Diaz Alexander. The Braves entered halftime up 21-0 against the Pioneers.
“It was huge, they made some plays on the first drive, got the ball down there, we talk about defending every blade of grass and making them earn everything they get and those guys did a great job holding up and getting those four stops and we were able to get that done and ultimately turn around and make big plays and got down there for the 99-yard touchdown drive” UNCP football coach Mark Hall said.
The Braves continued their dominant performance in the second half, kicking off with a 52-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Malik Tobias on the first drive of the half to up the score 28-0.
Kelly found the endzone early in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard touchdown run to make the score 35-0. A little over three minutes later, UNCP was in the endzone again with a 25-yard passing touchdown from Johnson to Tobias to continue the dominating performance over Glenville State. The final scoring play saw the electrifying connection between Johnson and Tobias again with a 38-yard passing touchdown to wrap up homecoming at UNCP.
“First of all, I have to thank my o-line because without them, this wouldn’t have happened, but I just feel like Colin trusted me today”, Tobias said.
Johnson tallied a total of 336 passing yards along with four touchdowns. Kelly led the team in rushing yards and touchdowns with 141 yards and two touchdowns.Tobias led the team in receiving yards and touchdowns with 146 yards and three touchdowns. Sean Hill tallied seven tackles with two tackles for loss on the defensive side of the ball.
“They move people out (of) the way for us, that’s what they do all the time”, Kelly said about his o-line helping him out.
The Braves ( 6-3, 5-3 MEC) will head into a bye week before returing to action on November 11th when they welcome Concord (1-8, 1-7 MEC) to town for the final regular season. Kickoff set for 4 p.m.