DURHAM, N.C. ? Presbyterian College acquired its first ever road win as an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision institution in a 34-27 victory over North Carolina Central on Saturday afternoon.
The Blue Hose are now 2-3 on the 2007 campaign, while the Eagles are now 4-2 on the year.
PC was led in the victory by running back S.J. Worrell (Madison, Ga.), who finished the Blue Hose victory with a career-high 154 yards on the ground. Worell also caught four passes for 21 yards to finish with a career-high in all-purpose yardage with 175 yards gained in total in the victory.
In his first start as the Blue Hose signal caller, Tim Webb (Lugoff, S.C.) proved that he was ready to take the reins, passing for 152 yards and three touchdowns.
Defensively, PC was led in total tackles by Sherman Burnett (Norwood, Ga.), who finished with nine stops, a half a sack and a half of a tackle-for-loss. Anthony McKnight (Sumter, S.C.), Adam McKinney (Augusta, Ga.) and Chris Bowman (Conway, S.C.) all finished just behind Burnett with seven tackles each.
McKinney also had 2.5 tackles-for-loss in the win, forcing one NCCU fumble.
The Eagles were led in the loss by signal caller Stadford Brown, who finished the contest with a game-high 372 yards passing and three touchdown passes.
The Blue Hose and the NCCU Eagles entered the second half with the score 14-7 in favor of PC. Neither team could find the end zone in the third quarter, but that totally changed in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter behind the arm of Webb and the pass-catching ability of Larry Thomas (Orangeburg, S.C.).
Webb threw the first of his two touchdown passes to Thomas in the opening four minutes of the final quarter when he hit Thomas on a 17-yard pass that gave PC a dominating 21-7 advantage.
The duo connected again shortly thereafter when Thomas caught a seven-yard pass from Webb that gave PC a 27-7 lead. The score remained the same as Cam Miller's (Lyman, S.C.) extra point attempt was blocked by NCCU.
The seven-yard score was made possible by the PC defense as Brian Leonardi (Aiken, S.C.) forced Brown into a fumble that was picked up Antwan Thomas (Hawkinsville, Ga.) at the 11-yard line.
The Eagles cut the lead to 27-13 on its next possession, capitalizing on an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a Tim Shankle touchdown. The Eagles missed the extra point to keep their score on the day up to that point at 13.
PC pushed its lead to 34-13 on the very next possession when Robert Bumgarner (Durham, N.C.) made it a happy homecoming for himself when he caught the first pass of his career for a 17-yard touchdown from Webb.
The Eagles continued the fourth quarter offensive onslaught by the two teams on its next possession when Brown found Brandon Alston for his first ever touchdown reception to make the score 34-20 in favor of the Blue Hose.
The Eagles continued their efforts to try and claim the game, recovering an onside kick and scoring on a 45-yard pass from Brown to Will Scott to place themselves only seven points behind at 34-27 with just under four minutes remaining.
The Blue Hose were able to hold strong though in the final minutes, forcing NCCU into making an errant throw on fourth down to preserve the victory.
The Blue Hose responded to North Carolina Central obtaining the first points of the contest in the opening minutes of the first quarter, driving down the field to score their first touchdown of the game and square the game at 7-7.
Cheytuane Reeder (Clinton, S.C.) netted the Blue Hose the points when he capped off a 13-play, 90-yard drive when he scored on fourth-and-one from the NCCU six-yard line to set the score at 7-6. Miller then hit the extra point to tie the game at 7-7.
Reeder did not waste any time securing his second touchdown of the game shortly thereafter in the second quarter, giving PC a 14-7 lead minutes later after dragging in NCCU defenders to the end zone from one-yard out.
The Reeder score once again accentuated another dominant PC drive as the Blue Hose marched 78 yards in 15 plays after an Eagle punt to pull ahead.
The long drive was even further punctuated by the fact that the Blue Hose picked up first downs in two fourth down conversion attempts in the drive.
The Eagles looked as if they would tie the game in the final minutes of the first half, taking the ball inside the Blue Hose five-yard line, but PC held strong by forcing the Eagles into a fourth down situation.
The Eagles felt that they would be able to punch the ball in and on fourth-and-three went for it, but the Blue Hose were ready as Burnett and McKnight held strong on an NCCU option to the left, tackling Tim Shankle around the two-yard line to keep the Blue Hose on top entering halftime.
In total in the first half, PC finished with 200 yards of total offense, including a season-best 113 yards rushing in one half.
Both teams looked as if they would find the end zone in the third quarter, but both teams were bothered by missed opportunities and turnovers in the quarter.
The Eagles had the best of the chances in the quarter, but the Blue Hose defense and particularly Antwan Thomas would not let it happen.
Thomas stopped the Eagles' first chance of the quarter when he intercepted a Brown pass at PC's own two-yard line to give PC back the football. Webb shortly thereafter threw his second interception of the game, but the Blue Hose held strong and Thomas took down Brown on another fourth down conversion attempt by NCCU to help keep PC ahead.
The Eagles scored the first points of the game in the opening minutes of the first quarter when Brown found a jumping Deshawn Spears in the end zone to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead after a Taylor Gray extra point.
The Blue Hose will next return to the friendly confines of Clinton for the first time in three weeks to take on the North Greenville Crusaders at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6 at Bailey Memorial Stadium.
The North Greenville game will be PC's homecoming game and will be the second of three home games in the 2007 season for the Blue Hose.
Noting PC-NCCU...
ANOTHER FIRST: PC's win over NCCU marked the school's first ever win as an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision school over another FCS school.
RUSHING: The Blue Hose finished with its highest total rushing yardage of the season, rushing for 208 yards. It marked the first time that PC had rushed for over 200 yards as a team since the Bronze Derby win over Newberry in November of 2006.
ROAD WIN: The win over NCCU garnered the Blue Hose their first ever road win as an FCS institution. The victory also earned PC head coach Bobby Bentley his first ever road win as a college head coach.
FIRST EVER: Robert Bumgarner's touchdown catch in the fourth quarter marked the first ever college reception and touchdown for the Durham, N.C. native.
