BOX SCORE

By Jim O'Hara
 
ROME, Ga. – There were a lot of positives and, as is the case with any season opener, there were some bumps in the road on the field for the Shorter University football team.

But when the final second ticked off the clock at Barron Stadium Saturday afternoon, the Hawks came up with the win when they handed the visiting University of Faith Glory Eagles a 38-12 defeat.

The win gives the Hawks some momentum going into what will be a four-week long road trip, the first challenge coming next Saturday in Jefferson City, Tenn., when Shorter takes on NCAA Division II and South Atlantic Conference power Carson-Newman.

Playing in front of a crowd of 2,100 in the exhibition showdown, Shorter dominated Faith for three quarters, taking a 38-0 lead into the final 15 minutes of play in which the Hawks went deep into their reserves and Faith managed to avoid the shutout with a pair of late scores.

Not surprisingly, the Shorter defense – the unit starts the season with all 11 starters and backups returning from last year – set the tone early as seniors Dominique Henfield and Jordan Shaw proved the Hawks with a fumble recovery and an interceptions, respectively, with Shaw's pick setting up the home team at the Faith 28 early in the first quarter.

From there, Shorter put its first six points of the season on the scoreboard when Sean Fowler took an option pitch to the left side and scampered 13 yards into the end zone for the touchdown with 8:57 left in the opening period. Kenny Langford added the extra point, the first of five for the afternoon.

The second quarter, however, the points came more easily.

After Langford split the uprights with a 24-yard field goal on the second play of the second quarter to give his team a 10-0 advantage, the Hawks put together a pair of lengthy, time-consuming scoring drive that resulted in scores.

Shorter made it 17-0 with just over 10 minutes to play in the stanza when fullback B.J. McCoy – he led the Hawks rushing for a game-high 125 yards on 17 carries – scored on a 15-yard jaunt to cap a five-play, 47-yard march, and with 2:06 to go until the half Fowler added his second TD of the day, this time reaching paydirt from 8-yards out to close out a five-play, 58-yard series that gave the Hawks a 24-0 halftime edge.

So dominant was Shorter's defense, that Faith was held without a first down over the first 30 minutes and held to just 13 total yards, and for the first five minutes of the third quarter the Hawks' continued that style of play.

Shorter made it 31-0 on the second play of the second half when quarterback Aaron Bryant, stepping in behind center after Devante James got the start in the first half, found a wide-open Trey Lawhorn open in a short slant pattern to the right and Lawhorn sprinted untouched 54 yards into the end zone to compete the scoring pass.
Just over four minutes later, the Hawks struck again.

After senior nose tackle Greg Carswell recovered a fumble at the Faith 19, slotback Kartez Carr joined the scoring parade when he raced into the end zone from six yards out to put what proved to be Shorter's final points on the board.

The fourth quarter saw the Hawks able to see what their reserves could do and Faith – the Glory Eagles had just one first down in the opening three period – managed to put together two scoring drives, the first a 1-yard run by Torey Walton that was set up by a fumble return to the Shorter 1, and the second coming with under two minutes left when Walton hit Ricardo Brown with a 15-yard TD pass.

Shorter's defense finished the game allowing just 61 yards in total offense, the fewest allowed in program history, while offensively the Hawks rolled up 385 yards in total offense with 274 of that coming on the ground.

Joining McCoy in the ground attack was fellow fullback Aki Coles, who rushed for 93 yards on 22 carries, while James and Bryant combined to complete five of eight passes for 111 yards.