UNC Pembroke’s Sincere Baines (29) runs the ball during last Saturday’s game against West Virginia State in Pembroke. The Braves host West Virginia Wesleyan at 1 p.m. Saturday.
PEMBROKE — While the UNC Pembroke football team remains below the .500 mark for the season, the Braves have won three of their last four games and enter Saturday’s contest with momentum.
As they do so, they face a West Virginia Wesleyan team that has lost 21 straight games.
The Braves and Bobcats will kick off at 1 p.m. at Grace P. Johnson Stadium.
“I think one thing for us this year, we’re 3-5 too, so there’s still a lot of things that we’re still figuring out,” UNCP coach Mark Hall said. “I think that the last month, we’ve played better; obviously we’ve gotten more positive results and we’re trying to keep that going. I think we have a lot of guys that played against these guys last year; we did win the game 56-0, so that was great, but I think internally we knew we didn’t play our best game either, so we’ve been able to draw back on that and look at a lot of missed opportunities.”
West Virginia Wesleyan (0-8, 0-6 Mountain East Conference) last won a game on Oct. 22, 2022, beating Alderson Broaddus, a school that closed in 2023.
The Bobcats played their closest game of the streak last week, a 33-31 home loss to Concord.
“I think they’re better (than last year),” Hall said. “It hasn’t showed up in their record for them, unfortunately; they had a tough one last week against Concord. But you can look at certain statistics — like last year they gave up 50 points or more in six games, this year they’ve only done it one time. So I do think they’re making improvements, I do think they play hard, so I do think it’s on us to set the tone early and dictate the game right off the bat, and hopefully our kids will be ready to do that.”
West Virginia Wesleyan has rushed for an MEC-worst 84.0 yards per game and has gained 257.5 total yards per game, also the worst in the league. The Bobcats don’t have a 200-yard rusher this season, with Raphael Manning leading the team with 179 yards; he has scored one rushing touchdown.
Two quarterbacks have split the playing time, Nathan Payne (707 passing yards, four touchdowns) and Quinton Pulley (671 yards, seven touchdowns).
“Last year I felt like they kind of lacked a little bit of identity (on offense), but this year you can see what their plan is every week and they’re very structured,” Hall said. “They play two different QBs; one guys is a veteran guy and he actually started here in ‘22 before I got here, and then the other kid was the kid that started against us last year, and I think both of those guys have gotten better.”
They’ll face a defense for UNCP (3-5, 3-3 MEC) coming off perhaps its best game of the season, holding West Virginia State to two touchdowns in a 62-17 win, which included three forced turnovers by the Braves.
“We finally put it on film of what, especially us as coaches, we’ve gotten accustomed to with our defense, which is playing fast, blitzing a lot, living in the backfield, getting those tackles for loss, sacking the QB, which we hadn’t done a lot this year but Saturday against West Virginia State we did a lot,” Hall said. “The kids see themselves do it and I think they know this is what it’s supposed to look like, so hopefully we can do that two weeks in a row.”
West Virginia Wesleyan’s defense has allowed 448.5 yards per game, the worst mark in the MEC and ninth-worst nationally in Division II, and opponents are scoring 39.9 points per game, the second-worst average in the MEC and seventh-worst in Division II.
Linebacker Riley Slaughter (44 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss) and defensive lineman Jaden Swinger (41 tackles, eight tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks) are the statistical leaders for the Bobcats defense.
“Defensively, they do a lot of stuff,” Hall said. “I always hate going against teams that do a lot of stuff, just because you just never know what you’re going to get from them. They do a lot of different stuff, they’ve got a lot of new faces from last year to this year, but they’ve competed. I think their defense gave them a chance last week in that game against Concord, so it’s certainly not going to be one of those games where we can just play bad and feel good about it. I think we’re going to have to show up and be on point, execute to have success.”
The Braves offense has scored 129 points in the team’s last two home games.
UNCP will commemorate its annual American Indian Heritage Day as part of Saturday’s game.
“It’s good to have two home games in a row, first time all year,” Hall said. “Obviously with it being the (American Indian) Heritage game, it’s a special day at UNCP, so we’re trying to get this thing going and see if we can’t put on another good performance.”
UNCP is 5-1 all-time against West Virginia Wesleyan, scoring 50-plus points in blowout wins in each of the last two seasons.
