The 79ers: UNCP sets scoring record, throttles WV Wesleyan

PEMBROKE — After threatening to set a new UNC Pembroke single-game scoring record in its last two home games, the Braves knew the possibility would exist to hit a new program high as winless West Virginia Wesleyan visited Grace P. Johnson Stadium.

Once the game got going and the Braves got rolling Saturday, there never seemed to be much doubt that that’s where the result would end up — and ultimately, UNCP scored 11 points more than any game it had played before, dominating from start to finish in a 79-20 victory.

“This week, just around, whether it’s players, coaches, people at the school, it was like ‘this is the week you’re going to score 70,’” UNCP coach Mark Hall said. “I took it kind of both ways as, yeah we’ve been really good on offense since our staff got here, we’ve had a lot of those big games, and now it’s almost this expectation that we can roll the ball out and get 70 points. And I’ve been doing this long enough to know that 70 points just doesn’t happen that easy. Sometimes we make it look easy, but really it takes a lot of things to go your way, all three phases have to go well, and I thought that happened.”

UNCP (4-5, 4-3 Mountain East Conference) totaled 594 offensive yards, including 377 on the ground, in the record-setting performance.

“It just comes down to the preparation during the week,” said Braves quarterback Colin Johnson, who was 11-for-18 passing for 166 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 21 yards. “If we have a good week of preparation, we’re ready to go on Saturday, we have a good pregame, good energy, good mindset, we can usually play good, so we’re kind of just keeping that same thing going.”

Sincere Baines ran for 166 yards on 15 carries with one touchdown and JaQuan Kelly ran for 116 yards on 12 attempts with two scores.

It was Kelly who broke the scoring record with an 18-yard run with 2:49 left in the third quarter, putting the Braves up 72-13 at the time.

“Everything (was going right),” Kelly said. “Everything we went through this whole week was run game, run game, and compete; even though this team was 0-8, still bring it. Because we ain’t been bringing it all season. Now, I’m coming back from a sprained ankle, so it feels great to get back out there.”

The second half was played with two 10-minute quarters, which the coaches agreed to due to the lopsided score. Even still, the Braves needed just 37:11 of game time to break the previous record of 68 points set on Nov. 11, 2023 against Concord. Saturday’s game marked the second straight year the Braves have set a school scoring record on American Indian Heritage Day.

“I thought the kids started the game well; that was something we really emphasized this week to the guys was starting fast,” Hall said. “I just didn’t want to be the team that came out and took the competition for granted and got off to a slow start, we wanted to be firing on all cylinders to start the game, and I thought those guys did a great job, we got out early and never let up from there.”

“It’s kind of the same feeling,” said Johnson, one of the Braves to play a key role in both last year’s 68-point game and Saturday’s record-breaker. “The objective is to win the game, and then once we get that done, all that stuff extra is great as well. It’s just a good feeling — everybody’s making plays, everybody’s scoring and everybody’s having fun, that’s what football’s about.”

West Virginia Wesleyan (0-9, 0-6 MEC) lost its 22nd consecutive game. The Braves defense held the Bobcats to four rushing yards and 222 total yards for the game, and UNCP forced four West Virginia Wesleyan turnovers. The defense accounted for 16 points, scoring two touchdowns and a safety.

“All week our coaches have been really pulling about capitalizing off our turnovers,” said defensive back Marquis Rasberry, who had one of those defensive scores on the return of a fumble recovery. “We’ve been forcing a lot of turnovers since we’ve won, but we haven’t been capitalizing as much as we should. So all week long we’ve been working drills, just working it, and we saw it today and it showed up big time.”

UNCP scored on six of its seven first-half possessions. It started with touchdown passes from Johnson to Albright, for 13- and 7-yard scores, for a quick 14-0 lead.

Albright finished with four catches for 56 yards and two touchdowns and two rushes for 13 yards and a touchdown.

“All week we talked about the mindset of dominating out of the gate from start to finish, so coming out the gate, starting out the game hot, making plays, pushing each other — every single day we push each other to get better, so it felt good to come out here and put it out on the field and put it all together in all three phases of the game,” Albright said.

After Jakori Hood recovered a Bobcats fumble for UNCP, the Braves scored again on a JaQuan Kelly 23-yard run, and maintained a 21-0 lead through the end of the first quarter.

“JaQuan Kelly ran hard, I think that’s something that he brings to the table,” Hall said. “He’s getting healthy. He had an ankle that bothered him and kind of slowed him down, but now he’s getting his feet back underneath him. Him and Sincere, the last couple of weeks you’ve seen what we’ve had in the past, which is those guys get in the open field and nobody can catch them.”

After Johnson found Que Kennedy for a 23-yard touchdown pass and a 28-0 advantage, the Braves defense scored the team’s next two touchdowns. Malik McKenzie forced a fumble, which inadvertently kicked off the foot of a Braves lineman directly into the hands of Marquis Rasberry a few yards away, who ran it 38 yards to the end zone to extend the lead to 35-0.

“I was really just running to the ball, I was going to go celebrate with my teammates, and then I saw him punch the ball out. And then it got kicked, and I said ‘oh yeah, that’s me,’” Rasberry said. “I haven’t scored since high school, so I was happy to get in the box today.”

Johnson threw an interception to the Bobcats’ Brandon Baugh — the only first-half Braves possession to not end in a touchdown — but on the next play, West Virginia Wesleyan’s Nathan Payne was hit as he threw and UNCP’s Jaiden Nesbit picked him off, returning the interception 47 yards for a touchdown, padding the lead to 42-0 with 9:25 left until halftime.

“It starts in practice, with work every single day, and every week one of our keys to success is the ball — we always try to create turnovers to help our offense get on the field and score. I was just doing my job that play, the ball happened to get to me and I got in the end zone for my boys,” Nesbit said. “I had to go score. I had to get in. No matter what happened I just had to make sure I got in the box.”

The Bobcats scored on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Nathan Payne to Kyri Beamon, but UNCP answered with two touchdowns over the final 3:57 of the half, with a 25-yard pass from Johnson to Josh Jenkins and a 7-yard run by Albright, taking a 56-7 halftime lead.

UNCP scored 16 more in the third quarter, with a 52-yard scoring run by Baines, Kelly’s record-breaking touchdown and a safety obtained after WVWC’s intentional grounding in the end zone. The Bobcats also scored twice in the third quarter, with touchdown passes from Payne to Joseph Triplett and Wesley Sweeney, making it 72-20 entering the final stanza.

Payne was 14-for-21 passing for the Bobcats for 185 yards and three touchdowns, with Sweeney catching four passes for 72 yards and one score.

Caleb Locklear started at quarterback for a few plays on the opening series for UNCP, becoming the first Lumbee starting quarterback in the program’s modern-era history, doing so on American Indian Heritage Day. He then came back in the game in the fourth quarter, and the Braves scored on a 23-yard shovel pass from Lockelar to Jo Hayes to go up 79-20 with 6:35 to go.

“It’s probably the best thing I’ve had this year,” Locklear said. “To be able to put on for my people, it means a lot. Hopefully, I can be an inspiration to kids in the community as well.”

“I thought it was pretty cool to be able to that, and I thought the team really responded well to it. I think they were really fired up about doing that,” Hall said. “Obviously the game created the opportunity for him to go in, equally as cool to be able to get him the first touchdown pass of his career, and to be able to do that on (American Indian) Heritage Day is great as well.”

UNCP hosts Frostburg State next week in the Braves’ home finale, where they’ll have a chance to pull to an even record, recovering from an 0-4 start to the season.

“Just having the opportunity to get back to .500, give ourselves a chance to have a winning season, be able to do it against a good Frostburg State team, those are the kind of teams we want to be able to play and beat,” Hall said.