Defense leads the way in Concordia’s home-opening win

Published 8:57 pm Saturday, September 29, 2012

Concordia College defenders wrap up a College of Faith running back during the Hornets’ home opener on Saturday. Concordia’s defense forced ten turnovers in the 48-6 win at Memorial Stadium. -- Robert Hudson

The Concordia College Alabama Hornets cruised to victory in their home opener, as they defeated the College of Faith Wildcats 48-6 on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Don Lee, who was coaching his first home game as head football coach of Concordia College Alabama (3-1), said his team did a good job of executing, but can still get better.

“The key was just staying focused all during the week, coming out trying to do what we do during practice time, and that’s just the little things,” Lee said. “[Defensively] we’re not where we need to be, but we’re working on it and it’s getting a lot better.”

Email newsletter signup

After recovering a Wildcats fumble on the first drive of the game, the Hornets got on the board, as Terrell Edwards-May broke off a 28-yard touchdown run to make it a 6-0 game with 13:20 left in the first quarter after the extra point was blocked.

The Hornets defense forced another turnover and recovered a fumble, as the Concordia offense added another touchdown, this time on a 30-yard pass from Imonni Carswell to Edwards-May, with the extra point by Javontae Furlow making the score 13-0 with 12:49 left in the first.

Concordia’s defense wasn’t done, as Stephan McCord picked off a pass by College of Faith’s Nathan Hawkins and returned it 55 yards down to the Wildcats’ 1-yard line.

Edwards-May pounded the ball in from 1-yard out with the extra point pushing the Hornets’ lead to 20-0 with 10:01 left in the first.

The Hornets’ offense added to the total, as Carswell finished up another drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Morris, and the extra point made it 27-0 with 1:04 left in the opening quarter.

Concordia added one more touchdown in the first half, as Christopher Davidson ran in a 6-yard touchdown and another successful extra point made it 34-0 with 12:03 left in the second quarter.

Concordia capped off its scoring with another 11-yard touchdown pass from Carswell to Morris with 13:29 left in the third quarter, and later in the fourth quarter Mario Smith found Richard Sanders on a 30-yard touchdown pass that made it 48-0.

College of Faith got on the board with 9:59 left in the game, as Xavier Jones ran in from 3-yards out to make it 48-6.

The Hornets forced ten turnovers on the day, including two interceptions by McCord, five fumble recoveries, and interceptions by Shawn Sweet, Roderick Brewer and Christopher Davenport.

Concordia will take the field again Saturday, Oct. 6 at 1 p.m. against Virginia-Lynchburg at Memorial Stadium.