Plez Lawrence Runs for 210 and Three Scores in NC Central Win
Plez Lawrence ran 22 times for 210 yards and three touchdowns. North Carolina Central as a team ran for 230. You can do that math yourself (it is 91 percent), and the Eagles won 30-22.
Central never trailed. Nelson Layne hit Mehki Wall from 27 yards on the first scoring play, Riley Daniels kicked a 37-yard field goal, and Lawrence got to work: a 14-yard run for 16-0, then a 73-yard run with 1:23 left in the second quarter that made it 23-7. A&T answered with Kevin White to Elijah Kennedy from 2 yards out with eight seconds left in the half, so the break came at 23-14. Lawrence added a 1-yard score with 8:00 left in the third and that was the last Central touchdown.
Here is the odd part. North Carolina A&T had 364 yards to Central's 376 and kept throwing, and White put up a huge fantasy line anyway: 21 of 44 for 259 yards and three touchdowns, but also two interceptions and a lost fumble. A&T gave it away four times (two picks, two lost fumbles) and Central gave it away zero. White's third touchdown, a 6-yarder to Anthony Rucker with 4:20 left, came with a two-point conversion to Mark Tillman, and it cut the margin to 30-22. It stopped there.
Central is 1-1. A&T is 0-2, and four turnovers against none is a fair place to start looking for why.
For fantasy, two of the top three were on the losing side: Lawrence at 40, White at 32.6 and Kennedy at 30.9. A&T lost, and its quarterback and top receiver still had big days.