Gardner-Webb Pulls Away from North Carolina Central 44-20
At 17-17 late in the second quarter, this looked like a coin flip. Gardner-Webb scored the next 27 points and won 44-20, and the coin got a little cocky.
The tie came with 1:46 left in the half, when Riley Daniels kicked a 32-yard field goal for North Carolina Central after touchdown runs by Zion Dobson (11 yards) and Plez Lawrence (2 yards). Gardner-Webb had led 10-0 and 17-7 on a field goal, a 1-yard Zalen Watkins run and a 14-yard Randy Young run. Then Cole Pennington found Sean Brady from 30 yards with 21 seconds left in the half, and the Runnin' Bulldogs never gave the lead back.
The second half was one-way traffic. A 32-yard field goal made it 24-20, then Pennington hit Joey Shearin from a yard out and Tyler Simpson added field goals of 21 and 42 yards to make it 37-20. Hunter West closed it with a 35-yard interception return with 1:32 to go, the only turnover that turned directly into points.
The yardage explains the rest. Gardner-Webb had 445 total yards (309 passing, 136 rushing) against 218 for North Carolina Central (150 passing, 68 rushing), and sacked the quarterback four times. North Carolina Central threw an interception and lost a fumble. Gardner-Webb lost a fumble too, but no matter. Both teams are 1-2.
For fantasy, the top scorer was Pennington with 21.8 points, but this was a game of volume more than fireworks: Kory Jones caught six for 131 yards.