William & Mary Survives North Carolina Central's 454 Yards
North Carolina Central gained 454 yards. William & Mary gained 232. The Tribe won 17-14.
That is the headline number and it should not be possible, so here is how it happened. The visitors scored first on a play that cost them no offense at all: Jack Reuter returned a blocked punt 10 yards for a touchdown with 13:36 left in the first quarter. NCCU tied it 7-7 on Joshua Jones's 1-yard run in the second quarter, and then the third quarter did the rest. Winston Watkins threw 16 yards to Alfred Honesty to make it 14-7 with 7:40 left. Less than a minute and a half later, Cobey Thompkins ran 69 yards to tie it again at 14-14. A field goal from Max Lipinski from 41 yards with 12:13 left in the fourth was the last score of the game.
William & Mary never trailed. It was tied twice and led the rest of the way, which is a strange way to describe a team that was outgained by 222 yards. NCCU ran 42 times for 297 yards while W&M managed 36 carries for 126, and the home team threw for 157 to W&M's 106. W&M threw two interceptions and NCCU threw none, but NCCU lost a fumble and had a punt blocked for a touchdown. Add it up: 454 yards, 14 points.
The records are 3-3 for William & Mary and 1-4 for North Carolina Central, which has now had a lot of yards and not many wins to show for them.
On the fantasy side, the top two scorers were both NCCU ground threats: Gino Addison with 22 carries for 169 yards, and Thompkins, who needed just five carries to get 98. The best W&M scorer was Honesty, who made three catches count.