Central Connecticut Outruns Mercyhurst's 409 Passing Yards
Alex Gevaudan threw for 409 yards and four touchdowns, and his team lost. Mercyhurst out-gained Central Connecticut 491 yards to 374 and still came out on the short end of a 43-40 final. The difference was on the ground, where Central ran 46 times for 243 yards and Mercyhurst ran 23 times for 82.
Mercyhurst jumped on it early. Gevaudan hit Sha'lik Hampton from 9 yards (with a successful two-point run), a 38-yard field goal made it 11-0, and after Brett Griffis found Ryan Turley from a yard out, Evan Van Dyke ran 52 yards to make it 18-7. Isaac Stopke's 17-yard catch got Central within 18-14 before the half. Then the third quarter turned into a shootout. Amare Lattimore caught a 33-yarder to make it 25-14, and 17 seconds later Davon Smith Jr. broke a 36-yard run and Central added a two-point pass to make it 25-22. Smith scored again from 2 yards at 5:49 for a 29-25 lead, the first of two Central leads. Lattimore answered with a 27-yard catch to go back up 32-29, and Central finished with a 1-yard Stopke run and a 1-yard Smith run for 43-32. Dylan Evans' 8-yard catch from Gevaudan with 1:51 left, plus a two-point conversion, made it a three-point game, and that was where it ended.
Central threw for only 131 yards but did not need more. Smith's 25 carries went for 162 yards and three touchdowns. Central threw one interception to Mercyhurst's two and sacked Gevaudan three times, but the real story is the 243 yards on the ground.
Central Connecticut moves to 2-2, Mercyhurst to 0-3. For fantasy, this was a game to have a piece of: Gevaudan scored 38.5, Smith 34.2 and Lattimore 33.4.