Out With A Bang

The Battling Bishops of North Carolina Wesleyan college closed out their home portion of their 2016 home football season dominating the second half in taking down the Panthers of LaGrange 49-23. The first half looked nothing like a game in  which either side was going to go any length of time without scoring.

The Bishops took the opening kickoff and took more than eight minutes before  Adrian Minondo scored from seven yards out and after the Chris Richardson PAT the Bishops led 7-0.  The Panthers wanted no part in the of a slug it out game only attempting 17 rushes the entire day took little time in driving in just over two minutes to tie the game on a Marsalis Jackson 30 yard pass catch from quarterback Conner Blair.

Early second quarter Brad Hodgson 32 yard field goal put the Panthers in the lead. Seventy seconds later defender Rodney Simon on a blitz practically took the ball out of the hands of Bishops quarterback Nathan  Gardner but the ball hit the ground where a scoop and score  gave the Panthers a 16-7 lead after the blocked PAT.

The Bishops got closer 16-14 at the 5:37 after Deandre Gillis scampered from 16 yards out.  Less than two minutes later Blair connected with  Kiontai Button for 28 yards and the Panthers  back up 23-14.  Before the half ended DeAndre Gillis scored again to cut the halftime lead to 23-21.

Don't know exactly what coach Jeff Filkovski said at half time because it works the offense scored 14 points in both the third and fourth quarter and the defense gave up zero points in both the 3rd and 4th quarters.

After stopping the Panthers after the second half kickoff the Bishops retook the lead when Nathan Gardner spotted all American wide receiver Malik Adams had a step on the defender and race 33 yards for a score. Adrian Minondo scored has second touchdown of the game five minutes later and the lead zoomed to 35-23.

The Bishops opened the fourth quarter and put icing on the cake when Gardner connected again with Adams who was five yards in the clear and 78 yards later the lead has ballooned to 42-23.  How good is Adams his two touchdown passes today added to his already all time touchdown career scoring record  44 in Conference USA South.  He has a very good chance to become the first battling Bishop to play in the NFL as the pro scouts are making visits to Rocky Mount  just to see Malik Adams.

The icing got a little thicker ten seconds later when the first play from scrimmage Tyreik Dix picked off a bobbled pass to run the Bishops total to 49-23 which would be the final

How often do you have two hundred yard rushers and two hundred yard receivers as Adrian Monondo carried the pigskin 27 times for 178 while scamper running back DeAndre Gillis 21-123.  Add to that Malik Adam four catches 125 yards and Trey Lancaster 5-123.

The Bishops roamed the field for 574 yards 329 rushing and 245 passing .  The Panthers had 328 passing on 26-45.   They ran 17 times for 67 for a total of 395.  The Bishops record goes to 4-4 on the season and ends the 2016 campaign at Ferrum next Saturday.

This afternoon in the state cross country championship Northern Nash runner Daniel Belton finished 7th finishing one spot out of making all state running in 16 minutes and 18 seconds.  Teammate Jordan Richardson crossed the finish line 14th leading Northern to a ninth place finish in the championship won by Chapel Hill.  Northern girls finished 12th.