Saturday marked the start date of Shorter College’s second round of collegiate football and they showed that they had the talent to come out swinging.
Holding Brevard College to only 63 yards total offense, the Hawks made their season debut at Barron Stadium a grand one by defeating the Tornados 39-7.
“It feels good right now just to see the fruition of all the work that our guys put in during the offseason and preseason,” Shorter coach Phil Jones said following the win over the upstart North Carolina team.
“Our defense was excellent,” he said. “How can we complain when last year we were playing so hard just to have a chance? To come out like we did today, it was big for us.”
The Hawks’ line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball was given much praise in the preseason and Saturday they proved that they could do the job.
Brevard had only six yards on 19 carries in the first half and added just 15 in the second.
Shorter had 11.5 tackles-for-loss including sacks by Jeremy New, Logan Lollis and Kenneth James and a pair of hard stops by Ryan Gloer and Matt Yarbrough.
New even brought down Tornado running back Tyrone Arrington in the Hawks’ end zone for a safety with 9:44 left in the third.
The offensive line made sure alleys were open in the middle for the Hawks rushers as they totaled 212 yards on the ground.
“We really were sluggish in the first half,” Jones said. “But you have to give Brevard credit, they played really hard. I know where they are but they will be good because they are going about it the right way.”
Tornados coach Bobby Poss, whose team is now 0-2, said that, as a first-year program, they are more focused on their problems and can’t dwell on their opponents much.
“It’s really a challenge to get off the ground and get ourselves up in the air,” the Division II coach said. “I believe we’re better than we played today. But their interior people beat us pretty good.”
Shorter placekicker Lukas Gonzales became a key factor in his squad’s victory as he gave Brevard little chance to make an impact on special teams.
The former Model standout had all seven of his kickoffs go inside the five-yard line, most going into the end zone for touchbacks.
He averaged 45.4 yards on five punts, three wound up inside the 20, and got one off at the end of the first quarter after recovering an overhead snap and having to run around some defenders.
“Lukas has an outstanding leg,” Jones said. “He has matured a lot from last year and to turn that bad snap into such a tremendous play takes a great athlete. We’re proud of where he’s at.”
The Hawks had a 26-0 shutout going until Shorter tailback Matt Miller fumbled the ball with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter.
Brevard’s Michael Evans then scooped it up and ran it 40 yards in for the touchdown.
But the Hawks answered with six points on the second play of their next drive when Stephen Wright found the hole in the middle and took the ball 40 yards.
Gonzalez made his fourth and final extra point of the game to set the score at 39-7.
Fabian Daniels took up his spot as the Hawks’ leading rusher, going 112 yards on eight carries. He opened up the scoring with a one-play, 64-yard run into the end zone in the first quarter.
A.J. Cooley was next with 61 yards on eight carries while punching in a two-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Shorter quarterback Alex Jackson ran 14 yards into the end zone in the third and found receiver Jacob Kelley for a 52-yard touchdown pass in the fourth.
Shorter (1-0) will be on the road for the next four weeks, beginning in Lake Webb, Fla. next Saturday where they’ll face Webber International at 1:30 p.m.
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