Concord Loses to Nationally-Ranked Shepherd

ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University football team had its best offensive output of the season, but fell to Shepherd 49-20 Saturday afternoon in Mountain East Conference play at Callaghan Stadium.

SU (4-0, 4-0 MEC) scored 21 unanswered points on two different occasions on its way to the 29-point victory.  

Concord (1-4, 1-4 MEC) scored the first points of the game as the Mountain Lions drove the field before settling for 26-yard field goal from senior kicker Zack Keaton. However, the Rams got two short touchdown runs from inside the five as well as a 15-yard reception from Ryan Feiss to jump in front 21-3 with 10:46 left in the first half.

The next 10 points belonged to the Mountain Lions as freshman quarterback Adam Fulton connected on a pass-and-catch to sophomore wide receiver Camari Murray for CU's first touchdown of the afternoon. The 53-yard reception was Concord's longest offensive play of the season.

Keaton added a 34-yard field goal late in the second quarter to trim the deficit to 21-13. But, Shepherd scored a critical touchdown with just six seconds left in the first half to grab a 28-13 edge at the intermission.

The Rams scored three third-quarter touchdowns to lift them to a 49-13 lead to begin the final 15 minutes of play.

Freshman wide receiver Tywan Pearce hauled in a 16-yard touchdown score for the game's final points as he juked and jived between defenders on a slant pattern.

Fulton hit eight different receivers on his 18 completions. The Knoxville, Tennessee native threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Sophomore wide receiver Brandon Plyler hauled in a team-best five receptions for a career-high 62 yards. Murray caught two passes for 74 yards.

Defensively, the Mountain Lions had a season-best eight pass break-ups. Sophomore defensive back Myles Poindextor led the way with two knockdowns in the secondary.

Junior linebacker Zach Malone recorded a game-high eight tackles while sophomore defensive lineman Keionte Gainey had one of the game's four sacks.

Senior punter Garrett Lee averaged 51.4 yards on five punts including getting over two different punts of 61 yards.

Concord heads to Glenville State for a 12:00 p.m. kickoff next Saturday.