Panthers Dispatch Hornets 41-28 Await CNU for the Title

For a game that seemed to take forever to get started, it seemed like it took equally as long to end. The game with the Shenandoah Hornets was postponed due to an unusual October snowstorm that hit the Shenandoah Valley and much of the Northeast U.S. The Saturday night contest was rescheduled for Sunday at 1p.m., and then rescheduled again for Sunday at 3p.m.
After all of the delays, the Ferrum offense came out of the locker room ready to play. They wasted little time getting on the board as at the 10:22 mark of the first half, Steven Harris took a hand off 35 yards for a touchdown, and with the Puschell extra point, Ferrum lead 7-0.
At the 3:42 mark of the first quarter, Harris again found the end zone, this time from one yard out, and with the extra point Ferrum took a 14-0 lead into the second quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Shenandoah got on the board as quarterback Daniel Wright scored on a short run to make the score 14-7 Ferrum.
At 7:17 left in the first half, quarterback Marcus Mayo faked out everyone in Shentel Stadium, and kept the ball on an option play. 70 yards later he was in the end zone, and Ferrum lead 21-7.
With 4:50 left in the half, Mayo again took the ball to the house, and Ferrum lead at the half 28-7.
The second half started out good for the Panthers as they picked up right where they left off. Mayo this time took to the air, and found Dontavious Gilbert on a pass that he took 70 yards down the sideline. Ferrum lead 35-7.
Mayo would account for the final Ferrum points as he scored from 6 yards out. 2 penalties on the extra point left Puschell with about a 40 yard extra point. The kick was short, and Ferrum lead 41-7.
Shenandoah did not show any quit, and with the help of several Ferrum errors scored 21 points to make the final score 41-28. For me, it was a little too close, and took too long for the game to end. All in all however, Ferrum played a solid game.
The defense was strong all day, and kept the big play threat of Daniel Wright and Rico Wallace under 100 passing yards. Wright ended the day with 232 passing yards, but of those Wallace only had 68.
Ferrum will need to enjoy this bus ride back, because it gets down to the nitty gritty this week. Saturday, CNU comes to town and the winner will win the USA South conference and a birth in the NCAA playoffs. Somewhere Ferrum has not been since 2005.
There will be more on this game as the week progresses.

Go Panthers!