Williamsburg, KY – Despite an interception and a pair of forced fumbles from the Patriots defense, Cumberlands dropped their conference opener to the sixth ranked Bethel Wildcats 30-10 on Saturday night. #19 UC moves to 4-1 on the year.
The Patriots held the top-scoring offense in the country to a season-low 30 points.
Malik Thornton came away with an interception, his third of the season, while both
Nate Hancock and
Zyan Hollis forced fumbles.
Darius James gave his best effort on the offensive side of the ball, rushing 17 times for 92 yards and catching four passes for 49 yards.
Elijah Howard had another solid performance at wideout, leading the teams with 82 receiving yards and the lone touchdown of the game for Cumberlands.
Jay Roberts threw for a season high 172 yards and a TD on 13-31 passing.
The Wildcats received the opening kickoff and ended their first drive with a field goal as the Patriots came away with a big third down stop on their own six yardline. Both teams traded possession before UC's defense was in another big third-down spot. This time Hollis ripped through the line and forced a fumble, which BU's QB jumped on. Bethel would make a 42-yard field goal the following snap to increase their lead to 6 at the end of the first quarter.
UC was forced to punt in the first two drives of the second quarter. BU would take advantage and move down the field, finding the endzone on a one yard rush up the middle to go up 13-0 with 5:34 left. The patriots defense forced a three-and-out the following possession to get the ball back one more time before the half. Roberts found James on a 30-yard pass, then targeted
Jahmal Hutsell for 13 more yards to get into field goal range.
Job Matossian knocked down the 28-yard FG as time expired to make the score 13-10 after two quarters of play.
The second half opened with four straight rushes from James before
Devin Jones came in and took a pair of handoffs himself to give the Pats their second first-down of the drive. A couple plays later the Wildcats defense made a good play to pick off Roberts and take the ball. They wouldn't have it for long though as
Malik Thornton responded with an interception of his own to get his offense back on the field. UC couldn't take advantage of the turnover and didn't find much success the remainder of the quarter. BU would kick another FG and score a touchdown to bring the score to 23-3 heading into the fourth.
Bethel started the final quarter with another score to increase their lead to 27. The Patriots didn't back down, scoring on their next possession. Roberts completed a pair of passes to Howard and
Romeo McKnight, setting up a 69-yard touchdown reception back to Howard to make it 30-10 with ten minutes remaining. This would be the final action of the night, as the final buzzer sounded with UC falling 30-10.
Cumberlands will hit the road next weekend to try and get back to even in MSC play as they take on Cumberland University. This game will be played in Lebanon, TN at 1:30 PM CT / 2:30 PM ET. Live video will be available
here.
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