BOILING SPRINGS –
Bailey Fisher passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more, leading Gardner-Webb to a big early lead and a 56-0 win over Lincoln (Pa.) Saturday night in the team's home opener.
A large "Red Out" crowd watched as Gardner-Webb (1-2) plowed its way to an 18-0 lead after 15 minutes before beginning heavy substitutions as early as the second quarter. The Runnin' Bulldogs sandwiched a pair of short Fisher running scores around a 73-yarder from
Jalin Graham – and capped the first half with a four-yard run from
Donovan Jones to lead 46-0 at halftime.
Every available player in uniform played in the game.
Graham led a 339-yard effort on the ground, sprinting three times for a career-high 87 yards and his first career score. Fisher completed 10-of-15 passes for 104 yards and two touchdowns – an 11-yarder to
Narii Gaither and a 13-yarder to
T.J. Luther in the first quarter.
Four different GWU quarterbacks completed a pass in the game and 13 different receivers caught at least one ball. Freshman speedster
Maleek Huggins caught four passes for 51 yards and returned two punts for 38 yards.
Gardner-Webb finished the night with 551 yards of total offense, managed 28 first downs and averaged a healthy 7.5 yards per play despite deep substitutions in the second half.
Freshman
Dominik Sojat kicked off 10 times in the game.
The Gardner-Webb defense limited Lincoln to negative-4 rushing yards in the first half and finished by allowing just seven first downs and 75 yards of total offense on 50 snaps (42 rushing). The defense did not allow a third or fourth down conversion in the game.
Gardner-Webb scored seven times in its eight red zone trips, with its lone miss coming as time expired with the ball on the one yard line at the end of the game.
Kendall Massey came off the bench to make a team-best six tackles and a tackle for loss. Matt Robinson also had six tackles and a fumble recovery.
Ty French played sparingly, but was active early with five stops, a half sack and a tackle for loss.
Kendall Clark had two big tackles for loss on botched punts, both which set Gardner-Webb up with scoring drives of less than 10 yards.
Brice Bass had three tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks on the night.
Gardner-Webb will face a much tougher challenge next week, as Western Carolina brings a high-powered offense to Spangler Stadium on Saturday, September 25. The Family Weekend game will kick off at 6:00 pm.
