PIKEVILLE – The high-powered Cumberlands offense, particularly Milton Shelton, proved to be too much for Pikeville and put a damper on a cold senior night Saturday when the Patriots took the win 49-13.
Shelton proved his All-American candidacy on with a monster 215-yard day on 20 carries. Cumberlands’ run game as a whole tallied 332 yards against a Bears defense that struggled to find answers. The Bears surrendered 497 total yards of offense to the Patriots.
Even UPIKE’s usually dynamic offense was held relatively in check with just 293 yards of total offense.
Despite back-to-back false start penalties to start the game, Cumberlands marched down the field in five plays capped by a 39-yard run by Nyre Holden to give the Patriots an early lead.
Following an interception from Bowen Smith, the Patriots executed a screen double pass to perfection as tight end Austin Ysidro found Isaiah Mighell in stride for a 67-yard touchdown pass. Ysidro pulled off the rare trifecta by passing, running, and catching a touchdown in the same game.
The Patriots eventually went into halftime with a 21-0 lead.
One of the few bright spots for the Bears was yet another strong game from Xondre Willis. On the opening possession of the second half, he got four carries for 80 yards, the last of which was a 10-yard touchdown. On that drive alone, Willis earned his second straight 1,000-yard season and moved into second place on the all-time UPIKE career rushing list behind Leonard Moore.
UC scored three more times before Smith found Alexander Shelton for UPIKE’s second score of the game.
A vast majority of what defense UPIKE did receive came from Johran Broadnax and Sean Cook II. Broadnax had a team-high nine tackles with three tackles for loss, while Cook had eight tackles and two pass breakups.
UPIKE ends the season at 6-5 overall and 4-2 in MSC Appalachian play, finishing third in the division behind Reinhardt and Cumberlands.
At Pikeville
SCORE BY QUARTERS:
UC (10-1)……………14 7 14 14 – 49
UP (6-5)………………0 0 7 6 – 13
Scoring:
First Quarter
UC – Nyre Holden, 39-yard run (Devon McMillin kick), 12:23
UC – Isaiah Mighell, 67-yard pass from Austin Ysidro (Devon McMillin kick), 6:07
Second Quarter
UC – Nyre Holden, 26-yard run (Devin McMillin kick), 2:01
Third Quarter
UP – Xondre Willis, 10-yard run (William Chandler kick), 11:03
UC – Milton Shelton, 3-yard run (Devon McMillin kick), 8:35
UC – Austin Ysidro, 10-yard pass from Milton Shelton (Devon McMillin kick), 3:19
Fourth Quarter
UC – Austin Ysidro, 3-yard run (Devon McMillin kick), 11:18
UP – Alexander Shelton, 1-yard pass from Bowen Smith (run failed), 6:20
UC – T.J. Williams, 40-yard pass from Eric Forrest (Devon McMillin kick), :38
Next up: UPIKE’s season sends.
(Source: UPIKE Sports Information Office)