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Florida Memorial University Athletics

Scoreboard

FMU player
Charles Bethel Jr.
56
Winner The Cumberlands CUMB 2-0
12
Florida Memorial FMU 0-3 , 0-1
Winner
The Cumberlands CUMB
2-0
56
Final
12
Florida Memorial FMU
0-3 , 0-1
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
CUMB The Cumberlands 28 14 7 7 56
FMU Florida Memorial 6 0 6 0 12

Game Recap: Football | | J.T. Wilcox, Sports Information Director

FMU Drops Home Opener To The Cumberlands Saturday

MIAMI – While Saturday marked a dream realized for so many within the Florida Memorial University athletic program – hosting its first home football game in over 63 years – it didn't have the sweet ending that the Lions were hoping for.
 
FMU fell into a four-possession hole in the first quarter and spent the rest of the day playing an overwhelming game of catch-up before ultimately falling 56-12 to University of The Cumberlands (Ky.) Saturday in front of nearly 500 fans at Nathaniel "Traz" Powell Stadium.
 
The crowd, which set the new modern-era benchmark for largest home game attendance, braved the South Florida sun to support FMU and be a part of the historic day.
 
Florida Memorial (0-3, 0-1 Mid-South Conference Sun Division) saw Cumberlands score on four straight drives to open the game – giving the Patriots a 28-0 lead not even midway through the first quarter – before it went on a 14-play, 75-yard drive that Antoine Williams capped with a 6-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Barthell.
 
The Lions, who will go on the road next weekend to face Faulkner University on September 18th, went into halftime down 42-6, cut into the deficit early in the third quarter, then saw The Cumberlands tack on two more scores – one in the third and the other at the start of the fourth – to create the final 56-12 margin.
 
Williams had a bit of an up-and-down day Saturday, sitting in the pocket to find open receivers in certain stretches and being forced to break out of the pocket and ultimately throw away the ball while trying to evade Cumberlands defenders.
 
The Delray Beach, Florida native finished the game 16 of 32 for 201 yards with two touchdown passes and an interception.
 
Williams' other scoring strike put him on FMU's modern-era football history book again – topping his previous record of a 42-yard touchdown pass (set in week two against St. Thomas University) with a third-quarter 44-yard TD pass to Markell Lee. Lee, who led the Lions in receiving for the third straight week, finished with 2 catches for 58 yards and the score.
 
Florida Memorial also saw freshman running back Amir Brown set a new modern-era program mark for rushing yards in a single game, as he finished with a team-high 85 yards on 13 carries. Lions head coach Tim "Ice" Harris was impressed with what he saw from his young ball carrier, who was inserted into the running back rotation after typical starter George Young missed the game due to injury.
 
FMU's defense had a tough day against an efficient Patriots (2-0) offense that featured an offensive line that averaged 6-foot-3, 305 pounds across and amassed 367 rushing yards on the way to totaling 544 total yards of offense.
 
Defensive back Terry Smith and defensive linemen Michael Powell and Deandre Lawson all shared the team-high for total tackles with six while Powell and Philman Roundtree recorded the first sacks of the season for Florida Memorial.
 
While Saturday's score was the most uneven FMU has faced up to this point in the season, Coach Harris said he knows his team is better than what the final score board showed and believes that better days and outcomes are ahead if the team continues to "trust the process".
 
"We have to stay together…we have to stay together and continue to trust each other as coaches and players," Harris said. "We have to continue to mature as a team and a program – because we're in a very tough league with teams that will punish you when you're not where you're supposed to be on the field. That's what happened today…we had too many times where we had guys that weren't where they were supposed to be and [Cumberlands] made us pay."
 
"The main thing for us right now is to stay together as a team and make sure that we continue to get better at doing the little things. We have to pay closer attention to detail and find the things that we do well and do those things," Harris continued.
 
"We have back-to-back road trips coming up and I think that it can be a great bonding experience for us and give us the chance to face some hostile road environments that brings us closer and sharpens us."
 
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