PEMBROKE — Last season, fans got used to seeing an explosive offense take the field for UNC Pembroke.
Saturday, the Braves largely lacked that same spark as they opened the 2024 season.
UNCP was held to two touchdowns by a staunch Wingate defense, spoiling a good night for the Braves defense as the Bulldogs headed took a 17-12 win back west on Highway 74.
As for the origin of the Braves’ offensive struggles, second-year head coach Mark Hall gave a direct answer.
“We could not run the football,” Hall said. “Our offense is predicated on running the ball, and Sincere Baines is one of our best players and he had -10 yards. And that’s not on him, that’s on me as the play caller, so I’ve got to do a better job of getting us going in the run game so we can set up everything we want to do.”
UNCP (0-1) was held to 104 rushing yards; just 34 of those came from the Braves’ running backs stable, with quarterback Colin Johnson running for 70 yards.
Wingate (1-0) moved the ball against the Braves defense, totaling 338 yards of offense, but was held to 17 points, an impressive mark for UNCP against an experienced Bulldogs offense.
“We battled, we gave up 17 points, and in our program, usually if we give up 17, we win the game,” Hall said. “So I think there’s obviously some things that we need to clean up there too, but I thought those guys battled, they did everything that we needed them to do to give us a chance to win the game, and we just came up short.”
Wingate entered the fourth quarter leading 14-12, and extended that lead to 17-12 with a Caleb Bonesteel 29-yard field goal with 13:00 remaining. UNCP drove as far as the Wingate 6-yard line on its next drive before a turnover on downs; the Braves forced a Wingate punt and got one more possession, starting at its own 23-yard line with 54 seconds left.
Two chunk plays and a penalty got UNCP in position to have a chance at the end zone, but Johnson was intercepted by Wingate’s Jaquan Edwards with five seconds remaining, sealing the outcome.
“Obviously we didn’t come here expecting to lose,” Hall said. “We knew Wingate was a good team and had a really good defense. They did a good job of taking advantage of opportunities, and we did not, so we just came up a little bit short.”
The game began with UNCP’s defense forcing two turnovers in Wingate’s first four offensive plays, the first of which led to six points. Darius Edmundson intercepted Wingate’s Brooks Bentley on the third play from scrimmage, and after Edmundson returned the pick to the Wingate 16-yard line, Johnson found Jayden Smith two plays later for an 8-yard touchdown pass. The extra-point was blocked, but UNCP had a 6-0 lead just over two minutes into the game, and the Braves’ Evan Powell recovered a fumble on the Bulldogs’ next offensive play for the second turnover of the span.
“It was pretty cool,” said Braves defensive end Malik McKinzie, who had eight tackles to match a game high with teammate Mike Matthews. “Of course, it’s amazing to start the game off with something like that, but coach tells us, play by play, so after that play happen, we’ve got to come back, and of course we got another turnover, but right after that we’ve got to snap back into it like it’s a regular game. Of course, you want a turnover every play, but that’s not realistic, so every play you’ve got to reset your mindset and come attack the next play.”
After a UNCP turnover on downs, Wingate drove 70 yards on 12 plays to score on a 13-yard Corey Siemer run and took a 7-6 lead with 3:54 left in the opening quarter.
Neither team scored in the second quarter; both sides missed a field-goal try in the period, including Wingate’s miss as the half expired.
Wingate’s Joseph Reddish picked off Johnson on the first drive of the second half, and Wingate drove 55 yards from there; Bentley temporarily left the game with injury, but replacement quarterback Noah Bell threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Evan McRay for a 14-6 lead with 7:39 on the third-quarter clock.
UNCP’s next scoring drive was sparked by a 43-yard completion from Johnson to Josh Jenkins and a 31-yard Jaquan Albright run; Johnson would ultimately score on an 11-yard run, and a two-point try which would have tied the score was inches short, leaving the Braves in a 14-12 deficit with 4:19 to go in the third.
Albright’s run was part of a breakout performance for the junior-college transfer from Hutchinson Community College; he made five catches for 66 yards and netted 32 yards on three carries.
“It felt amazing, honestly, just to be in the atmosphere, just to be in the crowd, the band,” Albright said. “Everybody out there, my mom, my granny, so it felt like every single part of the atmosphere was amazing, just being here at UNC Pembroke is just phenomenal. Everything about this is just amazing. The only thing that would have put it over the top is a dub in my first game back, but that’s OK, that’s a part of the game, nothing’s perfect about it.”
“Jaquan’s a good player, we’ve had him in our program before and he can do a lot of different things,” Hall said, referring to time Albright spent under Hall previously at Chowan. “That’s why you see him moving around, he played receiver, we put him in at QB, he did some good things for us, and this is his first game in a while so I do think he’ll continue to get better for us.”
Johnson finished 15-for-26 passing for 206 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions for the Braves.
Bentley was 21-for-29 for 208 yards with an interception for the Bulldogs, with Carlos Estronza catching five of those passes for 56 yards. Siemer was the team’s leading rusher with 57 yards on nine carries.
Wingate won its fifth straight game in the series, though Saturday’s matchup was the first between the programs since 2019.
UNCP will now turn its attention to next week’s Two Rivers Classic game at Fayetteville State, where the Braves will try to return to the win column after Saturday’s season-opening defeat.
“I still think we’ve got a really good football team,” Hall said. “We talked about it coming in, one game doesn’t define our season. Obviously we were expecting to win, we came up short, but we’re going to come back to work on Monday and we’re going to pursue our first win of the season, and one game doesn’t define us and hopefully this is a motivating factor for us to just continue to work and continue to get better. I’m going to say this now, and hopefully in a couple weeks you’ll look back and say that I was right, but I think this team’s made up of the right stuff and I think once we get it rolling we’re going to be a hard team to beat.”
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