Updated as of 10:56 a.m. on Sept. 17 to include video.
The Elon University football team lost its home opener 24-17 to Western Carolina University in a game defined by turnovers and mistakes.
As the players ran onto the field, smoke trailing them, the excitement for the home opener Sept. 14 was palpable. A generous crowd had shown up to Rhodes Stadium. This crowd was rewarded early with some entertaining play. Elon started their first drive with a spark of trickery, employing an end-around rush by wide receiver senior Chandler Brayboy that resulted in 16 yards. Two plays later, Brayboy sped past Western Carolina’s defensive backs for a 58-yard touchdown catch. In that play alone, Brayboy outpaced his previous total season receiving yards output of 30 yards. Brayboy ended the game with 79 receiving yards and 51 rushing yards.
However, the electric offense Elon illustrated in the opening minutes stalled for the rest of the half, plagued by key players making red zone mistakes. At the tail end of the first quarter, the Phoenix were driving with a slow, methodical drive that was aided by two senior Onuma Dieke catches for 31 receiving yards — going into this game, Dieke led the team with 116 rec yards and had his first career 100-yard game last week. The drive was stopped prematurely, however, by a rare interception by senior Matthew Downing.
Elon had another fatal mistake later in the half. After an incredible 21-yard rush by Downing that included jukes and spin moves, Brayboy fumbled it deep into the redzone.
Senior Chandler Brayboy rushes for a big gain against Western Carolina on Sept. 14 at Rhodes Stadium. Brayboy had 51 rushing yards.
The Catamounts didn’t find much more success, starting the game off with three straight punts. Western Carolina struggled through the air, but their running game was successful off the heels of running back Branson Adams — who ran for 77 yards in the first half. Early in the second quarter, Western Carolina got on the board with a field goal, but after a wide right field goal miss at the end of the first half, the Catamounts went into the half without a touchdown.
Freshman running back TJ Thomas Jr. began the second half with a fire in his step, running for a 60-yard touchdown two plays into the half, sparkling memories of his 74-yard touchdown last week against North Carolina Central.
Controversy around the North Carolina Central game arose when an Elon football player was accused of yelling racial slurs at an NC Central student.
Elon Athletics investigated the incident and Associate Athletics Director of Strategic Communications Jason Knavel told Elon News Network they were not able to corroborate the allegation.
“The Elon University community values the diverse backgrounds, cultures, experiences and perspectives of all individuals. Elon treats allegations of bias or discrimination with the utmost seriousness and has protocols and practices in place to obtain an understanding of the circumstances,” Knavel wrote in an email. “In this matter, university officials were not able to corroborate the allegations of the use of racially offensive language. Policies and practices regarding fan engagement and appropriate behavior on and off the field have been reaffirmed with Athletics teams.”
Thomas Jr. has had a spectacular start to his inaugural season, rushing for 163 yards last week and being named the National Freshman of the Week and CAA Rookie of the Week. He leads all true freshmen in the nation for rushing yards per game and yards per carry. Thomas ended the game with 101 rushing yards.
However, the Phoenix weren’t free of turnovers just yet. The mistakes continued to plague the Phoenix as a bad snap flew over Elon’s punter redshirt junior Jeff Yurk early in the second half. The ball was recovered by Western Carolina deep in the red zone. A few plays later, Western Carolina punched it in with a Branson Adams touchdown to make it a four-point game.
Going into the fourth quarter, Elon needed to find consistency from an offense that had benefited off a couple of explosive plays, but had failed to create sustained drives.
Head coach Tony Trisciani said in the postgame press conference that staying on schedule in the early downs is the way to fix this.
“That's the easiest way to sustain drives,” Trisciani said. “They were a very exotic defense. They're a defense where it's explosive, either their way or our way.”
Halfway through the fourth quarter, Western Carolina was on a methodical 14-play drive. A touchdown would take the lead. On 4th down on Elon’s three-yard line, Western Carolina elected to go for it. Quarterback Cole Gonzales kept the ball and ran straight, leaping over the pile of defenders, but fell just short of the endzone. It was a huge goal line stand for Elon’s defense which had been battered and bruised by the lengthy drive.
After a short drive by Elon that resulted in a punt, Western Carolina got the ball back and got back into Elon’s territory thanks to a 22-yard catch by wide receiver AJ Colombo.
On fourth and six at the goal line, Gonzales tried the quarterback keeper again, and this time got the touchdown. With less than four minutes remaining, Western Carolina took the lead 17-14.
The Elon football team gathers together before their home opener against Western Carolina on Sept. 14.
As a potential game winning drive began, Downing led Elon into Western Carolina’s territory off 15-yard and 25-yard throws to senior Rushawn Baker and Dieke, respectively. With 90 seconds left, Elon set up for a game-tying, 44-yard field goal. However, as sophomore Jack Berkowitz’s foot made contact with the ball, it was blocked by Western Carolina. The Catamounts made a tremendous play and returned it all the way back for a touchdown, extending the lead to 10.
Trisciani said they bounce back from the abundance of turnovers by watching film and moving onto the next game.
“We’ll come back tomorrow, we'll look at the film, we'll coach up our guys,” Trisciani said. “It's a 24-hour rule, and tomorrow we’ll wrap up the film from this game.”
The Phoenix drove down and got a field goal with 15 seconds remaining, but it wouldn’t prove to be enough, as they didn’t recover the onside kick — dropping to a 1-2 record.
Trisciani said that this game alone does not define the team.
“They're a good football team, we're a good football team too,” Trisciani said. “We are capable of playing better. This is week three of the football season. There's a lot of football left. This football game will not define our program. We will grow from it.”
Trisciani said that the team has to play cleaner and do a better job of capitalizing in the red zone.
“Those points from the first half in the red zone that we didn't get would have been big in the fourth quarter of this football game,” Trisciani said.
Elon continues a four game home stretch, playing East Tennessee University next week.
Trisciani said the fans need to come back out for the game against ETSU.
“We need our students, we need our community back out with us,” Trisciani said. “We're going to be a better football team next Saturday night.”