Box Score Turnovers, penalties and plenty of big offensive plays for visiting Mercer was more than enough to overwhelm the Stetson Hatters on Saturday night in a 49-0 loss at Spec Martin Stadium.
Mercer (2-1) turned Stetson (1-2) turnovers into almost instant points three times in the game while also piling up more than 500 yards of total offense.
The Hatters managed just 244 yards of offense in the game, but also was hurt by penalties that negated first downs and more than a few dropped passes.
“Turnovers, penalties, bad routes - everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Hatters coach Roger Hughes said. “You know, the disappointing thing is we're not doing what we're coached to do right now.
“I'm not going to take anything away from Mercer. They came in here and executed from play one. You can't turn the ball over on the first play of the game and let a team who has experience winning jump up on you.”
Mercer started the scoring on the third play of the game after Stetson's Darius McGriff fumbled away the opening kickoff. Bears freshman running back Alex Lakes found the end zone for the first of his three scores from 12 yards out just 48 seconds into the game.
The Newnan, Ga., native finished the game with 151 yards rushing on 15 carries. His other touchdowns came on runs of nine and one yard. As a team, the Bears rushed for 275 yards on the night.
“Well, that's what they do,” Hughes said. “Again, schematically, we felt pretty good about our play and, for whatever reason, we're getting into the game and our guys aren't executing. Option football requires you to play responsibilities and right now we're not playing responsibilities at the same time and good teams like that expose those weaknesses.”
Mercer pushed its lead to 21-0 by the end of the first quarter by using two long scoring drives. The first covered 79 yards on just five plays, with Tee Mitchell covering the final 21 yards on the ground.
The second drive covered 83 yards, with Lakes punching in for his second score of the night on the 13th play.
Lakes scored his third touchdown on a one-yard run to cap a six-play scoring drive that covered 68 yards midway through the second quarter.
The Hatters had the first of their two legitimate scoring chances late in the half. Stetson used 17 plays to move 83 yards, but quarterback Ryan Tentler was sacked on fourth and goal at the one to end the threat with just 1:20 left in the half.
That was more than enough time for Mercer. The Bears had done most of their damage on the ground, but QB John Russ went to the air and connected on passes for 19, 15, 19 and 37 yards to eat up 95 yards in just seven plays. The scoring strike, covering 37 yards, went to JT Palmer, with 18 seconds left in the half.
The final two scores of the night for Mercer came immediately after Tentler interceptions. Payton Usher ran in from 40-yards out for the first score and JaTarii ran in from 39 yards after the second.
The Hatters had their only other scoring chance on the final play of the game after Mercer fumbled trying to take a knee to run out the clock. The botched play cost the Bears 28 yards and gave Stetson a chance, with two seconds left at the Mercer 17.
Unfortunately for the Hatters, James LaGamma's 34-yard field goal attempt as time expired went wide left.
While the Stetson offense struggled in the second half, the defense was able to keep the Bears from mounting long drive. Donald Payne led the way for Stetson with 14 total tackles, including 1.5 sacks, a fumble recovery, a pass breakup and three quarterback hurries.
The Hatters will venture back onto the road next weekend for a 1 p.m. game at Birmingham-Southern. On Monday, some of the younger players will get a chance to show they are ready to help in a junior varsity game at Webber International. That game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
“The nice thing about having JV games is maybe they weren't quite ready three weeks ago, but maybe they're ready now and it gives them a chance at some game experience,” Hughes said. “So, we'll be looking at that contest pretty quickly and you know, we're going to move some people around based on productivity and who can give us the most consistent play.”
