Game Stats
Lexington, Va. - Furman tailback Lamar Rembert rushed for 133 yards on 11 carries and one touchdown and Toreico O'Neal added 96 yards and a touchdown to lead Furman over VMI, 55-28, Saturday at Alumni Memorial Field in Lexington, Va.
Furman (3-1, 1-0) rolled up 640 yards total offense on the afternoon - the second highest in school history. The Paladins acquired 397 yards on the ground.
Furman, playing its second straight game in the Commonwealth of Virginia, scored on its first four possessions and jumped to a 28-0 lead after one quarter of play.
The Paladins scored on the second play from scrimmage when O'Neal took a handoff and burst 58 yards up the middle for the game's first touchdown just 38 seconds into the game.
Furman assembled a balanced 10-play, 65-yard drive on its next possession, capped by a Billy Napier one-yard quarterback sneak. Napier completed two of two passes for 16 yards on the drive, while Rembert rushed four times for 21 yards. An end around to Brian Bratton for 19 yards to the VMI 1 set up Napier's score one play later.
Furman cornerback Rodney Johnson picked off a Joey Gibson pass on VMI's next possession and returned it 18 yards to the VMI 46-yard line. One play later, Napier hit wideout Bear Rinehart in full stride to advance to the VMI 7-yard line. The Keydet defense stiffened and forced a fourth-and-goal from the two, but Furman went for the touchdown and converted a TD pass to tight end Willis Sudderth to make it 21-0 with 4:23 left in the opening quarter.
Napier connected with Bratton for a 76-yard catch and run to cap a 90-yard, four play possession that stretched the Paladin advantage to four touchdowns with :52 remaining in the first quarter.
The Keydets (2-3, 0-1) mounted a comeback when freshman tailback Sean Mizzer broke free for a 51-yard touchdown run with 12:42 left in the second quarter. Six of the seven plays on the drive were running plays.
VMI halved the deficit to 28-14 at the 5:13 mark when cornerback Musa Sarki picked off his fourth interception of the year and returned it 48 yards for a touchdown.
The Paladins answered by moving 64 yards in four plays, converting a third and 15 pass play from Bo Moore to O'Neal to set up a Lamar Rembert 52-yard end run to the endzone one play later. Furman tacked on a 46-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to take a 38-14 intermission lead.
Furman continued the charge in the second half when a 63-yard run by tailback Hindley Brigham set up a 42-yard field goal by Danny Marshall to make it 41-14 with 11:47 left in the third quarter.
VMI took advantage of good field position to put together a six-play, 48-yard scoring drive capped by Kevin Solomon's one-yard run around the right side to pull VMI within 41-21 with 4:30 left in the third quarter. The Keydets again trailed by 20, 48-28, when freshman outside linebacker Justin Huggard blocked a punt which led to a Gibson to Pedro Garcia seven-yard score with 7:34 remaining in the fourth quarter. But the Keydets could come no closer as Paladin back Al Means scored on a 38-yard sweep in the game's final minute.
Napier completed nine of 11 passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns despite sitting out the entire second half after taking stiches to a cut finger sustained on the Sarki interception play.
Gibson completed 22 of 38 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off three times for the second straight week.
The Keydet defense was without junior standout outside linebacker Derik Screen, who sat out the game with a neck stinger. Sophomore tackle Vicheal Foxx had nine tackles including two-for-loss for -9 yards.
Strong safety Paul Billingsly led the Furman defense with 12 tackles while David Latimer, Cam Newton, and Johnson all logged interceptions.
Furman is now 30-2 against teams from Virginia since 1980.
The Keydets travel to Statesboro, Ga., next Saturday to face Georgia Southern at 1:00 p.m. Furman will host Western Carolina in Greenville next Saturday at 2:00 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTES
FURMAN HEAD COACH BOBBY LAMB
"We (Furman) accomplished our goal. We got a win. All week long, we concentrated on playing well in the first quarter,and we did. The last several times that we had been up here (VMI), we had not played well early."
"It was a great effort. We got a lot of kids in the game."
VMI HEAD COACH CAL MCCOMBS
"When you look at the end result of the game, Furman's football program is so much further ahead of ours."
"Their speed was a factor and that allowed them to get some easy touchdowns."
"From an offensive standpoint, they are a machine. They were hitting on all cylinders today."
"We just couldn't get the big plays against their defense."
POSTGAME NOTES
FURMAN
- The 640 total offensive yards put up by the Paladins was the second largest total in school history. Furman put up 676 total yards against The Citadel in 1987.
- Placekicker Danny Marshall's 46-yard field goal in the second quarter was his career long.
VMI
- The 28 points scored by the Keydets were the most by a VMI team vs. Furman since Oct. 5, 1991 (46-28 loss in Lexington).
- Quarterback Joey Gibson eclipsed the 1,000-yard passing mark for the third consecutive season.
- Musa Sarki's 48-yard interception return for a score was the first by a Keydet defender since Richard Holland returned a Citadel pass 62-yards for a touchdown on November 11, 2000.
