CHARLOTTE – Dealing with multiple lightning delays throughout the evening, the Charlotte 49ers eventually found their groove and came away with a 34-10 win over Fordham Saturday night at Jerry Richardson Stadium.
Charlotte started out a little sluggish on offense, settling for two Jonathan Cruz field goals after being forced to punt on the first few drives. Fordham responded with a 70-yard touchdown pass, but that was the only highlight for the Fordham offense on the evening as the 49ers defense held the Rams to -9 yards rushing and only three more points.
Redshirt freshman Chris Reynolds (Davie) led the offense to 488 total yards, including 267 in the air and a touchdown pass to fellow first-year player Victor Tucker. Tucker finished with 127 yards on seven receptions to go along with his first career score, the second highest amount of receiving yards by a freshman in Charlotte program history.
Benny LeMay's 135 rushing yards helped him become the third player in program history to pass the 1000-yard mark after Matt Johnson and Kalif Phillips. LeMay's two scores were the first time the former Butler star had scored multiple touchdowns in his college career. LeMay also added 83 receiving yards to round out the offense.
Defensively, the 49ers kept Fordham quarterback on the run, totaling four sacks throughout the evening. Former Laney standout Alex Highsmith led the defense with five tackles. Juwan Foggie sealed the deal with a 26-yard pick-six late in the fourth quarter.
On a night when it seemed like nothing else could possibly happen to interrupt the game, the teams even agreed to keep playing in the fourth quarter after the lights went out on the visitor side.
With the win, the 49ers are 1-0 on the season and will face Appalachian State (0-1) at home next Saturday while Fordham will travel to face Richmond.
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