DAVENPORT — The William Penn football team moved to 10-1 after smothering St. Ambrose 42-7 in Heart of America North Division play Saturday. The win ties for the most wins in a season for the program, matching the 10-1 marks set in 1972, 1975, and 2010.
The Statesmen (10-1, 5-1) dominated in nearly every aspect of the game, piling up 482 yards of offense, while holding the Fighting Bees (4-7, 3-3) to 211.
William Penn opened the game with a statement drive as Sterling Ramsey (Sr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Business Management) completed four passes for 67 yards before handing off to Destynd Loring (Sr., Charleston, S.C., Sports Management) for a 6-yard score.
Loring finished the contest with 28 carries for 86 yards and the touchdown. His performance pushed him to 1,574 rushing yards for the season, this broke the single-season school record previously held by James Jackson, who ran for 1,500 yards in 2005.
St. Ambrose threatened early, driving to the William Penn 36 yard-line before Sherman Johnson (So., Tampa, Fla., Sports Management) caught a deflected pass for an interception he returned for 30 yards to the Bees 26 yard-line.
The Fighting Bees defense forced a fourth down, but Ramsey found Amir Everett (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn., Sports Management) for a 23-yard touchdown strike to extend the advantage to 14-0.
Everett had another standout day, making four catches to the tune of 107 yards and two touchdowns.
St. Ambrose responded with a touchdown drive of their own to cut into the William Penn lead.
The first quarter ended while the Statesmen produced a 7-play, 75-yard touchdown drive running it in from 20 yards away with Ramsey with 8:39 left in the first half.
Ramsey finished 16-of-25 for 317 yards and four touchdowns while adding 46 rushing yards and a score on six carries. His four passing touchdowns set a new single-season school record with 19, surpassing Jeff Parsons’ mark of 16 from 1975. Even more impressive, he also broke a deadlock for career touchdown passes, now with 47. The old record was 43 by Ryan Van Dalen (2006-2009).
After the touchdown Aiden Gibbons (Fr., Apollo Beach, Fla., Sports Management) knocked through his 49th extra point of the year, which set another William Penn record. He surpassed Marcus Kerrigan (2010-11) and Samson Tamijani (2015), who each made 48. Gibbons pushed the record to 52 by the end of the contest.
Following a series of punts, Ramsey found Everett for a 72-yard touchdown to make the score 28-7 going into half.
The defenses tightened after halftime until William Penn broke through when Ramsey found Fabian Early III for a 25-yard touchdown late in the third stanza.
William Penn sealed the victory on its first drive of the fourth quarter when it drove 77 yards in nine plays before Ramsey found Alexander Price (Sr., Dallas, Texas, Sports Management) for the final score of the day.
Defensively, Matt Mehrhoff (Sr., Fenton, Mo., Business Management) led William Penn with seven tackles, while Jovoni Welch (Jr., La Habra, Calif., Business Management) and Tierre Butler (Jr., Springfield, Ill., Business Management) each had six.
“What this team has done is special,” Head Coach Marc Benavidez said. “Our players and coaches poured everything into this season, day after day, and 10-1 reflects that work. I’m proud of them, and we’re hungry for more.”
