OSKALOOSA — The William Penn football team opened up its 2024 campaign with a 59-0 thrashing of William Woods in non-conference play Thursday.
In the inaugural Billy Bowl, WPU (1-0) did not show any mercy to the Owls who were playing in their first-ever football game. The navy and gold not only posted their first shutout since 2018 (42-0 over Missouri Valley), but also their largest shutout since 2013 (65-0 over Waldorf). The victory is also William Penn’s biggest since a 71-6 defeat of Graceland in 2021.
Gawdy stat lines came from the triumph, including the hosts outgaining WWU (0-1) by a 568-146 tally. The Statesmen recorded 32 first downs, compared to just eight for the Owls, and the victors were also +3 in the turnover battle (3 for WWU, 0 for WPU).
William Penn started the night with the ball and methodically marched 75 yards in 14 plays over a span of 6:13. Destynd Loring (Jr., Charleston, S.C., Sports Management), who rushed 10 times on the drive, capped it off with a one-yard plunge. He finished Thursday with 21 carries for 142 yards and a trio of scores.
After recovering an Owl fumble on the next drive, the Statesmen offense came up empty. Fortunately, the navy and gold defense posted another stop, and this time around WPU added to its score with a 28-yard field goal by Chris Paniagua (Fr., Houston, Texas, Mechanical Engineering) to make it 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The second period was William Penn’s most electric as it put the ball in the endzone on four occasions, beginning with a 19-yard scamper by Loring. The junior then tacked on another one-yard touchdown in his squad’s ensuing possession to make it 24-0 with 4:59 to go until intermission.
Starting quarterback Sterling Ramsey II (Jr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Business Management) went 6-for-12 through the air for 92 yards, while Connor Neville (Jr., Beaverton, Ore., Business Management) entered late in the second quarter and immediately made an impact as he found Rakim Lamarre (So., Woodbridge, Va., Business Management) for a 47-yard passing score on his first play in the game.
A fumble recovery near midfield set the Statesmen up for one more score before the break and Neville once again got the pigskin to paydirt with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Powell (Fr., Waco, Texas, Wellness and Recreation) for a 38-0 halftime lead. Neville ended up 5-for-7 for 123 yards.
The Statesmen defense not only pitched a shutout, but also got into the scoring in the season opener with Kameron Cummings (Fr., Houston, Texas, Sports Management) picking up a loose ball and returning it 26 yards just 2:14 into the third quarter.
Following another WWU punt (nine total on Thursday), Keegan Simmons (Sr., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Secondary Education) then went to work and produced big run after big run, eventually crossing the goal line from two yards away. The senior was good for 85 yards on 13 rushes in the win.
Third-string quarterback Francisco Beltran (Fr., Garland, Texas, Secondary Education), who played the entire second half behind center, joined Neville with a passing touchdown as he connected with Marcus Price (Jr., Roosevelt, Texas, Sports Management) in the fourth stanza for a 44-yard score to finish off the game’s point tallying.
WWU managed to move into William Penn’s redzone in the waning minutes of the game, but the Statesmen managed one more stop to preserve the shutout. A sack by Carly Germain (Fr., Miami, Fla., Wellness and Recreation) pushed the Owls out of a field-goal range and they eventually punted.
Seven different Statesmen hauled in a pass Thursday with Alexander Price (Jr., McKinney, Texas, Sports Management) topping the receiving corps with four grabs for 78 yards. Marcus Price had three receptions for 75 yards, while Nureini Mohamed (So., Everett, Mass., Sports Management) also finished with three catches for 52 yards.
Malcolm Bryant (Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio, Sports Management) and Jeremiah Dennard (So., St. Petersburg, Fla., Business Management) matched Cummings with a fumble recovery, while the duo of Jerome Schaubert (So., Spring, Texas, Industrial Technology) and Amari Akins (Fr., Syracuse, N.Y., Sociology) paced the defense with four tackles each; Akins had a pair of tackles for loss as well.
“This was a solid win against a new program,” Head Coach Marc Benavidez said. “This was our first opportunity to ring the bell in my tenure at William Penn and it is exactly what we came here for and we are excited to finally do it. We were very fortunate to get a lot of meaningful reps for our young guys.”
“We are glad we came out of the game mostly healthy and look forward to some tough upcoming opponents,” Benavidez added.
