THE POINT AFTER:
Charlotte 49 vs. Gardner-Webb 28
Thursday, Aug. 29; 7:30 p.m.
Season-Opener
Opening of the Will Healy Era
#49: Christian Haynes
Opening of the Will Healy Era
In Will Healy’s first game as head coach of the Charlotte 49ers:
Charlotte scored, appropriately, 49 points
The 49ers first touchdown came on 4th and goal as Benny LeMay dove in from one-yard out.
Charlotte scored its most points in the FBS era
Charlotte put up over 500 yards of total offense (508).
Charlotte scored touchdowns on the ground (4), in the air (2) and on special teams (1).
Charlotte welcomed a sell-out crowd of 16,119 that included a student attendance of over 5,000.
Prior to the game, the 49ers named six season captains, in a vote by the players:
R-Sr. OL Cameron Clark R-Sr. S Ben DeLuca
R-Sr. LB Jeff Gemmell R-Sr. DE Tyriq Harris
R-Sr. DE Alex Highsmith Sr. RB Benny LeMay
Eight 49ers made their first start as a 49er in the season-opener:
Cameron Dollar
D’Mitri Emmanuel
Brett Kean
Marquill Osborne
Jonnie Pitman
Tyler Ringwood
Henry Segura
Markees Watts
R-Sr. RB Benny LeMay rushed for 120 yards – the 8th 100-yd rushing game of his career
R-Sr. Benny LeMay rushed for 2 touchdowns, giving him 15 rushing TDs and 17 overall TDs in his career
R-Sr. Benny LeMay has scored in three straight games, dating back to last year
Charlotte rushed for 322 yards behind LeMay (120), QB Chris Reynolds (72) and RB Ishod Finger (69).
The 322 rushing yards rank 12th in the NCAA after the first week of play.
Four receivers that combined for four catches and 26 yards all of last year, led Charlotte in receptions and totaled 15 catches and 170 yards
Cameron Dollar 5 rec. 58 yds (2 rec., 9 yds total in 2018)
Noah Henderson 5 rec. 49 yds (true freshman)
Tyler Ringwood 3 rec. 26 yds (2 rec., 17 yds total in 2018)
Micaleous Elder 2 rec. 37 yds (true freshman)
Both QBs threw TD passes:
Chris Reynolds 3-yd pass to Aaron McAllister
Brett Kean 31-yd pass to Micaleous Elder
R-Sr. DE Alex Highsmith and So. Markees Watts tied the school’s single-game record with 2.0 sacks
R-Sr. DE Alex Highsmith led the 49ers with 7 tackles and added those 2.0 sacks and 2 QB hurries
R-Sr. DE Alex Highsmith is now second all-time with 8.0 sacks, 5.0 shy of the school record of 13.0 (Larry Ogunjobi)
Sr. S Ben DeLuca had the 49ers lone takeaway. With his fumble recovery he took over sole possession of the 49ers career record with six fumble recoveries
Fr. Solomon Rogers picked up a blocked punt and returned it 16 yards for a touchdown. It was the second punt return for a TD in school history (both on blocked punts). It was the only blocked punt returned for a TD in the NCAA is the first week.
First game since 2017 that Charlotte did not allow a passing TD
The 60 passing yards allowed are the fourth fewest in the NCAA in Week One.
Charlotte’s 5.0 sacks tied the 49ers single-game record
Two freshmen: Solomon Rogers and Micaleous Elder scored touchdowns in their first college game
K Jonathan Cruz made all seven PATs and has made 34 straight PATs, dating back to last year (overall record is 46 straight, by Blake Brewer)
K Jonathan Cruz tied the single-game school record with 7 PATs made
Current games started streaks (school record is 46 by Larry Ogunjobi, each game of his four-year career):
Cam Clark, OL 19
Jeff Gemmell, LB 18
Benny LeMay, RB 18
Timmy Horne, DT 15
Ben DeLuca, S 14
Charlotte had two scoring drives of double-digit plays as well as a single one-play scoring drive
Charlotte is 5-2 is season-openers and 3-0 in season-openers at home.
Charlotte is 6-1 all-time in its first home game of the season, outscoring opponents 303-104 in those seven games. Charlotte has scored 30 or more points in each of its home openers.
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