Mercer uses historic night from Fred Davis to beat conference foe in a shootout

A pair of school records fell on Saturday night as Mercer running back Fred Davis carried the Bears to a win against conference rival Samford in a 45-42 shootout.

Davis helped the Bears keep pace with the SoCon’s best offense as he rushed for a school record 276 yards and five rushing touchdowns, also a school record.

Coming into the game it was billed as a potentially high-scoring game between Mercer and Samford. But it got off to a slow start until the second half when the offenses for both sides woke up. The game turned into a heavyweight fight with each team throwing haymakers down the stretch. The two teams combined for more than 80 points and 1,000 yards of offense.

In the first half, Samford struck first with a 14-yard touchdown from quarterback Liam Welch to Montrell Washington.

Mercer responded with a field goal from Devin Folser and a touchdown run from Davis to take a 10-7 lead.

Welch threw for his second score of the game by hitting Chandler Smith in the final two minutes of the half to give Samford a 14-10 lead heading into the locker room.

In the third quarter, the two teams traded touchdowns back and forth. The Bears and Bulldogs combined for 35 points in the third quarter alone.

Mercer grabbed the lead 31-28 heading into the fourth quarter after back-to-back scoring drives to end the quarter.

The final frame was nearly defined by a targeting call that set up a Samford touchdown to put the Bulldogs up 35-31.

The call came with 12 minutes left in the game when the Bears’ leading tackler Issac Dowling was ejected from the game on a hit to a Samford player. The call was controversial as Dowling hit the ball carrier in the hip.

Mercer responded to the adversity with back-to-back scoring drives, both rushing touchdowns by Davis, his fourth and fifth touchdowns on the night to put Mercer up 45-35.

Samford scored a touchdown with just over a minute left in the game. The ensuing onside kick went into the air after hitting a Mercer player and was caught by Mercer defensive back Harrison Poole.

Through its first two conference games Mercer has managed to win in two completely different ways after knocking off Furman in a 24-3 defensive struggle.

Mercer moves to 3-1 on the season with its lone loss coming to Alabama.

Three stars

Fred Davis, Mercer RB: The redshirt freshman running back had not only a career day but he eclipsed a pair of school records.

The first was set by Jetarri Donald in 2013 with 202 yards in a game, the first year of the Mercer football program.

Davis found the end zone five times to break Tyray Devezin’s single-game touchdown record of four set in 2019.

Davis carried the ball 28 times for 276 yards and five touchdowns. Davis had long scoring runs of 21 yards, 31 yards and 54 yards.

Davis ability to break the big one sets up Mercer for the rest of the season to have one of the most dynamic players in the conference.

Liam Welch, Samford QB: Welch came into the game as the conference passing leader with more than 1,500 yards in the first four games and nine touchdown passes. Against Mercer, Welch padded his stats with 312 yards and four touchdown passes. The Bears defense did manage to intercept a pair of his passes in the first quarter, from Luke Ward and Michael Campbell.

Mercer offensive line: Mercer controlled the line in this one, gaining more than 300 yards on the ground. The offensive line created plenty of big holes for Davis and Brandon Marshall. In addition to dictating the pace of the game on the ground, Fred Payton had a clean pocket for much on the night; he was sacked just once. The Bears are slowly finding their offensive identity since transitioning to head coach Drew Cronic’s new system.

They said it:

“It shows that a lot of my work has paid off. But I can’t do that without my line. They were making holes the whole game. They were working their tails off.” -Mercer running back Fred Davis on his record-breaking performance

“We are so far from what we were a year ago. These kids have just bought in. They believe in each other. So to watch them win that game tonight was very satisfying.” -Mercer head coach Drew Cronic on the improvement of his team.

“I went right over to the defense and told them to keep playing, just figure it out, don’t let the calls, the officiating, whatever it was, you just got to lock in and keep competing your tail off. I thought we did. We were battling.”” -Cronic on how his team responded after the controversial targeting call.

“(Fred) is our most complete back. He is a good pass protector, he catches the ball out of the backfield, he is a very intelligent football. He has three more years of eligibility after this year which is exciting.” -Cronic on Davis’ historic performance.

“We always have the next-man-up mentality with our defense. We always preach that. When Isaac (Dowling) went down we thought it was a questionable call but that happens in football. Adversity comes in football. There was no drop-off.” -Defensive back Michael Campbell on the controversial targeting call.

What’s next?

Mercer will travel to Western Carolina next week in the third conference game on the Bears’ schedule. Mercer beat Western Carolina 45-28 in the team’s spring schedule last season at home. Davis scored a pair of touchdowns to help lead the Bears to the win. Mercer jumped out to a 14-0 lead in that matchup and never surrendered the lead. A win will also help keep Mercer in the race for the Southern Conference title.

This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 10:49 PM.