Mercer improves to 2-1 on the season with blowout win on the road in conference opener

Coming out of the bye week there were a lot of unknowns about Mercer football after winning 69-0 over NAIA school Point University in Week 1 and losing 48-14 to No. 1 Alabama in Week 2.

The conference opener against Furman answered at least one question: Mercer could be a contender in the Southern Conference this season.

The Bears fell behind early as Timmy Bleekrode hit a 46-yard field goal to open up the scoring for Furman. But the Mercer defense would not allow another score the rest of the game.

Mercer got in on the scoring midway through the first quarter when quarterback Fred Payton hit wide receiver Ty James for a 35-yard touchdown to take the lead.

The defenses then took center stage as they traded stops including three combined interceptions in the span of four drives, two for Mercer’s defense and one for Furman’s.

The Bears took advantage of the second interception by defensive back Yahsyn McKee. Payton hit Parker Wroble on a 39-yard pass to set up Brandon Marshall’s first rushing touchdown of the day.

On the ensuing drive, the Paladins marched down the field, but the offense stalled and was forced to settle for another field goal. The Bears got a paw on the ball and blocked the kick to keep the game at 14-3.

Mercer managed to take advantage of the blocked field goal with a second rushing touchdown for Marshall to put the Bears up 21-3 heading into the half.

The second half was more of the same as the Mercer defense continued to cause havoc as four different Bears came up with interceptions.

With 1:45 left in the third quarter, Devin Folser hit his first field goal of the season, a 45-yarder.

The Bears are now 2-1 on the season and are 1-0 in conference play. Mercer will be at home next week to take on Samford.

Three stars

Fred Payton, quarterback Mercer: In the first two games of the season, Payton and Carter Peevy each got a lot of work.

Payton seemed to separate himself in the Alabama game with a pair of long touchdown passes against the Tide.

Against Furman, Payton played every drive except for the last when Peevy came in with the game already decided. Payton finished 10-of-20 for 168 yards with a touchdown and one interception.

Mercer defense: The secondary came up with four interceptions on the game, held the Paladins to under 300 yards of offense and held the rushing attack to under 100 yards on 32 attempts.

This defense played well against Alabama in the early going, coming up with a few stops to open the game. But against a more evenly matched opponent, the Bears were able to do it for four quarters.

The Paladins had just two drives of 50 or more yards. One ended in their lone points of the game and the other ended in a blocked field goal. While Mercer came up with four interceptions, they had opportunities for at least four more that bounced out of their hands.

Mercer running backs: This was a true group effort led by Brandon Marshall and Fred Davis. Marshall finished with 12 carries for 66 yards and two touchdowns, and Davis paced the backfield with 18 carries for 94 yards.

Neither player reached the 100-yard mark, but their ability to share the load opened up space for Payton to operate in the passing game.

The Bears achieved a relatively balanced attack, but the ground game set the tone for the game. It allowed Mercer to drain the clock in the second half as well.

They said it:

“Defensively, when you don’t let someone cross the goal line for three hours, that is pretty good. Offensively we did some good things. We made some great plays in the first half. We had some opportunities to make some plays in the second half and didn’t finish a few things.” — Mercer head Coach Drew Cronic on the team’s effort

“Fred has a lot of talent. He is really into it now. He cares. He wanting to get better. Every time he plays he is going to get better. He is going to get more and more comfortable in what we are doing.” —Cronic on Fred Payton’s performance as the starting quarterback.

“Coach Cronic said this week he wanted to focus on getting back to the run game. It is basically our bread and butter.” — Running back Fred Davis on the big day on the ground.

“This was our main goal was to get our first win on the road, just to show that this is our field no matter where we are at.” —Davis on picking up a road win.

“We have been preparing all year to smash opponents in the SoCon. Let them know that it is our time, it is our turn. … We are all dogs. We just want it more than the other team.” — Defensive back Yahsyn McKee on the blowout win in a conference game.

“I think the defense needs to head to the jugs. We got to do some ball-catching drills. We shouldn’t have dropped that many picks. There were probably four or five more picks we could have had.” —McKee on creating turnovers.

What’s next?

Mercer’s next game is at home against Samford on Saturday, Oct. 2. The Bears lost to the Bulldogs on the road during the spring schedule 44-20. Samford is 2-2 on the season with a 1-1 record in the conference after losing to ETSU 55-48 in overtime last week.

This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 6:03 PM.