Mercer avoids being shut out at home after a rough start dooms the Bears against VMI

From the first offensive play of the game, Mercer found itself outmatched against VMI, and the Keydets dominated throughout in a 45-7 win over the Bears.

After the opening kickoff sailed out of the back of the end zone, Mercer quarterback Fred Payton dropped back for a pass and it sailed over his receiver, directly into the arms of Alex Oliver. Oliver returned it 39 yards for the score.

On the second drive of the game, Payton was drilled on a sack from his blindside. The ball fell to the ground and was recovered by the VMI defense. Quarterback Seth Morgan took the ball on a keeper for 13 yards on the second play of the Keydets’ drive to put them up 14-0.

While the offense struggled early on, the Bears’ special teams unit quickly made an impact on the game with a blocked field goal and blocked punt on the next two drives. But once again, the Bears were unable to convert either into points. The blocked punt set Mercer up inside the VMI 20, but after getting shut down on three straight plays, kicker Devin Folser missed a field goal.

VMI made the Bears pay on the first play of the next drive with an 80-yard touchdown run by running back Rashad Raymond to put the Keydets up 21-0.

After punts on back-to-back drives by Mercer, the Keydets added a field goal. The Bears came back out on the following drive and looked poised to score. This time it was set up on a trick play from Fred Payton to Ethan Dirram on a 34-yard pass on a double reverse. But Folser missed his second field goal of the game.

This comes a week after the sophomore kicker hit a pair of long field goals, including a school-record 51 yarder against Western Carolina.

VMI went on a nearly six-minute drive to open the second half and capped it with a Hunter Rice touchdown. Rice went on to add two more short rushing touchdowns in the second half to put the Keydets up 45-0.

The second half was more of the same for the Bears as the offense finished the game with 23 yards rushing after averaging more than 250 yards per game coming in.

Mercer avoided its first shutout at home when Carter Peevy hit Ethan Dirrim for a 71-yard touchdown with 3:23 left in the game.

Mercer falls to 4-2 on the season and moves to 3-1 in the Southern Conference. Each team in the SoCon has at least one loss.

Coming into the week, Mercer and ETSU were tied at the top at 3-0 in conference play. But with VMI and Chattanooga each pulling off an upset against the top two teams, the four are now tied for first place with identical 3-1 records.

Three stars

Mercer special teams: There wasn’t much that went well for the Bears on Saturday but they did manage to block a field goal and a punt. Neither of those plays turned into points unfortunately as the Bears were shut out.

This is one the standout unit on a day when nothing went right. It could help carry some momentum over the rest of the SoCon schedule for Mercer.

Hunter Rice, VMI RB: Rice got 17 carries for 112 yards but it was his three scores from inside the five-yard line that helped pace the Keydets in the second half.

VMI’s offensive line created a ton of holes in the Mercer defense and allowed Rice to gash the Bears including a long of 51 yards.

VMI defense: The Keydets came into the game giving up more than 250 yards rushing yards a game. Clearly, the Keydet’s heard the disrespect coming into the game as the Bears finished with just 23 yards on the ground.

The backup unit gave up the only score of the game. But in a game where it looked as though Mercer could exploit a weak run defense but instead the VMI run defense would prove otherwise.

They said it:

“We played bad. We got our butt kicked. That’s what you got to say now until I can go back and study it.”-Mercer head coach Drew Cronic on the loss.

“We put things behind the eight ball right out of the gate and we just never recovered. I told the team that I am a man of faith. I have to be a man of faith when it goes bad. So we are going to learn from this. The Lord is going to teach us something from failure.” -Cronic on the rough start and where the Bears go from here.

What’s next?

The Bears will look to get back on track against Wofford. The Terriers are 0-4 in the conference and have just one win all season. Mercer will need to quickly flush this blowout loss to VMI and not get caught looking ahead.

This story was originally published October 16, 2021 at 7:57 PM.