AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University football team could not have asked for better first 30 minutes on Saturday night, scoring 35 first half points en route to a 38-7 victory over the Lions of Florida Memorial University. The win moved Ave Maria to 3-1 in Sun Division play, one of four teams in the Mid-South Conference Sun Division with one divisional loss.

Ave Maria head coach Joe Patterson said the Gyrenes were ready to go from the opening whistle, and the results bore that out. 

"The players were primed for the start of the game today," Patterson said. "We had great energy, great enthusiasm, and several players stepped up and made plays."

The Gyrenes scored on their first two offensive drives on Saturday, both led by senior Kristian Marks. Ave Maria started the game on a 10 play, 68 yard drive, which ended when Joshua Marion exploded for a 33-yard touchdown. On the next drive, Marks ended an 11-play drive when he found Brock Summers for a four-yard touchdown, giving the Gyrenes a 14-0 lead less than 13 minutes into the contest.

AMU's defense came up big in the second quarter, first when Brunel Desenor intercepted a pass in the endzone to spark a 95-yard scoring drive, which ended on Will Tate's 31-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Burke. Later in the second quarter, Shane O'Brien intercepted Demarcus McEachern, and raced 51 yards for an AMU touchdown, pushing Ave Maria's lead to 28-0 late in the second quarter.

The last of Ave Maria's touchdowns saw the special teams get involved. With 19 seconds left in the half, Bryan Stiemke blocked a Florida Memorial punt, and Ray DeSanto scored his first collegiate touchdown by scooping up the loose ball and racing to the endzone. 

Florida Memorial scored their lone touchdown in the second half, when McEachern got loose for a 19 yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter. Ave Maria's second half points were provided by kicker Brendan Clark, who drilled his lone attempt of the day, a 32-yarder with 1:40 remaining in the contest.

Offensively, the Gyrenes carried the ball 44 times for 206 yards, led by 71 yards from freshman Joshua Marion. Burke was the top AMU receiver, hauling in four receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown. On defense, the Gyrenes had eleven tackles for loss and seven sacks. Dray'sun Bonney, Jalyn Robinson, and Brian Galasso all had multiple tackles for loss. Bonney and Galasso led AMU with eight tackles each.

Ave Maria's win kept the Gyrenes firmly in the hunt for a Sun Division title, but coach Patterson reminded his team that the most important game is always the next one.

"When you talk about a regular season championship, you're hoping that every week is that championship game," Patterson said. "If you keep allowing yourself to be playing for that, that's important, and that's what today was: to make next week important."

That game next week comes against the Royals of Warner University. The Gyrenes will head to Lakeland Christian School for the team's final road game of the season, which is scheduled to kick off at 1:30 p.m.