AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University football team gave its home crowd plenty to cheer about on Saturday night, earning the first win of the 2021 season with a 37-26 victory over the Point University Skyhawks at Gyrene Field. The Gyrenes rode a standout performance from quarterback Will Tate and a couple timely turnovers to a win over thier fellow Mid-South Conference member.
Head coach Joe Patterson said the Gyrenes fed off a vocal Ave Maria crowd, which marked the first game without attendance restrictions for the football program since 2019.
"I think the players really feel it (the energy from the AMU faithful)," Patterson said. "It's such a close knit community here ... and it was beautiful to see it overflowing tonight."
The Gyrenes scored on their first three drives on Saturday night, which started with a 35-yard field goal from Brendan Clark on the opening drive. After forcing a turnover thanks to a fumble recovery from AJ Major, the Gyrenes drove another 55 yards on nine plays, culminating in a 12-yard strike from Tate to Joshua Jenkins. Point got on the board with a touchdown of their own early in the second quarter, but Ave Maria answered with another touchdown pass, this one from Tate to Charles Philias, which gave AMU a 16-7 lead that would last until halftime.
Tate's third touchdown pass of the night came on AMU's first drive of the second half. After forcing a Point punt, AMU needed just four plays to get to the Point 25-yard line. From there, Tate found Jenkins for the second time, a 25-yard score that increased the Gyrenes' lead to 23-7. Point would answer to cut the AMU lead to 23-13, but the AMU offense was far from over.
On the next drive, Khalid Shakir took center stage. The sophomore tailback carried the ball three times for 36 yards on the drive, including a 12-yard run that saw him bounce off several tackles. Shakir's touchdown run increased the Gyrene lead to 30-13, but a long pass from the Skyhawks would set up another Point score to trim the deficit back to ten.
The last of Tate's touchdown passes would come early in the fourth quarter, after a fourth down stop from the Gyrenes. The throw was just the second of the drive from the senior, but was critical as Tate hit Daniel Burke in the endzone to complete AMU's half of the scoring. The Skyhawks cut the AMU lead to 37-26 later in the quarter, but any attempt at a Point comeback was ended when Shane O'Brien intercepted a Point pass in the endzone with 2:33 remaining in the contest.
In total, Tate completed 20 of his 28 passes for 204 yards and four touchdowns. The effort made Tate the first AMU quarterback to throw four or more touchdowns in a game since the 2014 season, when Clayton Uecker tossed five touchdown passes in a buzzer-beating win over these same Skyhawks.
"Will is very good at running the offense, but he's also really good when the offense doesn't go exactly right," Patterson remarked about Tate's night. "He's able to create, he's able to extend the play, and it's very rare that he makes a bad decision."
On the ground, Shakir was the game's leading rusher with 80 yards on 15 touches. Jenkins once again proved to be Tate's favorite target, hauling in eight catches for 88 yards, which included the two touchdown receptions. Defensively, Dominic Morgan was involved in eleven stops from the linebacker position, and Eric Marshall logged four pass breakups at cornerback.
Ave Maria is back on the road next Saturday, with Kentucky Christian University as the opponent. The Knights are currently 0-2, with losses to the University of the Cumberlands and Warner University. Kickoff in Grayson, Kentucky is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
