2016 09 13 goldrush (september 17 vs eastern michigan)

CHARLOTTE VS. EASTERN MICHIGAN · SEPT. 17, 2016

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STAFF PICKS FINAL SCORE: CHAR 34 E. Michigan 17 “Young running backs Robert Washington and Ben LeMay will continue to impress, while Kevin Olsen will throw for three more touchdowns.”

FINAL SCORE: CHAR 28, E. Michigan 10 “The depth Charlotte displayed in the game against Elon will be beneficial to them against Eastern Michigan.”

FINAL SCORE: CHAR 34 E. Michigan 24 “Charlotte’s offense played better at home, evident with their win over Elon. This game should be high scoring, but 49ers have the advantage playing at Jerry Richardson.“

FINAL SCORE: CHAR 21, E. Michigan 17 “Kevin Olsen and the offense will have another solid outing and take advantage of the turnovers created by the 49er defense.”

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49ers welcome Eastern Michigan to the Queen City GET OFF TO A QUICK START

ANDY GUSTAFSON ASST. SPORTS EDITOR

The Charlotte 49ers look to defend Jerry Richardson Stadium for the second consecutive week, this time against the Eagles of Eastern Michigan. Last week in front of a sellout crowd, the 49ers snapped their 11-game losing streak in comfortable fashion, beating Elon 47-14.

Charlotte’s offense was firing on all cylinders, racking up 506 total yards. The defense responded well a week after a rough showing against Louisville, forcing three Phoenix turnovers including a fumble recovery for a touchdown. So much for the first win being the hardest to get.

Week three offers Eastern Michigan for Charlotte football. Both teams come into Jerry Richardson Stadium with identical records at 1-1.

The Eagles are coming off a 61-21 loss to the Missouri Tigers. This is the first time ever Charlotte will play Eastern Michigan. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. kickoff.

Despite scoring 47 points against Elon, Charlotte got off to a slow start. The 49ers didn’t score their first points until the second quarter.

If it were not for the defense holding the Phoenix to only seven points in the first half, that slow start could have haunted Charlotte.

But, looking at how Charlotte was able to put up 47 points, it proves that the offense, and defense, is capable of scoring in no time.

Just look at the second quarter: the 49ers scored three times in eight minutes. From there on out, Charlotte would score twice in the last two quarters.

While offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen is orchestrating the offense, it really begins with Kevin Olsen at quarterback.

Olsen proved the hype was real, going an efficient 19-25 for 155 yards and three touchdowns. The passing game is a dynamic that has been missing from the Charlotte offense in the four seasons.

Teammates Kevin Olsen and Austin Duke share a brotherly moment on the sidelines.

Photo by Leysha Caraballo

But Mullen even turned back the clock, drawing up a screen pass from Charlotte’s alltime passer in Matt Johnson to Austin Duke that went 76 yards for a touchdown.

The running game impressed as well. In the past, if Kalif Phillips were to go down with an injury, Charlotte lacked the necessary depth to replace him. After Phillips injured his hamstring, the freshman combination of Ben LeMay and Robert Washington picked up the slack.

A little thunder and lightning between the two freshmen, with Washington’s two red zone touchdowns and LeMay’s 44-yard dash showed Charlotte can continue to have success on the ground.

So a simple message to Mullen: use your weapons. Charlotte can’t go scoreless in the first quarter all season long if making it to their first bowl game is a goal. The 49ers have the talent to get off to a better start, it’s time to prove it to the rest of college football.

EASTERN MICHIGAN SCOUTING REPORT Eastern Michigan out of the Mid-American Conference come to the Queen City for the first time.

The Eagles are a good offensive team, putting up 61 points in the week one victory and 21 points against a South Eastern Conference foe in Missouri.

Eastern Michigan’s backbone is their running game, behind their two sophomores Ian Eriksen and Shaq Vann. Both running backs account for seven touchdowns and average over five yards a carry on the season.

With that being said, stopping the running attack of the Eagles is how Charlotte can successfully defend Jerry Richardson Stadium again.

The 49ers did a good job against Elon, holding the Phoenix to less than three yards a carry.

When Charlotte is able to stop the run, turnovers come as a result.

Last week, the 49ers secondary grabbed two interceptions against Elon. Forcing Todd Porter of Eastern Michigan to throw the ball could pay dividends for Charlotte, as he has three interceptions this season.

CHARLOTTE VS. EASTERN MICHIGAN · SEPT. 17, 2016

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49ERS FIND SUCCESS AT HOME ZACH TIMMONS INTERN

A week after a humbling loss to 19th-ranked Louisville, the Charlotte 49ers football unit bounced back in a big way with a convincing 47-14 victory over instate foe Elon.

Elon had more first downs, passing yards, committed three less penalties and held the ball longer.

The Niners outgained the Phoenix on the ground and continued to use that to their advantage. The Niners compiled a staggering 234 yards on the ground while holding the Phoenix to just 97. Charlotte also picked up 274 yards through the air for a balanced attack of 508 total yards.

The Charlotte backfield of Khalif Phillips, Robert Washington and Ben Lemay wreaked havoc on the Elon defense. Washington scored twice and Lemay ripped off two huge runs over 20 yards.

The Niner offense didn’t click

at first, as they opened with consecutive three-and-outs, making the home crowd restless. However, quarterback Kevin Olsen and the receiving corps went to work.

After Elon successfully scored on their opening drive, Olsen fired a pass to T.L. Ford II across the middle to tie it up at seven apiece. Olsen followed that score up with two more touchdown passes, leading to a 20-7 halftime advantage for Charlotte.

“You know, sometimes all it takes is that one drive, one play that sparks us. We got that one play and the rest of that was on us,” Olsen said.

Olsen also praised the depth displayed by the backfield.

“Our whole backfield room is pretty good. We have some young guys that came in, they can obviously play. Having guys like that who back up Khalif is huge,” Olsen said.

While the Charlotte offense had a big day, the defense stepped up tremendously as well. Charlotte’s defense forced three turnovers and converted those turnovers into 20 points.

Defensive backs Kedrick Davis and Alex Duncan picked off two Elon passes and Ben DeLuca picked up a fumble and rumbled 59 yards to the house for the only defensive touchdown of the game.

“The whole first quarter, everyone was saying ‘We’re better than this,’” Davis said. “We kept getting in everybody’s ear, being positive and saying ‘Come on guys, we’re better than this,’ and once we got going we didn’t slow down for the rest of the night.”

The Niners never let go of the momentum they had, scoring seven times before Elon finally scored their last touchdown with 6:53 remaining.

Olsen led the way with three

Player Highlights KEVIN OLSEN, QB 155 Passing yards 3 Touchdowns

AUSTIN DUKE, WR

4 Receptions, 103 yards Recorded 200th career reception

BEN DELUCA, DB 59-yard fumble recovery returned for a touchdown

Photos by Chris Crews and Leysha Caraballo

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touchdown passes, and Washington scored twice on short runs. The biggest highlight score came from receiver Austin Duke, who caught a screen pass from Matt Johnson and somehow got by would-be tacklers to score a 76-yard touchdown.

“The last thing I told our team before we left the locker room was that we have to play through adversity, keep playing and focusing on the little things that happen during the game,” Lambert said.

Lambert added that he was disappointed in how the backfield corps was playing early on, but that it got better throughout the game.

Lambert and the Niners can use this positive momentum to fuel their practices this week. With the Louisville game, a home win and all of Niner Nation behind them, Charlotte should be a force to be reckoned with in these coming weeks.

PHOTOS OF THE NIGHT Charlotte vs. Elon 9/10/16

Photos by: Chris Crews and Leysha Caraballo

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CHARLOTTE VS. EASTERN MICHIGAN · SEPT. 17, 2016

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NT FILE PHOTO

FOOTBALL NEEDS NINER NATION Charlotte needs a good backing by fans to build their FBS résumé

EMERSON CREECH STAFF WRITER

Home opener football games are always exciting for fans. The start of a new season can rejuvenate the spirits of any fan base. The 2016 season for the Charlotte 49ers football team is a special one.

The 49ers are eligible to qualify for a bowl game after getting their first year of FBS football out of the way.

Charlotte has officially made it onto the scene of big boy college football.

The 49ers routed Elon with a score of 47-14 on Saturday, giving Charlotte its first win of the 2016 season, a nice bounce back victory after having 70 hung on them by Louisville nine days prior. A total of 15,807 fans packed into Jerry Richardson Stadium on Saturday. All 15,000 plus should be extremely proud of the way Charlotte played on Saturday, as the 49ers showed how resilient they are by shaking off the opening weekend loss.

Losing by 56 points is certainly not the way anyone would want to start a season. However, it says a lot about the character inside the Charlotte locker room from the way they were able to put that loss behind them and move forward.

The first few weeks of every college football season features many non-conference matchups. Teams can get a chance to schedule games against teams they wouldn’t otherwise play due to the alignment of conferences. Charlotte has taken advantage of that opportunity by scheduling

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teams like Louisville in the first few weeks of the season.

The only way for this young program to build up into a national name is by playing against nationally respected programs. Getting the experience of playing in a tough road environment, against well coached football teams is something that can help any smaller program like Charlotte build for the future.

Charlotte has road games scheduled against Kansas State, Tennessee and Clemson over the next three years. All three of these games are opportunities for 49er players and coaches to get the chance to compete with Power 5 programs.

These types of games build programs into contenders in their own conference and help them become competitive with any team in the country.

Charlotte fans can look just two hours up the road as an example of building a program. Just over nine years ago, Appalachian State pulled off one of the biggest upsets in college football history by defeating Michigan in Ann Arbor. App State has used out of conference games to their advantage by continuously scheduling games against well-respected Power 5 programs.

Charlotte is facing a crisis that not many other teams in modern college football are dealing with: being a new program at the FBS level. New teams are established quite frequently in college

football. Not very often, however, is a program playing FBS football in their third season of existence.

Playing in just their fourth season, the Charlotte football program is one of the youngest in the country. Coach Brad Lambert and the 49ers staff have made strides since taking they keys to the program in 2011. The biggest contribution that we, the students of UNC Charlotte, can add to the construction of the 49ers football culture, is by showing up to every home game and rallying behind the players and coaches.

Having an elite football program means the school has passionate fans that will ride with their team through anything. The atmosphere at Jerry Richardson Stadium on Saturday is an example of what it will take from the fans to help build this program up.

Coach Brad Lambert was certainly pleased with the atmosphere on Saturday.

“How about our fans. We had a great crowd,” Lambert said.

As fans of Charlotte, it is our responsibility to bring it every Saturday in support of the 49ers, and make Jerry Richardson Stadium the toughest place to play in Conference USA. The next test for the home crowd is this Saturday, as the 49ers take on Eastern Michigan at 6 p.m.

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KATHLEEN COOK

CHARLOTTE HONORS FIRST RESPONDERS

SPORTS EDITOR

On the eve of the 15-year anniversary of 9/11, the 49ers paid tribute to the first responders during their game on Saturday. On the sidelines coaches could be seen sporting hats representing police, fire and EMT. First responders were given discounted tickets to see Charlotte defeat Elon 47-14. One season ticket holder, James Killan, was glad the police, fire and EMT were being honored during the game. Killan graduated from Charlotte in 1973 and went on to be a firefighter in the area at one time including the Charlotte campus.

“It’s nice to get recognized. A lot of times you feel like you’re unknown out there so it makes a big difference to see that,” Killan said.

Head football coach Brad Lambert gained an appreciation for the first responders after a personal encounter with the fire department.

“When I was at Wake Forest we had to call 911 one day because we had a chimney fire in our

Coaches wore hats displaying police, fire and EMT during the game. Photo by Chris Crews.

house. The fire department showed up and they were there in three or four minutes. It ended up being okay, and my two little boys thought it was the greatest thing ever with the firemen showing up in full garb,” Lambert said.

With the number of first responders that work with the football program to ensure their safety, Lambert thought it was appropriate for the coaches to represent them during the game.

“There are so many people that do so many things for you and you can’t thank them enough,” Lambert said. “It’s something we wanted to do. It was pretty cool to wear the stuff tonight.”

First responders came into the limelight after the events on Sept. 11. Lambert holds first responders to a high regard.

“The number of people that just went into the building and tried to save people,” Lambert said.

“People that do that, there’s something special about them.”

2016 FOOTBALL SCHEDULE THURSDAY, SEPT. 1

FRIDAY, OCT. 1

SATURDAY, NOV. 5

Louisville, Ky.

Jerry Richardson Stadium

Hattiesburg, Miss.

#19/#23 Louisville 7 p.m.

L, 70-14

Old Dominion

Southern Miss

6 p.m.

3:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 10

SATURDAY, OCT. 8

SATURDAY, NOV. 12

Jerry Richardson Stadium

Boca Raton, Fla.

Jerry Richardson Stadium

Elon

6 p.m.

W, 47-14

Florida Atlantic 3:30 p.m.

Rice

2 p.m.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 17

SATURDAY, OCT. 15

SATURDAY, NOV. 19

Jerry Richardson Stadium

Jerry Richardson Stadium

Jerry Richardson Stadium

E. Michigan 6:00 p.m.

FIU

6 p.m.

Midd. Tennessee 2 p.m.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 24

SATURDAY, OCT. 22

SATURDAY, NOV. 26

Philadelphia, Pa.

Huntington, W.Va.

San Antonio, Texas

Temple Noon

Marshall 5:30 p.m.

CHARLOTTE VS. EASTERN MICHIGAN · SEPT. 17, 2016

UTSA 7 p.m.

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