Statesmen Tame the Pride: William Penn Defeats Clarke for Seventh Win of Season
Dubuque– The William Penn football team traveled to Dubuque and toppled the Pride 45-21 in Heart of America Conference North division play Saturday.
The Statesmen (7-1, 2-1 Heart North) outgained the Pride (1-7, 1-3 Heart North) by a 526-407 margin and earned the seventh win of its campaign.
The start of the contest saw both squads struggle to score the ball until near the end of the first quarter. The Statesmen started at its one yard-line, after a one-yard run gave the Statesmen a bit of breathing room, Destynd Loring (Sr., Charleston S.C., Sports Management) broke away for a 98-yard touchdown run to give William Penn the 7-0 lead.
The run was the longest scoring play in William Penn football history. The previous record was a 95-yard touchdown pass, when Sterling Ramsey II (Sr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Business Management) threw a touchdown to Rakim Lamarre against MidAmerica Nazarene in 2022.
Loring had a superb day, leading the Statesmen backfield with 201 yards on 23 carries and three touchdowns.
William Penn’s next possession started at the Clarke 41 yard-line. The navy and gold offense put together a 7-play drive that ended in a 6-yard touchdown run by Loring, pushing the score to 14-0
The next Statesmen drive went for 86 yards in six plays as Sterling Ramsey II found Fabian Early III (Fr., Humble, Texas, Business Management) from 30 yards out for the Statesmen score. The 21-0 margin would stay until the end of the first half.
This was the first of two touchdowns for Ramsey; the senior finished the day 16-31 for 238 yards.
Both offenses saw the ball change hands before Clarke found themselves with a short field after a fumble by the Statesmen. The Pride took advantage and scored its first touchdown on the day.
William Penn’s next possession started at its own 18 yard-line. The offense moved to its 46 before Ramsey got the ball to Anthony Jones Jr. (Fr., New Orleans, La., Business Management) on a 59-yard touchdown pass, pushing the score to 28-7, which would stay the score until the end of the third stanza.
Anthony Jones Jr. led the Statesmen in receiving on the day with 3 catches for 75 yards and a touchdown.
The start of the fourth quarter saw the Pride fail a fourth-down attempt and gave the Statesmen possession at its own 46 yard-line. William Penn started the drive with a 38-yard run by Branden Powell (So., Waco, Texas, Kinesiology). The next two plays were runs by Loring, the second of which finding the endzone from 3-yards out.
William Penn’s next drive made it to the Clarke 6 yard-line before stalling out and the Statesmen were forced to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Aiden Gibbons (Fr., Apollo Beach, Fla., Sports Management).
In response, Clarke’s offense scored a touchdown on the next drive.
Tierre Butler (Jr., Springfield, Ill., Business Management) and the Statesmen answered the score with an interception, the first of two for William Penn on the day.
The Pride followed the interception with another touchdown of its own, making the score 38-21.
The Pride succeeded on an onside-kick attempt and were set to try and cut into the lead even more before Marquis Harry (So., Pompano Beach, Fla., Business Management) took back an 88-yard pick-six, the longest interception return for a touchdown by the Statesmen since 2018. This touchdown brought the score to 45-21, which stayed until the final whistle.
Clarke was unable to garner another first down and drained the clock to zeroes.
Defensively, Marquis Harry led William Penn in tackles with 8 total, he also had two tackles for loss and a pick-six. Brian Weatherspoon (Jr., West Memphis, Ark., Business Management) had the lone sack for William Penn.
“We had a great team win” Head Coach Marc Benavidez said, “I’m excited to see what we can do moving forward as a program!”
Next Up: William Penn is back at home to host Peru State in Oskaloosa next Saturday at 11 a.m. in a Heart of America Conference North Division Contest.
