Lightning strikes, Hawks roll: QU football team puts away Fort Lauderdale with 42-point first half

QUINCY — It turns out three quarters was enough.

The Quincy University football team led the University of Fort Lauderdale 42-0 at halftime Saturday at QU Stadium, tacked on another touchdown in the third quarter and went to the locker room due to a lightning delay with a 49-0 edge.

The game resumed and teams slugged through another seven minutes of game action before another lightning delay occurred. At that point, the coaches agreed to end the game, leaving the Hawks with a 49-0 victory on the third leg of a five-game homestand.

Quincy limited Fort Lauderdale, a National Christian College Athletic Association-sanctioned program in its third varsity season, to 15 total yards on 36 plays.

Meanwhile, the Hawks finished with 168 yards rushing and 236 yards passing, averaging 7.9 yards over 51 plays. And much like last week’s 89-0 victory over Madonna, Quincy used all of it weapons.

Five players ran the ball, eight receivers caught passes and 22 players had at least one tackle defensively. The Hawks piled up 12 tackles for loss, five sacks and two interceptions. Quincy Notre Dame graduates Jackson Connell and Jack Marth each had a sack.

The Hawks didn’t score on either of their first two drives, getting stopped on fourth down inside the 10-yard line on the game’s initial possession and losing a fumble on the second drive. Finally, with 2:11 remaining in the first quarter, Marlin Washington hauled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Drake Davis to get the onslaught started.

On Fort Lauderdale’s second play of the ensuing drive, Quincy’s Dvid Lewis intercepted a pass and returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.

A 7-yard TD run by JQ Brown and a 3-yard scoring run by Davis got the second quarter started, and Davis tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Hans Wisnewski and a 40-yard scoring strike to Travis Isaac to extend the lead to 42-0 by halftime.

Davis completed 9 of 12 passes for 208 yards. Quincy Notre Dame graduate Ike Wiley took over at quarterback and scored on a 9-yard run in the third quarter.

Quincy (2-1) will be back at QU Stadium at 1 p.m. next Saturday to face Northern Michigan.