South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Owls put on dominant showing
Offense a force in win over Panthers
The FAU Owls needed a steady, offensive boost all season long — and they got it with Javion Posey in their fourth consecutive Shula Bowl victory against the FIU Panthers.
Posey led Florida Atlantic (4-1, 4-1 Conference USA) to its most productive offensive showing of the year in his first collegiate start at quarterback in the Owls’ 38-19 win against FIU (0-4, 0-2 C-USA) Friday night, keeping the Shula Bowl trophy in Boca Raton.
“I didn’t want to be that coach to lose this game,” FAU coach Willie Taggart said. “It was really good to see our offense put some things together and try to establish an identity, which is something we hadn’t really done all year.”
FAU had season highs of points, touchdowns (five) and yards (462) against the Panthers after entering Friday scoring eight combined touchdowns and averaging 288.5 yards through its first four games.
Posey, a redshirt freshman, finished 10 of 16 for 80 yards with two passing touchdowns to go along with a team-high 182 rushing yards on 18 attempts and one rushing touchdown.
His yards on the ground broke the record for the most rushing yards by an FAU quarterback in a game. Jaquez Johnson held the previous record of 113 rushing yards, which he set versus Tulane on Nov. 2, 2013.
Posey joined Johnson as the only Owls quarterbacks to rush for over 100 yards,
with Johnson doing it three times during the 2013 season.
“It could’ve been better,” Posey said about his performance against FIU. “I felt like we left a lot of points out there.”
Malcolm Davidson, who returned to the active roster after missing last weekend’s game against Western Kentucky, rushed for
88 yards on nine attempts and scored a touchdown on the ground. James Charles rushed for 58 yards on seven attempts and added a rushing touchdown.
FAU ran for 381 yards on
52 attempts — the fifth-most rushing yards in a game in program history.
“Running the football
is something we said we wanted to do coming into the season,” Taggart said. “Our guys really put it together today, and Javion played a huge part in that. Defensively, it makes you have to defend 11 guys in the run game. That’s tough on any defense.
“It really helped the running backs. They’re so concerned about Javion that our backs found some creases in there that wasn’t there earlier.”
Posey led FAU on an eight-play, 75-yard drive that ended with him connecting with freshman wide receiver LeJohntay Wester on an 11-yard touchdown pass to put FAU up 7-0 on the Owls’
first possession against the Panthers. The touchdown catch was Wester’s first of his collegiate career.
Wester, who had two receptions for 16 yards, also recorded 21 rushing yards on three attempts.
“We’ve been struggling with explosive plays this year,” Taggart said. “In order to get explosive plays, you have to have explosive players out there and get the explosive players the ball. LeJohntay’s one of our explosive players and we have to continue to find ways to give him the ball.”
The Owls forced two three-and-outs and held the Panthers to 6 yards on 11 plays in the first quarter,
setting the record for the most consecutive quarters played without allowing a touchdown with 10.
FAU went up, 10-0, with
13:17 left in the second quarter after Vladi Rivas kicked a
43-yard field goal to cap off a nine-play, 48-yard drive.
FIU scored on the first play of the next possession, with Panthers running back D’vonte Price running up the gut of the Owls’ defense for a 77-yard touchdown to bring FAU’s lead down to
10-7.
Posey committed FAU’s first fumble of the season on the ensuing possession, which allowed FIU to start its next drive on FAU’s 28. After only gaining four yards on the possession, Panthers kicker Chase Gabriel tied the game, 10-10, with a 41-yard field goal with 11:11 left in the second quarter.
FAU scored touchdowns on two of its final three possessions of the first half after Posey’s fumble.
“The thing I’m really impressed with him is when things go bad, he doesn’t get down in the dumps,” Taggart said. “That’s a sign of a good quarterback that can forget bad plays and respond the next series out.”
Davidson had a 37-yard rushing touchdown to end a four-play, 75-yard possession to put FAU up 17-10 with 9:52 left until halftime.
Two drives later, Posey connected with Brandon Robinson on a fiveyard touchdown pass that extended the Owls’ lead to 24-10 with 1:41 left in the first half.
FAU held FIU to less than two yards per play in the first half outside of Price’s 77-yard run.
The Panthers gained momentum on offense after replacing Stone Norton at quarterback with Max Bortenschlager midway through the third quarter, but Posey and Charles both scored touchdowns on the ground in the fourth quarter to seal the victory for the Owls.
FAU, which entered Friday averaging a conference-high 3.5 sacks per game, recorded five against FIU in addition to eight tackles-for-losses.
“It was a lot of weight off our backs,” redshirt sophomore defensive end Jaylen Joyner said about the team’s offensive production. “We knew as long as we stop them, we’re good.”
FAU will return to FAU Stadium next Friday for its last regular-season home game of the season versus the UMass Minutemen.