By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Brady Stober threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in his Elon debut as the Phoenix opened the football season with Thursday night’s 42-7 victory against visiting Glenville State at Rhodes Stadium.
Jimmyll Williams ran for two touchdowns and 77 yards on 17 carries, while Elon’s defense limited Glenville State to 125 yards of total offense.
“We were able to fly around like you all seen all day,” cornerback Remington Moss said.
The Phoenix won an opener for the first time since the pandemic-adjusted winter/spring 2021 season.
“A lot of coachable moments out there and valuable film, so I’m glad we’ve got a couple of extra days to grow from it,” coach Tony Trisciani said.
Stober, a sophomore transfer from Samford, completed 16 of 26 throws for 254 yards before exiting because of cramping with less than eight minutes left.
“I have so many weapons around me and just some dogs up front on the O-line,” Stober said.
Glenville State, a Division II team under first-year coach Jake Casteel, closed within 21-7 six minutes into the third quarter before Elon responded with two touchdowns late in the third quarter.
It was largely a workmanlike performance for the Phoenix, which was at home to begin a season for the first time since 2021. There was mostly widespread distribution on offense, including 75 rushing yards from freshman Kamerin McDowell-Moore.
“The more depth that we can build and develop in our program offensively and defensively, the better we’re going to be,” Trisciani said. “You don’t want to be in a situation where you’ve got to play a guy for 80 snaps. We purposely wanted to try to roll some guys in.”
Stober ran 2 yards for a touchdown on Elon’s first possession. Williams made it to the end zone from 10 yards out on a second-quarter touchdown run. A 3-yard fourth-down pass to Jamarien Dalton after Stober fielded a low snap pushed the margin to 21-0 with 4:09 left in the first half.
The Pioneers struck first in the second half, with Kyree Bunny outreaching Elon cornerback Eric Jones in the back corner of the end zone to haul in J.D. Sherrod’s 2-yard pass.
On the next possession, Ben Kirsch’s 43-yard reception took the ball to the Glenville State 5. Three plays later, Williams plunged in from 1 yard out, giving the second-year Elon player his first two-touchdown game with the Phoenix.
Kirsch produced another highlight with a leaping TD reception of 10 yards of a Stober toss for a touchdown late in the third quarter. Backup quarterback T.J. Crews IV threw 24 yards to Jaedon Alford for the game’s final touchdown with 2:41 left.
