SHEPHERDSTOWN — Freshman Tyson Bagent had a 1-yard quarterback sneak and finished 32 of 41 for 378 yards and three touchdowns for host Shepherd here Saturday afternoon as the Rams jumped ahead 27-0 and cruised past visiting Glenville State, 41-24, in Mountain East Conference action.
GSC (1-2, 1-2 MEC), which returns to the gridiron at noon next Saturday when Alderson Broaddus invades Morris Stadium, finally got on the board midway through the third quarter when Samuel Thomas had a 25-yard pick-6 of Bagent.
The two programs traded touchdowns after that and Justin Watts added the final points of the afternoon for the G-men via a 34-yard field goal with 15 seconds to play.
Shepherd (1-1, 1-1) held a 32-16 advantage in first downs and won the total yards battle, 498-339. The Pioneer ground attack was stymied to the tune of 50 yards on 25 attempts, led by Mario Pender’s 49 stripes on a dozen totes.
Bagent’s 10-yard TD pass to Greg Leonard put the hosts ahead for good in the first quarter. The duo did it again, this time from 13 yards out, with 4:39 left in the half to make it 14-0. The rushing score by Bagent was costly for the Pioneers as it came with 23 ticks left in the half.
The former Martinsburg standout opened the second half with a 47-yard TD strike to Dylan Brewer and then tossed his fourth interception of the campaign.
Shepherd answered the turnover with a 12-yard TD run by Zyan Sturdivant and Ty Hebron later scored from 15 yards out for the hosts. Surdivant amassed game-highs of 19 rushes for 86 yards.
Jaylen McNair, who finished 24 of 32 for 269 yards, found Javon Butler for a 75-yard touchdown and Tre Crutcher on a 4-yard connection for the Pioneers’ other scores.
Butler finished with four catches for 109 yards, but Ram Ryan Feiss had game-highs of nine grabs for 114 yards.
Daniel Robinson and Quintavius Twine recorded seven solo tackles apiece for GSC, which also got six solo stops from Dominic Cizauskas.