By Vaughn R. Wilson
The Florida Memorial Lions (6-3, 5-1 Sun) kept their hopes of an NAIA Sun Conference title with a 37-24 win over the upstart Thomas University Nighthawks at Memorial Stadium in Thomasville, GA. From the first drive the Lions would display their offensive explosiveness ending with a Cedquan Smith hit Michael Cabelle for a 6-yard touchdown for an early 7-0 start.
They started the fourth quarter scoring with a safety, making the score 30-9. Jarek Foster would take a pass from Charles 49-yards for the score. That made the score 30-16 with 10:50 remaining in the fourth. FMU’s Walter Wilbon would score on a 14-yard scamper, putting FMU at their final tally of 37 points.
FAMU put up 489 yards of total offense, while allowing about half that at 254 for TU. Florida Memorial quarterback Cedquan Smith threw for 282 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. Wilbon would gain 111 yards on 14 carries.
FMU will conclude its regular season next week against Keiser who is also tied for first in the conference. With being the league’s leading scoring team, they hold an edge in the conference’s tiebreaker categories.
FMU Head Coach suspended for the game.
In a very unusual series of events, FMU head coach Bobby Rome II was suspended from the game. He was notified by the conference late Friday of the infractions. At the end of Florida memorial’s win against Southeastern, the team did a “rowboat” simulation. The conference deemed that it was excessive celebration and because of it, the head coach was suspended for the game.