Rocky Mount, N.C. - North Carolina Wesleyan's football team honored its 2014 senior class on Saturday afternoon prior to its season finale with Huntingdon College at Bishop Stadium. It was the Hawks, however, who came away with a victory, handing the Bishops a 37-20 loss. The game marked an end to the NCWC careers of Jacques Alston, James Wallace, Brice Wordsworth, Albert Raynor, Logan Waters, Quentin Pittman, Samuel Herring, Isaiah Morrow and Andrew Brown.
The Hawks opened up a 14-0 lead in the first quarter as Wesleyan struggled to find a rhythm offensively. The Bishops looked to right the ship midway the second quarter when junior quarterback Dustin Midgett hit sophomore wideout Malik Adams with 38-yard touchdown pass that got NCWC on the board. The scoring catch was Adams' 11th this fall, which sets a new program record for TD receptions in a season.
Huntingdon proceeded to fumble the ensuing kickoff at their own 27-yardline, and five plays later, Midgett found freshman Dwayne Bishop in the endzone from 15 yards out for another Bishop score. Freshman Codan Breckenridge's point-after made it 14-14 with 4:34 left in the half, but after a failed onside-kick gave the Hawks great field position at the Bishop-47, HC's John Iwaniec put his team on top 20-14 with a 7-yard scoring run.
Midgett then suffered his third pick of the day on Wesleyan's next drive. Wallace came up big on the game's very next play, however, securing his first and only career interception and returning it 28 yards to the Hawk-27. HC responded with a pair of sacks to knock NCWC out of field goal range and take its 6-point lead into the break.
It was all Huntington in the second half as the Hawks out-scored the Bishops 17-6. A 2-yard scoring run by Adams did make things interesting in the fourth quarter, pulling Wesleyan to within 30-20 with over 12 minutes left in the contest. Unfortunately, NCWC failed on its 2-point conversion attempt that would have made it one-score game.
Wallace and his Bishop defense again kept their team in the game by forcing a turnover on downs on the Hawks' next possession. Huntington, however, returned the favor on the game's next drive, which set up a game-sealing TD by tailback Jay Ware with less than two minutes to go. The game ended with the Bishops knocking on the door of another score, but Wordsworth was stopped just short of the endzone as time expired.
Alston and Wallace ended their record-setting careers with solid performances in their final home game, as Alston rushed for 119 yards and Wallace reached double-figure tackles with 10 on the day. Alston wraps up his career as the program's all-time leading rusher with 3,907 yards, while Wallace finishes as the Bishops' all-time leading tackler with 317 career stops.