Delaware Spoils Elon Football’s Senior Day

ELON, N.C. – After recognizing 20 seniors prior to the start of the game, the Elon Phoenix dropped a tough 14-10 decision to the visiting Delaware Blue Hens at Rhodes Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 21.

A year after not winning a CAA Football game and going just 1-11, Elon finished the 2015 season with a 4-7 overall record and a 3-5 mark in league action. Delaware improved to 4-7, 3-5.

Quotable: “The game’s been played for a long time and in terms of who wins and losses, turnovers are it. We turned the ball over a handful of times, thwarted a drive, and you just can’t do that. But I’m really proud of this team and really proud of the progress we’ve made. People ask me why I’m confident that we’re going to do great things here, because I see it every day. I wish like heck we could’ve gotten a win and gotten to .500 in the conference.” – Elon head coach Rich Skrosky

How it happened: Elon jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Connor Christiansen hit Tereak McCray for a 24-yard touchdown to cap a 7-play, 71-yard drive midway through the fourth quarter. After Delaware knotted it at seven thanks to a 53-yard run by Kareem Williams just over five minutes into the second period, Elon would take a 10-7 edge in to halftime thanks to a 42-yard field goal off the foot of John Gallagher.

After forcing Delaware to punt on the opening drive of the second half, a Christiansen pass attempt was intercepted by Delaware’s Anthony Jackson who returned the ball to the Elon 42-yard line. An 11-yard completion and an Elon penalty on third-and-nine from the Elon 41 allowed the Blue Hens to advance to the Phoenix’s 15-yard line. Five plays later, Thomas Jefferson took it in from two yards out to put Delaware on top for good.

Elon began one final drive with 1:23 to play at its own nine-yard line after a Delaware punt. Christiansen quickly picked up 29 with a toss to B.J. Bennett before hitting Doug Warrick for 10 yards and Tre Lennon for another 18 yards to get to the Delaware 34. Following an incompletion, a holding penalty put the maroon and gold in a second-and-20 position. The Phoenix then threw three consecutive incompletions to hand the ball back to Delaware with just 13 seconds remaining.

Noteworthy: John Silas led all players with 10 tackles, giving him 104 for the season and 277 for his career… Corey Mitchell added nine stops to end the season with 116 tackles, tied for the sixth-most of any Elon player at the FCS level in a year… Alexander Dawson concluded his career with a seven-tackle performance, including a career-high 4.0 tackles for a loss and a sack… A total of 10 different receivers caught at least one pass for the Phoenix.