Five different players reached the end zone, led by two scores from Jaylen McCloud, as Florida A&M handily beat Bethune-Cookman 41-20 on Saturday afternoon inside Camping World Stadium.
The Rattlers improved to 9-2 on the year and 7-1 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play, while the BCU fell to 2-9 and 2-6.
Jeremy Moussa led Florida A&M’s passing attack with 195 yards through the air, tossing two touchdowns without throwing an interception.
McCloud led all FAMU rushers with 26 yards and two touchdowns in the contest. A.J. Davis also added 15 yards on the ground, averaging 5 yards per carry.
Moussa’s most prolific target in the ballgame was David Manigo, who caught five passes for 78 yards. Xavier Smith got in on the action in the passing game as well, hauling in five balls for 73 yards and one touchdown.
Anthony Dunn Jr led the Florida A&M defensive effort, recording six tackles, 4.0 TFL, three sacks, one forced fumble, and one recovered fumble. Isaiah Major added eight tackles, 3.0 TFL, and 2.5 sacks and Javan Morgan had five tackles, one interception, and two pass breakups in the win.
The Rattlers won the turnover battle in Saturday’s game, forcing two turnovers while avoiding any giveaways, with Florida A&M turning those takeaways into two touchdowns. Florida A&M converted on 44.4 percent of third-down attempts on the day. The Rattlers also went 1-for-1 on fourth down on a fake punt pass from Chris Faddoul to Jeremiah Pruitte.
Florida A&M’s defense held up against Bethune-Cookman’s offense, giving up 284 total yards. The Dark Cloud Defense took up residence in Bethune-Cookman’s backfield all game, piling up seven sacks and 14 total tackles for loss.
Florida A&M’s offense made the most of its trips to the red zone, scoring on four of its four trips, with all of those scores being touchdowns.
Florida A&M grabbed a 6-0 lead over Bethune-Cookman after scoring the game’s first points with 9:57 left in the first quarter. The Rattlers then followed with another score to increase the lead to 13-0.
Florida A&M continued to expand its advantage after Bethune-Cookman made it a 13-7 game, scoring again with 11:10 remaining in the second quarter to go up 20-7. The Rattlers continued to extend their lead, scoring again to go up 27-7.
Florida A&M continued to expand its lead after Bethune-Cookman made it a 27-20 game, scoring again with 10:11 left in the fourth quarter to make the score 34-20. The Rattlers kept scoring, tacking on a touchdown to increase their advantage to 41-20. Neither team scored again in the game.
Courtesy: Florida A&M Athletics
