LEBANON, Tenn. – UPIKE football put together its best game of the season on Saturday when the Bears shut out Cumberland (Tenn.), 27-0 in Lebanon.
It is Pikeville's first shutout since October of 2016 when they defeated Cincinnati Christian, 59-0. It was also the first time Cumberland had been shut out by an NAIA team since 2004.
It's hard to determine which side of the ball was more dominant in the game as the Bears excelled in all three factors.
UPIKE only allowed 154 total yards of offense, which makes this season also as the first time since 2016 that the Bears have two games of allowing less than 200 yards of total offense. Pikeville accomplished that feat two weeks against at Campbellsville as well.
Conversely, Pikeville amassed 340 yards on the nation's No. 24 defense and threw for three touchdowns against a defense that had only allowed nine passing touchdowns all season.
Those three touchdowns were split up among Xavier Malone who picked up his first career touchdown pass in the first quarter, and Bowen Smith who picked up two more touchdowns to give him 30 for his career.
Malone started the game and went 6-16 for 56 yards, while Smith went 7-11 for 110 yards and two touchdowns.
The target on all three touchdowns was the same though, in junior receiver Arties Clark who doubled his season total in one night, now up to six. He only had four receptions, but those went for a team-high 63 yards. Alexander Shelton had a team-high five receptions for 34 yards.
UPIKE's fourth touchdown came on a 12-yard run from Derius Gibson who, with 106 yards rushing on the day, picked up his fourth 100-yard game on the season. He is now only the seventh Bears rusher to ever achieve that feat in a single season.
For the fourth consecutive week and the fifth time overall, UPIKE got its hands on a punt and blocked it. This time it was Josh Green sneaking through and it was his second blocked kick this season.
Green also got in on one of Pikeville's five forced turnovers on Saturday when he intercepted the Phoenix quarterback.
The leader of the Pikeville secondary – senior Taeron Brown – had his hand in three other turnovers, including an interception of his own and two fumble recoveries. Nyshun Bell forced one of the fumbles, while Matt Horn recovered another.
Cumberland only entered UPIKE territory five times in the game and only got into the red zone twice. One of those times Pikeville forced a fumble and forced a turnover on downs on the other.
UP NEXT
After spoiling Cumberland's senior day, Pikeville will return home for its own senior day next Saturday at Hambley Athletic Complex against Bethel. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. with senior day festivities planned for before the game.
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