GREENSBORO, N.C. – Colby Tucker (Winterville, N.C.) blasted a 55-yard field goal, setting the program and Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) record for longest made field goal while the Guilford College football team (1-7, 0-5 ODAC) celebrated their Senior Day and the 2026 inductees into the L.M. "Pete" Murphy Athletics Hall of Fame at Appenzeller Field in the Armfield Athletic Center, however they took an ODAC defeat, 47-3, to Washington & Lee University (5-3, 3-2 ODAC) on Saturday evening.
Pregame, GC recognized the careers and commitments of their 18 senior players,
Dom Bialer (West End, N.C.),
Brendon Bradford (King, N.C.),
Trey Davis II (Tucker, Ga.),
Ben Finkelstein (Southern Pines, N.C.),
Jaden Gibson (Salisbury, N.C.),
Daniel Grimmett (Madison, N.C.),
Matthew Henzel (Apex, N.C.),
Luke Hyatt (Wadesboro, N.C.),
Aaron Jones (La Grange, N.C.),
Ben Parry (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Simeon Reid (Morganton, N.C.),
Shane Shapiro (Jacksonville, N.C.),
Jaden Shively (Denton, N.C.),
Chris Simmons (Goose Creek, S.C.),
Evan Sullivan (McBee, S.C.)
Alex Wilson (Four Oaks, N.C.),
Drew Winkler (North Wilkesboro, N.C.), and
Malik Woodard (Wilson, N.C.). Then at halftime, the seven members of this years' Athletics Hall of Fame class, football's Chris Barnette '07, men's tennis' Eric "Ricky" Feit '89, men's basketball's Chris Lambert '85, women's tennis and volleyball's Emily King '92 and Laura Nelson '99, and football's Matt Pawlowski '16, and Adam Smith '16, were honored.
In the end, on a day that celebrated both veteran and former Quakers alike, it would be one of the youngest Guilford athletes who would instead steal the spotlight, as Tucker set the conference and GC standard by making a 55-yard field goal with room to spare. He surpassed the prior league long of a 52-yard make by Bridgewater College's Michael Padgett against Emory & Henry University back in 1998 by three yards and bested Don Cupit's century-old program record make of 51 yards in 1909 by four. More recently, the connection is just one-yard short of the longest make in Division-III this season of 56 yards, bringing it into a tie for the third-longest make this fall. Additionally, Tucker is single-handedly responsible for the back-half of a run of now four-consecutive weeks in which a different kicker in the conference has connected from over 50 yards after the league saw just a tandem of 50-plus yard makes in its' first 50 years.
Looking at the box score, the Generals picked up triple the first downs, 30 to 10, and gained 530 yards to GC's 218, including an ODAC season-high 471 yards on the ground against the hosts' 58. The Quakers threw for more yards, 160 to 59, but also committed the game's lone turnover.
Nick Danciu (Simpsonville, S.C.) completed 15-of-25 for 155 yards but took four sacks, he also lost the game's lone turnover, fumbling on a scramble. Hyatt went under-center for the final drive, completing his lone pass attempt for five yards. The skill position production was ruled by seniors with Woodard taking a team-high seven carries for a team-best 29 yards on top of a couple catches for a couple yards through the air. Shapiro, meanwhile, brought in seven of his 12 targets for a 74 receiving yards, leading all players in both categories.
Ty Collins completed all-four of his passes for 59 yards and a score, adding 61 yards on nine rushes including a score. Ryan Clemens led all players in rushing with 97 yards on 16 totes, punching in one of W&L's six rushing scores, contributed by six different players. Teddy Sparrow and Michael Schoenberg finished tied for the team-high in receiving yards with 27, with Schoenberg's coming on a single grab against Sparrow's on two catches including a score.
Against Washington & Lee's triple-option, tackles were in abundance with GC racking up 107 overall in the game, tied for the fifth-most in a game in program history. Along the way, five Quakers reached double-digit takedowns led by Finkelstein's career and game-high dozen.
Garrett Wilson (Winston-Salem, N.C.) had 11 while Reid,
Joshua Ricks (Rocky Mount, N.C.) and
Owen Whelan (Asheboro, N.C.) had 10 each.
AJ Norfus Jr. (Greenville, S.C.) and Shively teamed up GC's lone sack with the senior making 1.5 TFLs. Brennan Stout led the guests with nine tackles and forced a fumble that was recovered by Gabe Joyner, who finished second on the Generals with six takedowns. Amez Dowe had 2.0 of W&L's four sacks, including a strip sack, although it was recovered by the Quakers.
Guilford won the opening drive and chose to receive, and their opening drive showed real promise as they used 10 plays to go 38 yards, and getting into field goal range for Tucker, who bashed through his record-setting boot as GC seized the lead. Unfortunately, it would be 47-unanswered by Washington & Lee from there. Collins completed a seven-play, 71-yard drive with a 30-yard TD rush to grab the lead for W&L, though Reid blocked the PAT, keeping the score at 6-3 at the end of one.
In the second, Clemens punched in a one-yard score a bit past the midway point in the quarter then the Generals two-minute drill drive yielded a late score as Collins connected with Sparrow from 13 away, although for the second time in three tries, Michael Fernandes' PAT got swatted, this time by
Cory Cheeks (Spartanburg, S.C.). The score was nonetheless 19-3 into the locker room.
In the third, Adam Crawford scored from two yards for W&L and Fidel Small scored from one-out. Finally, in the fourth, Aaron Ayodeji ran one in from 56 yards and James Lancaster took another across the goal line from four yards away, bringing the score to it's final, 47-3.
GC is on the road the rest of the way, beginning in Danville, Va. for a battle with Averett University on Saturday, November 7 kicking off at 1:00 PM at Daly Field at Frank R. Campbell Stadium.
#GoQuakes
