Williamsburg, Va. – For the third consecutive season, the Elon University Football team overcame a fourth quarter deficit against William & Mary, defeating the No. 20 Tribe in a wild 40-36 CAA Football contest Saturday.
 
Elon trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half and was down 21-17 at the break. William & Mary scored with 1:31 to play to go ahead 36-33, but Matthew Downing led Elon on a 13-play, 72-yard drive and threw the game-winning touchdown to Onuma Dieke with five seconds remaining.
 
With the win, Elon improves to 4-6 on the season and 3-3 in CAA play. The Phoenix has won three of its last four games. William & Mary falls to 6-4 overall and 3-3 in conference.
 
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• William & Mary opened the game on offense but Asher Cunningham got his first career interception on a pass tipped by Jake Louro to set up the Elon offense.
• Elon quickly took advantage of the turnover as Matthew Downing found Zimere Winston down the sideline for his first career touchdown on a 45-yard strike.
• William & Mary took its first lead early in the second quarter with a one-yard rushing touchdown for a 14-7 lead. The Phoenix used a 10-play, 54-yard drive to get into field goal position. Luke Barnes connected from 39 yards to make it 14-10.
• The Tribe added another touchdown with just 1:47 to go that put William & Mary ahead 21-10 but Elon quickly answered. The Phoenix drove 65 yards in 1:30, capped by a Chandler Brayboy six-yard touchdown reception to make it 21-17 at the half.
• On the opening drive of the third quarter, Barnes made a career-long 41-yard field goal to pull Elon to within one. After a defensive stop, the Phoenix went ahead as Downing hit Isaiah Fuhrmann on a 17-yard touchdown pass for the 27-21 lead heading to the fourth.
• William & Mary took the lead back on a touchdown with 8:58 to go to make it 28-27. The Phoenix struck right back on a 69-yard drive in which Downing scored from one-yard away for a 33-28 advantage following a failed two-point conversion attempt.
• The game, though, continued to roller coaster from there. William & Mary converted a must-have fourth-and-16 and then scored from three yards away on the next play to take a 36-33 lead with just 1:31 to go.
• From there, Downing led a masterful 13-play, 72-yard drive that took only 1:26 to capture the victory. Starting from its own 28, things looked bad early for the Phoenix. On first down, Downing's pass was batted down. Elon was forced to use its final timeout after Downing was sacked on second down. On third down, Downing's pass was nearly intercepted, but on fourth down, he hit Onuma Dieke for 24 yards and new life.
• After a 10-yard completion to Landyn Backey and a targeting penalty on the Tribe, Elon had first-and-10 at the William & Mary 30. Downing scrambled for five yards to the 25 and then coverted a third down with a 10-yard completion to Brayboy. After an incomplete pass, Elon rolled the dice and went for it with just 11 seconds remaining and no timeouts.
• Downing found Dieke in back corner of the end zone and floated his fourth TD pass of the contest to the senior wideout with just five seconds remaining in the contest.

 
NOTES AND STATS

• One week after rushing for a career-high 154 yards, senior running back Rushawn Baker ran the ball 22 times for 167 yards, including 118 in the second half.
• Redshirt freshman Zimere Winston had his first career 100-yard receiving game, ending the contest with three catches for 101 yards.
• True freshman Isaiah Fuhrmann had his first career touchdown reception, ending with two catches for 19 yards.
• Matthew Downing was 19-of-35 for 315 yards passing. He was responsible for five touchdowns, passing four of them and rushing for one.
• Caleb Curtain had a team-high eight tackles and added a pass break-up.
• Asher Cunningham had his first career interception on the opening possession of the game.
• Ishmel Atkins had two tackles for loss to go with seven tackles, a pass break-up and a quarterback hurry.
• Eric Jones, in his first career start, and Jesse Powell each had a quarterback sack.
• Luke Barnes was 2-for-2 on field goals and 4-for-4 on extra points.
• Jeff Yurk averaged 49.5 yards on two punts, landing one inside the 20.
• Elon had a season-high 28 first downs (previous high was 23 against Richmond), the most in Head Coach Tony Trisciani's six-year tenure.
• The Phoenix had a season-high 493 yards of offense and was 5-of-5 in the red zone with four touchdowns and a field goal.
• Elon has now defeated William & Mary in three straight meetings to even the all-time series at 5-5. In 2022, the Phoenix overcame a 28-10 halftime deficit. In 2023, Elon came back from down 6-0 in the fourth quarter.
• Trisciani won his 30^th career game, all at Elon.
• The victory was Elon's ninth over a ranked opponent in Trisciani's six-year tenure.
• The win was Elon's 20^th CAA Football win since 2021. It is the third-most conference wins in the program's FCS history over a four-year stretch, behind 2007-10 (22 wins) and 2008-11 (21 wins).
• The loss was William & Mary's first loss at home this year after winning its first four of the 2024 campaign.

 
UP NEXT

• Elon will host Maine for Senior Day and Military Appreciation Day Saturday at 2:00 p.m. It is the final home game of the 2024 season for the Phoenix.