BANGOR – The message to Husson College was delivered very early by the Wesley College Wolverines: This will be a long day.

It was.

The Wolverines of the Atlantic Central Football Conference scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and never looked back en route to a 51-0 thudding of the winless Braves at Winkin Complex on a cloudy, cool Saturday afternoon.

“This was a team that’s more advanced than us right now,” said head coach Gabby Price, whose Braves fell to 0-6. “That’s a playoff team. They’ve won over 77 percent of their games since that coach has been there. They have great team speed, experience, depth…. They look good everywhere. This is the best team by far we’re going to play this year.”

Tailback Omar Muhammad ran for a game-high 162 yards and two touchdowns – all in the first half – and backup Ken Busch totaled 101 yards and two TDs – all in the second – to lead the 4-3 Wolverines’ offense.

“I give it to my big line. They made the blocks and opened up the holes for me,” said Muhammad. “We like to set up the run when we first come out and then open things up to pass.”

Quarterback Chris Warrick picked his spots, completing 7 of 11 passes for 108 yards and running for a touchdown before being lifted late in the second quarter.

“We wanted to keep their quarterback inside because they run a good waggle play and we wanted to contain that,” said Husson defensive lineman Nate Roberts of Alfred. “We did that, but their running game was tough and we kind of gave the inside game up.”

Wesley of Dover, Del., which began the season 0-2, averaged 5.7 yards per carry as it piled up 343 yards on the ground. The Wolverines had more carries (60) than Husson had rushing yards (54) and racked up more than five times more total yardage (489 to 97) than the Braves.

Rover back Rocky Myers, the nation’s Division III tackling leader with 1031/2, helped lead Wesley’s defensive effort with 61/2 tackles.

“We figured this would be a big challenge to us because they like to throw it and when we got up real big, we figured it would be even tougher for us,” Myers said. “We really wanted a shutout. That was our main goal. We talked about it at halftime and again after the third.”

Linebacker Freddie Couch led Wesley with five solo tackles, five assists, and a sack. Mike Bennett of Waterboro led Husson with seven solos and three assists.

Curtis Gore put an exclamation point on the rout with a 95-yard punt return for a TD with 8:23 left in the third quarter.

“On the punt returns, it looked like we only had nine guys out there,” said Price, who remained upbeat and philosophical after the loss. “You’re never happy when you’re getting your butt kicked, but we’re making progress. Most people would have jumped ship by now, but our guys are hanging in there.”

Brewer’s Justin Spencer gained 20 yards on his first two carries, but was held to 31 on his next 20 carries.

“We went back to an eight-man front and gambled that our secondary, which is pretty good, could handle their passing attack,” said Wesley coach Mike Drass.

WOLVERINES 51, BRAVES 0

Wesley (4-3) 21 10 14 6 ? 51

Husson (0-6) 0 0 0 0 ? 0

W ? O. Muhammad 1 run (Carlton kick)

W ? O. Muhammad 4 run (Carlton kick)

W ? Warrick 7 run (Carlton kick)

W ? Carlton 21 field goal

W ? James 36 pass from Crane (Carlton kick)

W ? Busch 5 run (Carlton kick)

W ? Gore 95 punt return (Carlton kick)

W ? Busch 16 run (kick failed)

Wesley Husson

First downs 18 4

Rushing att.-yards 60-343 34-52

Passing comp.-att. 9-14 4-20

Passing yards 146 45

Total yards 489 97

Punts-avg. 2-42.0 10-33.0

Fumbles-lost 5-1 2-0

Intercepted by 1 0

Penalties-yards 11-95 4-30

Rushing

Wesley: O. Muhammad 22-162, Busch 12-101, Taylor 3-26, Perry 14-20, Crane 2-18, Lemon 3-14, N. Muhammad 1-3, Warrick 2-1, Lowe 1-(-2); Husson: Spencer 22-51, Nowlin 5-7, Chase 4-5, St. Hillaire 3-(-11)

Passing

Wesley: Warrick 7-11-0-108, Crane 2-3-0-38; Husson: St. Hillaire 4-15-1-45, Chase 0-5-0-0

Receiving

Wesley: Lowe 1-44, Bacote 1-39, James 1-36, Kline 1-14, Gore 1-5, O. Muhammad 2-4, Busch 1-2, Makowski 1-2; Husson: Spencer 1-14, Lockard 1-14, Tribou 1-11, Jack 1-6

A?400 (est.)