Box Score WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ - Monmouth (3-2, 2-0 Big South) shot out to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back cruising past Gardner-Webb (2-3, 0-1 Big South) on homecoming 54-17 on Saturday.
 
Tony Musket threw for four touchdowns and 289 yards while senior wideout Lonnie Moore had 197 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns. Juwon Farri recorded a pair of touchdowns and 139 yards rushing on 23 carries. The defense was led by Mike Reid who had eight tackles but the defense recorded six pass breakups and a forced fumble.
 
Monmouth's defense kept Gardner-Webb, who entered the game as the Big South's leading scoring offense at 35.8 points per game, off the scoreboard until the final play of the first half. The Runnin' Bulldogs came into the game averaging 211 yards rushing on offense but were held to just 97 yards on 26 attempts.
 
Farri broke out for a 35-yard touchdown to start the scoring, breaking three tackles before streaking out along the left sideline to put the Hawks up 7-0 on the Hawks' first possession of the game. The Hawks built a 33-0 lead on a pair of Joey Aldarelli touchdown receptions, a 39-yard Moore touchdown run and a 22-yard fumble recovery by senior defensive lineman Nick Shoemaker.
 
The Hawks came right out in the second half and drove 75 yards on four plays, with Muskett hitting freshman Dymere Miller for his first career touchdown reception.  Gardner-Webb answered back to cut the lead to 40-14 on a two-yard TD run but Moore hauled in an 18 yard TD and Farri ran over multiple opponents for his second score of the game, a 13 yarder. GWU added a field goal midway through the fourth to finish the scoring at 40-17.
 
 
NOTES AND QUOTES
"We felt it was important that we got back to playing up to our standard this week. While we did learn some things from it (last week's loss) we felt it was important to put that behind us and work on being 1-0 this week. learned some things from last week and We started fast and kept the heat on them and were able to put the game away fairly early." Head Coach Kevin Callahan
 
"I think our defense had something to prove after giving up all those points against Holy Cross. Gardner-Webb was a team that came into the game averaging over 200 yards per game and we knew they were going to come at us up front and we challenged our guys to stop the run." Coach Callahan
 
"We just had a tough game last week and that hurt us. We put an emphasis on us this week to get back to playing like us as an offense this week. The offensive line did a phenomenal job. We all know that it starts with them. A veteran group they really locked in and did a great job this week." Lonnie Moore IV
 

• Monmouth has now scored 40+ points in five consecutive matchups with the Runnin' Bulldogs
• The Hawks have now won 12 consecutive Big South Conference games and are 19-2 at Kessler Stadium since it opened in 2017
• Farri finished with 139 rushing yards, giving him 2,060 in his career which is seventh all-time at Monmouth. He is now the eighth Hawk to eclipse the 2k mark.
• Freshman Dymere Miller caught his first career touchdown as part of his three-reception 106-yard day. He is the first Hawk to go over 100 yards receiving
• The last time the Hawks recovered a fumble for a TD was in the 2013 season when Clark Coe scored against Lehigh.
• Aldarelli has now scored three touchdowns in the last two games.
• Muskett tied his career-high in touchdown passes with four, matching his effort against Kennesaw State last year.
• The Hawks have won four consecutive games on homecoming

 
NUMBERS CRUNCH

• Monmouth held Gardner-Webb to 1-of-10 on third down in the first half
• The Hawks rolled up 527 yards of offense compared to 322 for Gardner-Webb
• Monmouth had a 33:03-26:57 advantage in time of possession
• Monmouth had 25 first downs, GWU finished with 10
• GWU was 2-of-15 on third down
• Monmouth had 238 yards rushing in the contest

 
UP NEXT
Monmouth will host in-state rival Princeton next week at Kessler Stadium. Tickets for the 1 PM kickoff are on sale now at MonmouthHawks.com