PEMBROKE – UNCP racked up more than 300 yards of total offense in the first half en route to taking a 35-9 lead into the locker room, but needed a couple of late defensive stands to turn back visiting Chowan, 49-38, on Saturday evening at Grace P. Johnson Stadium.

UNCP (2-0) registered its second-straight game with 500 or more yards of total offense, this time eclipsing a two-year-old school record en route to 561 yards (80 plays). Both squads would combine for 1,026 offensive yards on the night as the Hawks (1-1) turned in 465 of their own, including 312 yards in the second half alone.

Travis Daniels carried the ball 24 times for 247 yards, eclipsing his own school record of 213 (25 carries) set in a 41-34, double-overtime victory at Fayetteville State on Aug. 29, 2009. Quarterback Luke Charles threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-35 passing with one interception, while Donald Britt led the receiving corps with three catches for 55 yards. Six different players scored touchdowns on the night for the Braves, including 31- and 71-yard touchdown runs by Daniels.

Cameron Stover passed for 371 yards (31-for-58 passing) and four touchdowns to lead Chowan who also got big nights from receivers Kevin Hodrick (12 catches, 138 yards, TD) and Robert Holland (10-150, 3 TD). The Hawks tallied just 18 rushing yards in the first half, but J.R. Williams still finished the outing with 58 yards on 11 carries.

"Chowan played very hard tonight and I was very impressed with how they just continued to get after it tonight," said UNCP head coach Pete Shinnick. "When you have a young team, like we do, you're going to have some lapses in focus and concentration and you're not always going to be on point all the time. I have to do a better job making sure our guys are focused and ready to go every game because we did some things tonight that we shouldn't be doing.

"We had a good lead there early in the second half, but we just kept finding ways to squander it. We didn't do a whole lot in the fourth quarter. I wasn't pleased with our execution on either side of the ball in the fourth quarter. I told the guys that we were fortunate to win the game, but it just didn't feel right."

The Black and Gold scored two of three first quarter touchdowns - the first on a 42-yard pass from Charles to T.J. Johnson, and the latter on a 42-yard run by newcomer Damonte Terry – but encored with three second quarter touchdowns to take a 35-9 halftime lead. The Braves extended the advantage out to 42-9 on a 31-yard run by Daniels just less than two minutes into the third quarter, but Chowan would score 29 of the final 36 points of the contest to make it a ball game once again.

A 20-yard touchdown strike from Stover to Holland minutes later would whittle into the deficit minutely, but the Hawks got the 3,187 fans in attendance on the edge of their seats on the ensuing UNCP possession when David Fulton picked off Charles and returned the interception 38 yards for a touchdown. A 5-yard strike from Holland to Stover with just more than 12 minutes left in regulation would cut the UNCP lead back to 11, but the Hawks could not find any more points despite gaining 121 yards over their final three drives.