William & Mary holds off Elon late in CAA opener, wins 34-31

ELON, N.C. (AP) — Running back DreSean Kendrick faded a 29-yard pass to Cole Blackman for a fourth-quarter touchdown to give William & Mary a 10-point lead and allow the Tribe to hold off a second-half charge by Elon, defeating the Phoenix 34-31 in a Colonial Athletic Association opener Saturday afternoon.

Darius Wilson ran 46 yards for a first-quarter touchdown and tossed a six-yard scoring pass to Lachlan Pitts to start the second quarter to put William & Mary on top, 21-0 16 minutes into the game. The Phoenix, who missed a pair of field goal attempts in the first half, scored on Davis Cheek's 17-yard pass to Kortez Weeks, then Cole Coleman picked off a Wilson pass deep in Tribe territory and Jaylan Thomas ran in from six-yards out to make it 21-14 at intermission.

Wilson capped a six-play, 70-yard drive to start the third quarter by hitting Pitts from 10 yards out.

Elon got a 43-yard field goal by Skyler Davis and Cheek found Bryson Daughtry from 19 yards out to cut the Tribe's lead to 27-24.

Wilson ran 17 yards to give the Tribe a first down at the Elon 29 and Kendrick came on to throw for the touchdown with 6:36 left.

Cheek threw a 20-yard pass to Thomas to get the Phoenix back within a field goal with 4:38 left in the game.

Wilson finished 11 of 17 for 178 yards, two touchdowns and was picked off twice. Kendrick completed all four of his passes for William & Mary (3-1). Wilson carried 13 times for 95 yards and Pitts caught four passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns.

Cheek was 36 of 54 for 384 yards and three touchdowns for Elon (1-3).

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