BOCA RATON – JC Evans had a memorable game at the Boca Raton Bowl on Wednesday night (Dec. 18).
The James Madison freshman quarterback and Miami Central alum was selected by media members as the Offensive Player of the Game after his team earned a close 27-17 win over Western Kentucky. He compiled the following statistics:
PASSING
•1 pass attempt
•1 completion
•1 touchdown pass
RUSHING
•10 carries
•64 yards
•1 touchdown
While these numbers seem minuscule, the level of impact was otherworldly in more ways than one.
After both teams punted due to three-and-out possessions on their respective first offensive drives, Evans was inserted as the Dukes quarterback. In a seven-play, 77-yard drive that took nearly four minutes off the clock, the 6-foot-5, 211-pound quarterback reeled off runs of 4, 27, and 5 yards en route to the Western Kentucky 14-yard line.
The offensive drive ended with a 7-yard touchdown run by Evans, who helped in giving James Madison a 7-0 lead at the 8:03 mark of the first quarter.
By this point, Evans had 43 of his 64 rushing yards and one of his two touchdowns accounted for in the Boca Bowl.
The other Evans score came early in the third quarter. With James Madison down 14-7 to Western Kentucky, the objective was for its offense to score after its defense forced a punt on a three-and-out series. This successful drive was for 11 plays and 71 yards, ending with Evans throwing up a wide-open 1-yard jump pass to senior tight end Kyi Wright with 8:03 left.
With the extra point by kicker Noe Ruelas, the game was tied at 14-14.
For Evans, it was the first and only pass of his collegiate career to date at James Madison. Meanwhile for Wright, it was his first and only catch of the season, made possible by the jump pass from Evans.
From that point forward, James Madison (9-4 final record) went on to score 13 of the game’s final 16 points to earn its 10-point margin of victory over Western Kentucky (8–6 final record).
After the final buzzer sounded, Evans took in the elements on the field to celebrate with his teammates. For a small part of his celebration, he spoke with FL Teams to give us an instant reaction of his triumphant moment.
“As soon as I knew we were back here, I was excited,” said Evans, who is from Miami and was rated by ESPN as a three-star quarterback in his high school days at Miami Central. “My whole family’s here. I’m glad I got to be around a lot of familiar faces back at the crib.”
Later on in a press conference with media members, Evans reflected on his bowl game outing.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” Evans said. “We put in this work since January. I didn’t know how much I would play…I just have so much trust in these guys around me. I know these guys trust me. They’ll go to bat for me, just like I’ll do the same for them.”
Evans gave credit to a special group on the team.
“I want to put this on our offensive linemen,” Evans said. “Those guys have been working as hard as I have since January. This trophy really goes to them.”
James Madison head coach Bob Chesney spoke to media members about how Evans performed in the Boca Raton Bowl.
“He came in and did a great job,” Chesney said. “He ran behind his pads. He put us into a plus one quarterback scheme, which we needed. I just thought he did a really good job with it. When we couldn’t throw it, he executed that play excellently…He takes every rep real seriously as an opportunity to improve his personal game, and that’s exactly what he did.”
NOTES ON JAMES MADISON’S QB SITUATION:
Sophomore quarterback Alonza Barnett III, who is the team’s starter, finished the regular season and Sun Belt title game with the following statistics in 12 games played:
PASSING
•213-for-355; 60 percent completion rate •2,598 yards
•26 touchdowns
•4 interceptions
RUSHING
•135 carries
•442 yards
•7 touchdowns
Barrett III was ruled out of the Boca Raton Bowl due to a leg injury.
Meanwhile, Dukes backup quarterback and senior Dylan Morris could not play in this bowl game due to an arm injury.
This left Evans (fourth-stringer) and junior Billy Atkins (third-stringer) as the two quarterbacks available for the Boca Raton.
Atkins went on to complete 16 of 23 passes for 181 yards and one touchdown in his team’s Boca Bowl win.