BUIES CREEK, N.C. - Campbell's football team (3-6, 2-4 Pioneer Football League) sent the nine senior players home happy in the team's final home game with a 56-14 win over Valparaiso (0-10, 0-7 PFL) on the team's Senior Day on Saturday, Nov. 6, at Barker-Lane Stadium/Ed Gore Field. The team ran for a school-record 416 yards in the win. The 56 points scored are a school-record and tie the stadium record.

Campbell's rushing attack was led by redshirt junior Carl Smith, who ran for 110 yards on only seven carries and averaged 15.7 yards an attempt. Freshman running back Kurt Odom ran for 77 yards and three scores in the victory. His three rushing touchdowns tie the school record that was set by redshirt senior quarterback Daniel Polk earlier in the game. Polk also ran for 77 yards and three scores. Polk also completed five of his nine attempts for 59 yards and a touchdown. Redshirt senior Lee Stanley led the Campbell defense with nine tackle, a forced fumble, a pass defense and two quarterback hurries.

The Camels took the lead with 11:08 remaining in the second quarter on Polk's three-yard touchdown run. Redshirt junior Adam Willets knocked in the extra point to increase the Campbell lead to seven. The big play of the drive was a 38-yard run by redshirt junior C.J. Oates.

Next, CU's offense took over deep in Valparaiso territory as sophomore safety Paul Pizzuti picked up a loose football after a forced fumble from redshirt junior Jeremiah Robinson at the Crusaders' five-yard line. The team wasted no time scoring as Odom powered it on the first play. The rushing touchdown was the first in the career of Odom and increased the Campbell score to 14-0 after the made extra point from Willets.

The Campbell special teams then came up with a big play with junior Erik Feliciano blocking and recovering a punt to again give the CU offense a short field. The Camels' offense capitalized quickly on Polk's second rushing touchdown of the game. The Willets extra point was good to increase the margin to 21-0 with 7:43 remaining in the second quarter.

Campbell kept the offensive show going and scored their fourth touchdown of the half on Polk's 16-yard touchdown pass to redshirt senior Mike Stryffeler. The touchdown catch was Stryffeler's second of the season. Willets made the ensuing extra point to increase the margin to 28-0 with 4:19 left in the second quarter.

Campbell defensive lineman Chris Smith was then able to pick off the first pass of his career to again give the offense a short field just before the half. Daniel Polk pounded it home for his third touchdown of the half to complete the five-play, 44-yard drive and give Campbell a 35-0 lead after the made Willets extra point heading into the break.

The Camels dominated the second quarter and were able to outscore Valparaiso 35-0 with the CU defense limited the Crusaders to a total of four yards on 17 plays.

The Campbell offense kept the scoring going and scored on the first drive of the second half with Odom scampering it in from nine-yard out. A Willets extra point gave Campbell the 42-0 lead with 14:15 remaining in the third quarter. The big play of the drive was a 42-yard rush from Polk.

CU's offense scored the team's seventh touchdown of the game on Carl Smith's three-yard rush. Willets extra point was good to increase the margin to 49-0 with 10:16 remaining in the third quarter. Smith had a 60-yard rush on drive to go over 100-yards in the game.

Valparaiso scored a touchdown on Kevin Becker's 16-yard touchdown reception from Eric Lemon. The Chris Smith extra point was good to make the score 49-7 with 1:14 remaining in the third quarter. Becker led the Crusaders with 11 catches for 120 yards in the loss.

CU got the touchdown back on their next drive with Odom rushing for his third touchdown of the game. The third Odom touchdown, a 50-yard rush, wrapped up a four play, 65-yard drive. Sophomore Sam Eberwein knocked in the extra point to increase the margin to 56-7.

Valparaiso scored their second touchdown of the game on Sean McCarty's three-yard catch from Lemon. The Smith extra point made the score 56-14 with 7:18 remaining in the game in what would be the final score

Campbell now hits the road to take on the Pioneer Football League's best in No. 23 Jacksonville (9-1, 7-0 PFL) on Nov. 13 at noon.

Coach Steele Quotes

Opening Thoughts

This was a good win for this team and the program as a whole. We've been through a lot of ups and downs this season and we took another step in this program by winning a game convincingly. That's the first in the history in this program and we got a chance to play some guys that don't get much playing time, and I was so proud of this team today.

Thoughts on the seniors

Well I told Charles Fiore the other day that he will always be the first player in this program. To see him go through five years and see him play the last game on this field in front of this great crowd and his family with his teammates made me so proud. I'm excited for guys like Daniel Polk, Will Phillippi, Matt Baker, Josh Owens, Christian Dixon, Taylor Reed and Lee Stanley. Mike Stryffeler came in as a quarterback at 180 pounds and worked hard in the weight room and became a tight end for us. All of those guys provided us with our first group of leaders, and they have been through a lot and it was great to send them off with a final victory on our home field.

How much of an attitude comes with a program that just started up and you have to figure out where everyone fits?

I think that it's a process anywhere and I think the process is unique here where were always moving the pieces around to find what works best. Today for example we have been trying to make a guy a backup center and we put him at guard today and he looked great. It's just different than a lot of places that are already established. I'm just excited for our guys and what they have accomplished to get to this program to today.

Thoughts on the original seniors that started the program.

Charles Fiore came in the office one of my first day here and said he wanted to play. That September we had a meeting that had 52 players show up and Christian Dixon is the only player left in the program today that was at that meeting. So those two guys were the beginning and those were two of the original 22. We rode in the first homecoming parade, and those guys rode with us and got the fans exited for football. We had a vision that Dr. Wallace gave us and it just grew from there. Today we have started to see the hard work paying off and those are the guys that remember when we didn't even have a field to play on. I'm just so proud and happy for those guys.

Thoughts on freshman Kurt Odom

Well, Kurt is a great football player and he is going to have a great career here at Campbell. He ran track and was an all-state football player in high school. He is just a great athlete and a great kid. He is another great asset to our team.

Final thoughts

I'm pleased with every facet of today's game. It's a good day for us. Valparaiso never gave up or quit fighting. Coach Carlson will do a great job with his team in the future. We've been where they are, when teams run the score up. We did our best today to play as many players as we could to prevent that. They are a good football team and deserve our respect.