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BUIES CREEK, N.C. – David Salmon directed two late touchdown drives and Aaron Nichols' interception set up the go-ahead score to lead Campbell to a 28-27 Pioneer Football League win over Davidson Saturday at Barker-Lane Stadium.

In front of a Homecoming Day crowd of 6,345 – the third-largest in Barker-Lane Stadium history – the Camels (4-3, 4-0) rallied from a 27-14 deficit to extend their win streak to four games and remain unbeaten in PFL play.

Davidson (1-7, 0-4) suffered its seventh-straight loss and dropped its third in the last four meetings with the Camels.

Playing in relief of injured starter Dakota Wolf, Salmon drove the Camels 54 yards on eight plays and connected with Jabri Ridenhour for the final 11 yards to draw the Camels within 27-21 with 2:04 to play.

After forcing a Davidson punt, Salmon again drove the Camels into the red zone, but the Camels turned it over on downs at the Wildcat 20.  On third down, however, Isaiah Howard tipped J.P. Douglas' pass in the air and Nichols grabbed it and a facemask penalty set up the Camels with a first down on the Davidson 17 with 1:40 to play.

On third-and-7 from the 14, Salmon found Ben Bolling open on the right flank and the red-shirt junior stepped into the end zone.  Mitchell Brown's point after provided the winning margin.

Douglas completed three passes and the Wildcats reached the Campbell 42 on William Morris' 11th reception of the game before time expired.

After completing only one of his first seven passes, Salmon connected on eight of his last 14.  The red-shirt freshman from Middle Creek High School finished the day 9-of-21 for 108 yards and two touchdowns.

Keith Goss ran 17 times for 98 yards to lead the Camels on the ground and Ridenhour had for receptions to lead the Camels, who won despite being out-gained 410-275.  Davidson scored 10 points off three Campbell turnovers, but the Camels tallied a pair of touchdowns off Wildcats miscues.

Douglas completed 28-of-42 passes for 298 yards, one TD and one interception, but was sacked six times and hurried on three other occasions.  He also led Davidson on the ground with 48 yards on 18 carries.

Morris, who entered the game third in the country in receptions, had 11 catches for 141 yards.  Cam Cheuvront added five grabs.

Greg Milhouse topped Campbell with 11 tackles, including a sack and fumble recovery.  Jake Barr added nine tackles, Andrew Yost eight and Luke Hill seven for the Camels.  Isaac Scott was in on six stops and forced two fumbles.

Matt Casey led Davidson with nine tacked and Nick Ragsdale added eight for the Wildcats, who entered the game 3-0 all-time at Barker-Lane Stadium.

The Wildcats jumped to a 17-0 lead after scoring on their first three drives.

Douglas capped a 13-play, 78-yard opening drive with a 10-yard scoring toss to tight end Trey Huelskamp.  Douglas hit 8-of-11 passes in the series, including six to William Morris.

Davidson went up 14-0 on Douglas' 11-yard keeper around left end.  He hit Huelskamp with a 36-yard toss and also kept the 8-play, 80-yard drive alive with a 25-yard scramble on third down.

The Wildcats drove 71 yards on their third possession to the Campbell eight, but the Camel defense stiffened and Trevor Smith's 27-yard field goal extended the margin to 17-0 with 14:14 to play in the second quarter.

Davidson again drove into Campbell territory, but Scott forced Douglas to fumble and Dwan Hanshaw fell on the ball at the Camel 45.

Goss' 26-yard run was the key play in a 6-play, 55-yard possession ended by Wolf's 2-yard scramble to get the Camels on the board.

After forcing Davidson to punt, the Camels took over on their 41. Jared Joyner's 33-yard carry was the big play in a 5-play drive that Wolf capped with an 8-yard run around the right end and diving for the pylon.  However, the red-shirt senior was injured on the play and returned to the game only briefly in the third quarter.

Scott forced another Davidson fumble by Jeffrey Keith and Milhouse recovered at the Davidson 33.  However, Bryant Bednarik intercepted Salmon's pass at the four-yard line to end the threat.

Two Jared Joyner fumbles allowed the Wildcats to tack on 10 more points in the third quarter.  Joyner's fumble at midfield was scooped up by Thomas Sykes and returned to the Campbell 30.  Jeffrey Keil ran in from 3 yards to finish a 7-play drive and extend the lead to 27-14.

Joyner dropped a lateral and Ben Hart fell on it at the Campbell 33 to set up Smith's 25-yard field goal with 1:58 left in the third before Campbell's late rally.

After converting on just one of six third downs through three quarters, Salmon and the Camels earned new sets of downs four times in six fourth period possessions, while also making one of two on fourth down.

Campbell travels next Saturday to Marist (1-6, 1-3 PFL) for a 12:00 p.m. kick-off, while Davidson hosts Stetson at 1:00 p.m.

Quotes

Head Coach Mike Minter
Opening statement…
"This might have been the ugliest win that I've ever been a part of. We went out there initially with a team that wasn't mentally all the way there. We had a big win against the defending champions (Butler) last weekend. The hardest part of learning how to win is getting back into the moment; that was the challenge that we faced, and we didn't get back into the game until midway through the second quarter. After we spotted Davidson 17 points, we started to play. One thing that I like about my football team right now is that they are tough. We spent the entire offseason learning how to be mentally tough, and that's what they exhibited today." 

On playing from behind…
"I've been there as a player, so I know what those guys are going through. You have to continue to stay in the moment and not try to get everything back at once. You know your abilities and you know that you should be winning the game. Because of that, you have confidence. You know that you're going to get it going eventually. That's how we felt throughout the game tonight." 

On what the team learned from the game…
"I'm glad that we were in a game like this as a coach. It's going to teach these guys that when I say to stay in the moment for 60 minutes it can lead to wins for this team. That's what you want to have: guys that are starting to believe what you're preaching. I think games like tonight will really reinforce what we've taught to these guys." 

Redshirt Junior Defensive Back Aaron Nichols
On the interception to set up the game-winning score…
"In the moments leading up to that play, I had told my teammates to keep the faith and keep believing because something big was going to happen for us. I really give it up to my teammate Isaiah Howard because he tipped it up and put me in a position to make the big play."

On the change the defense showed after falling behind 17-0…
"I believe we started to get a little bit more confident. We came out pretty slow, but as the game went on we knew that we were the better team. Once that thought came into our head, we started to pick up our play. We were able to stop them on critical drives, forced some turnovers and made them take field goals instead of touchdowns. I put that all on our increased level of confidence." 

Redshirt Freshman Quarterback David Salmon
On his thoughts after the fourth-down incompletion late in the fourth quarter…
"I had full confidence in our defense, especially with the way that the game was going. All of us on the sideline believed that our defense was going to make a stop. Obviously they came up with the big play on Nichols' pick. We knew that we had to stick together as a team through that whole fourth quarter, and like I said, we had no doubt that they were going to make a play." 

On the game-winning touchdown pass to Ben Bolling…
"We had actually run the same play one play before, but we flipped it. We caught the safety out of position a little bit; I could've just given it to Keith Goss to run for the first down, but I wanted to take a shot to see if we could find space on the outside. We have great blocking wide receivers so I had confidence in them, and Ben made the rest of the play happen."