A steady, light rain kept the crowd from going beyond Ram Stadium’s capacity, but those in attendance witnessed unbeaten Shepherd scoring the game’s last 28 points to defeat Glenville State, 38-7, in an encounter where the Rams’ strengths and weaknesses were evident to all.

Glenville double-covered Shepherd All-America receiver Billy Brown, yet the record-setting senior had two scoring catches from Jeff Ziemba and seven receptions in all for 117 yards. With the severe attention Brown was getting, receiver Ryan Feiss had nine receptions for 90 yards and C.J. Davis took another five passes from Ziemba, who completed 27 of his 34 throws for 334 yards (three TDs) despite being subjected to a heavy rush by the Pioneer down linemen.

Ziemba was sacked five times as Demetrius Loftin and teammates stormed past Shepherd tackles Lavonte Hights and Levi Lloyd all too often.

The Rams rushed for 92 yards and that added to the generous passing yardage made for 439 yards of total offense as compared to Glenville’s tame 235 yards. There was only one first-half penalty against Shepherd and only five walkoffs for the game.

With many players having the same general skill level, the depth-happy Rams used a changing supply of defenders to mostly defuse the Pioneer offense and hold it scoreless in the first half.

Shepherd took advantage of Glenville’s ramshackle kicking game that was replete with high snaps to punter Dante Roberts, whose hurried efforts featured a low trajectory and very limited distance.

While suffering through five sacks on Ziemba, Shepherd had four sacks itself and enough pressure to discomfort quarterback Roberts in keeping him hopping in order to get off his throws.

Bruno Angangwe, James King, Marshall Mundin and Octavius Thomas had the Shepherd sacks. Thomas was credited with nine tackles to pace the Rams in that category.

Brown had touchdown catches of 11 and 53 yards and Deonte Glover ran for a score after earlier taking a 14-yard touchdown throw from Ziemba.

The once scant lead was back to 10 points when Brandon Hlavach scored late in the third period.

Shepherd thoroughly dominated the fourth quarter . . . winning it by a quickly expanding 21-0 count.

Brown literally outmuscled a defender for a 24-7 lead. The 6-foot-4, 236-pound wideout rode through two defenders on a 53-yard scoring catch on a flea flicker throw from Ziemba.

Glover’s run provided a satisfying 38-7 lead . . . and the Rams had accounted for the final 28 points in their fifth win against no losses.

The Pioneers left Ram Stadium with a 3-3 record and three consecutive

losses.

Shepherd’s high national ranking will be on display in Institute on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it sees West Virginia State at sparsely populated Lakin Field.

Now ranked third in the nation, Shepherd has completely owned the Coach Monte Cater era series with the Yellow Jackets, showing a 29-0 record in three decades of all-winning.