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Humphrey becomes Rams’ all-time sack leader

By Staff | Oct 27, 2017

Myles Humphrey enjoyed a celebration fit for a monarch last Saturday, his family made sure of.

Emerging from the dressing room at Ram Stadium after Shepherd’s 48-14 victory over Urbana, the Shepherd soon found himself covered in a purple robe, wearing a crown on his head and holding a scepter.

“That’s my family,” Humphrey said. “I love them.”

Sacking quarterbacks turned Humphrey into Shepherd’s sack king.

He’s now Shepherd’s all-time leader, reaching the milestone when he dropped Urbana quarterback Tujaun Green in the second quarter of the second-ranked Rams’ Mountain East Conference game.

He moved ahead of Howard Jones, now a linebacker on the Chicago Bears practice squad, with his 37th career sack.

Humphrey appeared to be involved in an earlier sack that would’ve broken the record, but the stop was given to one of his teammates.

No matter.

Shepherd’s defense sacked Green six times and limited the Blue Knights to just a single touchdown. Urbana’s second score came when a defender picked up a Shepherd fumble and ran into the end zone.

It’s a defense that is picking up steam.

“I thought we played like we should,” Humphrey said.

It was arguably Shepherd’s best game of the season on defense as the unit continues to improve after early struggles that saw the unit yielding lots of points, particularly in the passing game.

Green threw a 75-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the game, but he spent the rest of the game running away from danger.

“It was a big play,” said Shepherd defensive back DeJuan Neal. “You got to move on. We stuck to the game plan and shut ’em out the rest of the way.”

He made a huge interception, backpeddaling in the end zone and choking off a receiver before grabbing the pass as he fell backward.

“It was a fade, and I stayed over the top, and made the catch,” Neal said.

Which is kind of hard to do considering one hand and wrist are stuck in a cast.

“If I touch it, I got to catch it,” Neal said.

He intercepted a pass for the second game in a row.

The Rams intercepted three passes in an important win over Fairmont the week before and came up with an assortment of important stops.

“We’ve started slow before, but nobody panicked,” Humphrey said. “We made our adjustments. We knew they wanted to pass, so the defensive line got after it. We knew they didn’t have a running game.”

Shepherd also came up with a blocked field goal as E.J. Norris, who also had two sacks, got his hand on the ball.

“They wanted to attack our secondary because it’s young,” Humphrey said. “They tried to throw in a couple of running plays to keep us honest. If they’re going to pass deep, they need time.”

Humphrey has time to add to his sack total.

He has at least three more regular-season games to increase the mark and possibly more if the undefeated Rams reach the postsesaon for a third straight year.

Humphrey’s teammates simply love him.

Quarterback Connor Jessop spoke in glowing terms of the defensive captain, saying that if he ever has a son, he’d like for him to be like Humphrey.

“There’s not a finer young man in our program,” said Shepherd coach Monte Caterthen adding that Humphrey is how a son should be.

A son that his family made king for a day after Humphrey became Shepherd’s sack king.