EDINBORO — On Tuesday, Edinboro University senior running back Ulysee Davis suffered a loss far greater than any he had faced as a member of the Fighting Scots’ football team with the passing of his grandmother, Alice Hill.

Four days later, Davis, still overcome with emotion, chose to honor his grandmother with his best performance in over a year. That effort was not only part of the healing process for Davis, but a huge boost for the Fighting Scots, who shook off a rough start on their way to a 40-3 win over Gannon on Homecoming Weekend at Sox Harrison Stadium.

“This felt just great,” said Davis following the game. “With the passing of my grandmother on Tuesday, I just wanted to go out and do it for her and all my family in Georgia. My family … everyone is in down in Georgia. I just did it for them.”

Davis finished yesterday’s game with 95 yards rushing on 18 carries with two touchdowns. It was his biggest offensive output since Oct. 27 of last year when he ran for 95 yards on 24 carries.

Davis moved into seventh place all-time in Edinboro history with 22 rushing touchdowns and is now tied for ninth place overall in career rushing yards with 1,900.

None of Davis’ yards yesterday, though, were quite as important as the 57 he tallied in the second half with the Scots up by just 11 at 14-3 and in need of a huge boost offensively.

“At halftime, we felt that he had the hot hand,” Edinboro coach Scott Browning said of Davis. “We felt that he was running the ball a little harder than the other guy. It didn’t have so much to do with what Houston Brown was doing wrong, but what Spud (Davis) was bringing to the table.

“He just came ready to play and we felt we should just go ahead and play him.”

Good call.

Edinboro came out of the gates very slow against the Knights, who were playing the Scots for just the third time in program history and the first time ever as a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference West.

The Scots grabbed the momentum early when freshman Ryan Skelton forced a fumble on the opening kickoff and recovered it at the Gannon 22-yard line. Three incomplete passes by Trevor Harris and a run for a loss of a yard by Brown, however, ended a key opportunity for the Scots to put points on the board early and it didn’t get any better from there.

Edinboro committed three turnovers were penalized four times for 50 yards in the opening half.

“I don’t know if our guys were too excited or what,” Browning said. “They just didn’t handle the situation well. We just didn’t play very well. We made too many mistakes.”

“We were killing ourselves,” added Harris. “We were shooting ourselves in the foot. We’d drive down the field and make plays, but we left a lot of plays out there. I left a lot of plays out there.

“I think this might be the worst game I’ve played in maybe the last year, year in a half … since West Chester. But you know, that’s why it’s the ultimate team game.”