UCF Defender Jem Hewlett Talks Knights' Defensive Performance Against Old Dominion

Through the defensive performance this team really had to put on, it felt like Old Dominion came out pressing so, so hard and you guys just kept them off the board for almost till the very end of the game. How'd you guys do it? I think it's down to character. I think we've had a lot of ups and downs this season and especially this week was a really, really tough one collectively. Obviously going to Coastal and having that performance and that result, which we felt we were hard done by. And then yeah, just I think we really galvanized ourselves. together as a group and I think we were just able to count on each other in important moments and I think we were able to deal like I say in a lot of interviews we've dealt with big teams big players and we've had that experience now so with that in mind we can we can kind of see what teams meet us with and we did a really really good job of prepping in that way and yeah I think it was a credit to everyone people that made an impact as well it feels like when the light shines bright the team shines even brighter especially at home this season how have you guys been able to to come out against these other elite teams and hold them off the board or just take dominant wins like today yeah i think always in football there's a home advantage and i think we really really take advantage of that um i think just the way that we prep in the week and obviously you've not been able to maybe fly and you kind of get extra time we have eight day window in between um games this week so we've kind of had that time to really prepare and I think any team that comes here really feels like they're under pressure from them and we kind of put our stance and our dominance and our DNA into the ball which is really really early on and I think when you're away sometimes it's almost kind of feeling your way into the game whereas we have these experiences to pull from and we can just go go from the get-go and then we talk about it with senior night tonight as well how important are all of the seniors in this team especially the ones that have been here for so many years and this game just means so much to them huge like I'm still a sophomore so it's only my second year and seniors past and seniors now that I've come in um have really just guided me in the right way um they're excellent players excellent people um brothers for life really and I think the way in which they they all play their part is massive um and without any of them we would be a completely different team and I'm just really proud of those people and they get that moment to shine tonight is there a particular senior or moment that you look back on and you're like that's one that I'm to remember for the rest of my life? I think I live with Gabby and he's someone who I really lean towards off the pitch. He's someone who's known this place for a long long time and he's a really big character change and he brings people together so leaning into people like him and the team at Harbrook as well who's been here for a while now they kind of know their role and they execute it to the best of their abilities and people like that is why we do so well at what we do. We saw you get banged up in the corner down there everything okay yeah yeah i'm good i'm good um majority of games i'm going down for something that's just part and parcel of it um and i think batiste batiste gave a big shout so i was kind of in the air and then i kind of pulled out in the last minute he came in and hit me but yeah all good all good in that area how do you carry this over now on the road which is tough to win get results on the road against talented West Virginia team I think look we gotta kind of assess the road and understand okay maybe how we approach things differently um but I'm really really excited I think that kind of win I think we've taken wins off of teams we maybe majority of the time shouldn't and we're kind of giving up games which we think we should win and that we control so I think it's look assessing where we are how we're feeling with our bodies and then kind of yeah getting the plan right um flying to Morgantown and being ready to go do you sense this team too from an offensive standpoint gaining that confidence over the last few matches to go to kind of parallel there with your defense? Yeah, 100%. I think you see tonight a lot more different profiles and people contributing at different times. You saw Eric, who finally got his moment, and I think with that goal it really changed the whole complexion of the game and that kind of bridged the gap to halftime. And then, yeah, I think everyone's contributing really, really well, and I think that work has paid off again tonight, but we've just got to keep it going. All good?