District College Football Recap for Saturday, November 22nd

By: Bruce Markey
Saturday, November 22, 2014 | 10:08 PM

As the local college football season winds down, it’s time for playoff action in both D-II and D-III with two local teams in action. The ECAC held their annual bowl games with two more local teams involved and the NEC winds down conference play with a pair of local games.

Here are recaps from ALL the games, including one heard on the Network:

NCAA Division III Playoffs First Round:
W & J 41 – Wittenburg 25
The #19 ranked Presidents used defense to go on the road and knock off the #12 ranked and NCAC champion Tigers. W & J forced 9 turnovers, including 8 interceptions in the win and will advance to the second round to play at national power Mount Union next week. The defense allowed 536 yards, the offense was held to their lowest output of the season but the turnovers were the story.

W & J scored on the opening possession, Upper St. Clair’s Pete Coughlin hit Daniel Lis for a 5 yard touchdown. Coughin connected with Avonworth’s Jessie Zubik for a 45 yard touchdown three minutes later, that 14-0 lead held up for the remainder of the quarter.

Blake Davis hit a 26 yard field goal 14 seconds into the second. Wittenburg got on the board with an Evan Grissom 36 yard kick. Tigers quarterback Zach Jenkins had four interceptions and lost a fumble in the first half, Alec Schram had two of the picks for the Presidents.

Grissom hit a 42 yard field goal on the opening drive of the third to cut the lead to 17-6. Davis answered with a 20 yard boot, the Tigers scored their first touchdown on a Jenkins toss to Corey Stump for 54 yards, making it a one score game. The play of the game came later in the quarter, Billy Kelley picked off his second pass and returned it to the two yard line, dialing up Thomas Jefferson’s Ryan Ruffing, he scored his 29th touchdown of the season to put W & J up 27-13 after three.

Wittenburg drove to start the fourth quarter to the 13 yard line, but Jenkins was sacked on fourth down. The Tigers did get two points when Coughlin was tackled in the end zone by Dwight Hill with 12:10 remaining in regulation. Two plays later, Jenkins was picked by Schram for the third time to end a threat. Coughlin scored on a 5 yard run, Grissom answered with a 34 yard field goal to make it 34-18. But Max Creighan ended any hope for the Tigers when he returned the kickoff 95 yards to the house.

Jenkins hit Clay Mangen for a 1 yard touchdown with 2:18 left, the Tigers recovered the onside kick but the quarterback was picked by Kelley for a third time to end the game.

Coughlin was 22 of 40 for 236 yards, Lis had 11 catches for 71 yards, Zubik 5 for 113. W & J is now 10-1. Jenkins was 28 of 56, Zach Culvahouse had 10 catches for 169 yards. Wittenburg finishes 9-2.

NCAA Division II Playoffs/First Round:
West Chester 46 – Slippery Rock 20
In Super Region One, the Golden Rams blew out the PSAC champions to move on to the second round and a trip to top seeded Concord next week. Sean McCartney threw for 405 yards and five touchdowns in the win as West Chester led 32-6 at the half.

West Chester won the regional last year, they make their 13th appearance in the NCAA field and have advanced past the second round twice.

The Golden Rams scored just two minutes into the game, McCartney to Tim Brown for 33 yards and a score. Slippery Rock tied the game on Zack Newsock’s 21 yard pass to Jaimire Dutrieuille. Newsock made the start in place of PSAC State Title Game MVP Jared Buck, who was injured in that win and could not play. The Rock also lost linebacker Austin Miele on the second play of the game, PSAC Freshman of the Year Marcus Martin for most of the first half and corner Admire Carter in the second.

McCartney, the PSAC East Offensive Player of the Year, gave West Chester the lead for good in the first with a 15 yard pass to Brandon Monk. He added a 33 yard scoring strike to Mike Doty and two more scores to Brown before the end of the first half.

Eddie Elliott scored on a 2 yard run for West Chester in the third, backup quarterback Andrew Derr hit Adam Dempsey for a 20 yard touchdown in the fourth. The Rock got two touchdown passes from Newsock to finish the scoring and the season. SRU was held to just 31 yards rushing and 158 total yards, the Rock finishes at 9-3.

McCartney was 23 of 40 in the win, Brown had 7 catches for 164 yards, Doty 5 for 108. The #15 Rams are now 11-1 on the season, their only loss was to Bloomsburg, who received a bye in the first round and hosts Virginia State next weekend in the second round.

ECAC Southwest Bowl: 
Buffalo State 59 – Waynesburg 36
Carter Hill threw for 282 yards and 5 touchdowns, setting the single season and career touchdown pass record but it was not enough as Kyle Hoppy threw for 5 touchdowns and ran for another to give Buffalo State the win in their first post-season game since 2000.

Waynesburg took an early lead on a Hill td pass to Tim Cooper of 15 yards. But Hoppy hit Ryan Carney for two scores in the first and Mike Doherty for a 23 yard strike in the second for a 21-7 lead. The Yellow Jackets answered with Hill going to Bernie Thompson for a 26 yard score but Buffalo State scored 10 points in the final two minutes of the half to lead 31-14.

Tre Jones scored on a 6 yard run, Hill hit Andrew English for a 29 yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 38-22 after three. But Jones scored again and Hoppy hit Billy Joiner to end any Waynesburg comeback hopes. Hill connected with Willie Leavell for scores of 29 and 22 yards, Hoppy and Doherty hooked up again for a 4 yard score with just over 2 minutes to play.

Hoppy was 24 of 34 for 335 yards. Doherty had 15 catches for 201 yards, Jones ran 19 times for 95 yards. Hill was 19 of 35, Thompson had 7 catches, Leavell 5. Both teams end the season at 8-3.

ECAC Southeast Bowl:
Stevenson 29 – Bethany 7
The Bison went on the road and dropped their second straight game to finish at 6-5. Brian Vales threw for 229 yards and a fourth quarter touchdown for the only Bethany score.  Trey Lee ran for 174 yards on 30 carries and three touchdowns for Stevenson, who finishes 8-3.

NEC: 
Duquesne 22 – Robert Morris 0
In the Steel Bowl, the Dukes posted their first shutout since 2011 and held the Colonials to just 151 total yards.

Duquesne led 10-0 after one, Mike LoPresti, the third starting quarterback for Duquesne on the season, tossed a 4 yard touchdown pass to Noel Oduho. LoPresti got the call when Dillon Buechel went down for the second time last week. Backup Ryan Egholf is also out of the lineup. Austin Crimmins kicked a 23 yard field goal to add to the Dukes lead.

That score held up into the third quarter, when LoPresti hit Chavas Rawlings for his first touchdown on a 12 yard pass. The Dukes added another Crimmins field goal and a safety to close out the scoring.

LoPresti threw for just 133 yards, he ran for 48. The Dukes finish 6-6 overall and 2-4 in the NEC. Duane Mitchell had 7 catches for 91 yards for RMU, the Colonials fall to 1-10 overall and end up 1-5 in the NEC.

Central Connecticut State 22 – Saint Francis 17
Nick Sangiacomo scored on a 1 yard run with 11 seconds to play in regulation to give the Blue Devils the road win. The loss denied Saint Francis it’s first winning season since 1992, the Red Flash fall to 5-6.

The Red Flash led 10-0 on a Lance Geesy field goal and Khairi Dickson’s 8 yard run. Sangiacomo tossed a td pass in the first and ran for a score in the second to give the Blue Devils a 13-10 lead at the half.

Saint Francis took the lead on a Zach Drayer td pass to Anthony Abeid of 4 yards. But CCSU got a field goal by Ed Groth and the score by their quarterback to take home their first conference win.

The NEC’s top two rushers were both shut down, Dickson was held to 58 yards on 27 carries. Rob Holloman had 23 carries for 55 yards. Saint Francis finishes 3-3 in the NEC. CCSU goes to 3-9 overall and 1-5 in the conference.