District College Recap For Saturday, November 28

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, November 29, 2015 | 12:55 PM

And then there was one. Slippery Rock was the lone district team to advance in the NCAA Playoffs. Here are the recaps of ALL 3 games:

Division II Playoffs/Super Region 1 Semifinals
Slippery Rock 41 – Assumption 39
In a wild one at Mihalik-Thompson Stadium, the 2nd seeded Rock jumped out to an early lead and held on to advance to the regional finals. SRU notched their 17th straight home victory and takes the Rock to 12-1 overall.

SRU led 20-2 after one quarter. Shamar Greene(West Mifflin) opened the scoring on a 1 yard run. The Greyhounds blocked the extra point and returned it for a defensive conversion. The Rock got a score on defense of their own when Wash High’s Joe Phillips scooped a fumble and took it 52 yards to the house. Dante Nania(Hempfield) connected with Cornelius Raye(Allderdice) for a 13 yard td pass following a turnover.

Kevin Ihlefeld gave Assumption their first offensive score on a 2 yard touchdown. Both teams scored in the final 30 seconds of the half. Nania went to the end zone with a 2 yard run. The Greyhounds answered after a short kickoff with a field goal for a 27-12 Rock lead at the half.

Nania extended the SRU lead 66 seconds into the third with a 47 yard td toss to Jaimire Dutrieuille(Woodland Hills). Deontae Harris scored on a 21 yard scamper but Nania hooked up with Leroy McClain for a 9 yard score and a 41-19 lead after three.

The Greyhounds made thing very interesting as James Ward scorec on a 1 yard run and QB Marc Monks went to Ashton Grant for scores of 10 and 45 yards to cut the Rock lead to two. Monks failed on the two point attempt. Assumption got the ball back with just under 2 minutes remaining but Titus Howard(Clairton) ended the game with an interception at the Rock 45.

SRU advances to the round of eight for the first time since 1998. Greene carried 31 times for 160 yards. Isiah Neely(OLSH) added 67 rushing yards.

Monks threw for 365 yards for Assumption. Harris had 12 catches and Grant 9 for the Greyhounds, who finish at 11-2.

Shepherd 17 – IUP 13
The top seeded Rams scored with just over two minutes remaining to advance to the regional final and end the Crimson Hawks season. QB Jeff Ziemba hooked up with Billy Brown for a 28 yard touchdown to keep Shepherd unbeaten at 11-0.

The defense held the Crimson Hawks to just 274 total yards of offense and without an offensive touchdown. IUP was averaging 305 rushing yards per game.

Shepherd took an early 3-0 lead on a Ryan Earls 30 yard field goal. Ryan Stewart tied the game on a 42 yard field goal on their first possession. The IUP kicker connected on a 41 yard boot in the second, after missing a 32 yard attempt earlier. Jay Watkins ended a Shepherd drive at the 18 with an interception of a Ziemba pass. IUP ran out the clock sand took the 6-3 lead the break. 

The Crimson Hawks scored their only touchdown on special teams as Stewart had a 20 yard field goal attempt blocked, Ethan Cooper picked up the loose football behind the line of scrimmage and advanced it for a touchdown and a 13-3 lead.

The Rams started a long drive near the end of the third, Jabre Lolley scored on the 14th play on a 5 yard run. IUP was able to pick up one first down on their next two possessions, giving the ball back to Shepherd with 6:46 remaining in regulation. The Rams marched 67 yards in 11 plays for the go-ahead score. IUP drove to the Rams 38 but Lenny Williams(Sto-Rox) failed to hit a fourth down pass and the Rams claimed the win.

The Rams, ranked 5th in Division II will host 10th ranked SRU on Saturday at noon in the regional final. Ziemba was 14-27 for 175 yards. Brown had 11 catches for 159 yards.

IUP finishes at 9-3. Williams carried 18 times for 84 yards and was just 8-19 passing for 126 yards. Chris Temple fished with only 66 yards on 25 carries.

Division 1 FCS Playoffs/First Round
William & Mary 52 – Duquesne 49
The Dukes gave #13 William & Mary all they could handle on Saturday. Dillon Buechel(Montour) threw for 423 yards and 6 touchdowns in his best career performance. Wayne Capers(Char Valley) had 7 catches, 3 for touchdowns. Nehari Crawford also had 2 td receptions

After leading 14-0 in the first quarter on two Buechel touchdown passes, Duquesne had to rally late for a chance to tie or take the lead. Buechel threw down to Capers for a 42 yard score with 1:11 remaining and connected with Chris king for the two-pointer. Duquesne was not able to recover the onside kick, William & Mary made one first down and ran out the clock. William & Mary is now 9-3 and advances to the second found next weekend.

Buechel was 33-52 passing, King had 12 catches for 221 yards. Duquesne ends the season at 8-4