Listen: Final Play of GameSHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. – It took more than 60 minutes, but the Concord University football team prevailed Saturday with its first Mountain East Conference title game as it beat Shepherd 29-20 in overtime to record its second conference title in four seasons.
Concord completes an undefeated regular season at 11-0 overall and 10-0 in the MEC while Shepherd finishes 8-2 overall and 8-2 in league action.
After Shepherd scored tied the game at 20-20 with 39 seconds remaining in regulation, Concord was unable to score before the end of the fourth quarter forcing overtimbe between the two teams.
In overtime, junior kicker
Andy Ellington converted on a 43-yard field attempt to put CU ahead 23-20. On Shepherd's possession in overtime, the Rams elected to attmept a fourth-and-short instead of kicking a field early on. SU was successful, but after it was stopped inside the Concord 10-yard line, Shepherd chose to kick a short field goal. On the attempt, sophomore defensive lineman
Darryl Johnson barrelled through the kick protection and blocked one of two Concord kicks on the day to seal the win for the Mountain Lions.
Redshirt freshman defensive back
Jeremiah Johnson returned the failed attempt for a touchdown to ensure the Rams could not run the errant kick into the endzone to give Concord its final margin of victory 29-20.
The Mountain Lions were led offensively by the tandem of sophomore quarterback
Brian Novak and freshman wide receiver
TJ Smith. Novak tossed both of his touchdowns to Smith while breaking the single-season record at Concord for passing touchdowns (30). Novak finished the game with 227 yards passing on 13-for-22 passing and the two tossing scores. Meanwhile, Smith hauled in touchdown passes of 71 and 55 yards as he caught five total passes for a game-high 158 yards.
Junior running back
Calvinaugh Jones rushed for a game-high 109 yards, marking the 10th time this season the Glen Burnie, Maryland native has gone over the century mark on the ground.
Junior linebacker
Austin Dotson made a career-high 11 tackles to lead the Mountain Lions. Senior defensive lineman
Silas Agyemang, Dotson, senior defensive lineman
Will Greathouse and junior linebacker
Nick Ortiz all recorded sacks for the Mountain Lions. Greathouse also added his team-leading third blocked kick of the season, keeping the score tied at 13-13 in the third quarter.
Not only did the Concord special teams make its presence known in the kicking game, but junior wide receiver
Tiko Henderson also returned a 92-yard kickoff for a touchdown, marking the first time the Mountain Lions had a kickoff return for a touchdown since before the 2010 season and giving CU a 20-13 lead. Also on special teams, redshirt freshman punter
Garrett Lee pinned a career-high four punts inside the 20-yard line as he averaged 39.1 yards per punt.
Along with the game-winning blocked kick, D. Johnson had five tackles and none were bigger than the three he made at the goal line in the third quarter when Shepherd was denied on three consecutive rushes from inside the five-yard line. The stops by D. Johson allowed CU to hang on to a 13-7 lead at the time.
As a unit, the Mountain Lions held Shepherd's high-powered rushing attack, that entered the game averaging over 200 yard per game, to 82 yards on the ground. CU has now held opponents to under a 100-yard rushing in four of the last six games.
The win and conference title secures an NCAA Division II Playoff bid for the Mountain Lions. The field of 24 will be annoucned by the NCAA Sunday night at 5:00 p.m. To watch the selection show, follow the link
here.
It is highly anticipated Concord will be the No. 1 seed in Super Region One after top-seed Bloomsburg fell in the final week of play.
Â
