Comeback Falls Short, Rams Best CU 41-33

Box Score
The Mountain Lions end their season with an overall record of 8-3 and a MEC mark of 7-2. The eight-win season is the second for Concord in the last four years and the 11th overall in school history. Concord has now registered five consecutive winning seasons.

Shepherd, which entered the contest ranked seventh in the nation by the American Football Coaches Association, earns the inaugural MEC title with the win by finishing the year undefeated at 10-0 overall and 9-0 in league play.

The Mountain Lions were led by redshirt freshman quarterback Brian Novak, who completed 17-of-28 passes for 239 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Novak also ran for one score, the first rushing touchdown allowed by Shepherd all season. In his last three games, Novak has thrown for 606 yards, five touchdowns and just two interceptions.

Three Concord wide receivers registered at least 90 yards each as sophomore Tiko Henderson caught five passes for 113 yards and one score, junior Darrick Williams made six grabs for 94 yards with redshirt freshman Davon McGill rounding out the group at four receptions for 92 yards and one touchdown.

Sophomore running back Calvinaugh Jones ran for 73 yards on 18 attempts to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark in a season with 1,031 yards.

Defensively, CU was paced by senior linebacker Jake Lilly, who made a game-high 12 tackles despite playing the entire game with a leg injury. Lilly ends his Concord career as CU's second all-time leading tackler.

Junior defensive lineman Will Greathouse also had a stellar day against the vaunted Shepherd running game with nine stops while the quartet of sophomore defensive lineman Ervin Moore, sophomore defensive lineman Tre Preston, senior safety Davon Marion and freshman defensive lineman Darryl Johnson all tallied seven tackles.

Greathouse and sophomore defensive lineman Anthony Pyle both came away with sacks. Junior cornerback Mike Carey picked off his fourth pass of the season for CU's lone turnover of the day.

Concord fell behind 27-9 heading into halftime after a pair SU touchdowns each from Jabre Lolley and Justin Ford. The Mountain Lions' first half scores came when senior safety Josh Clark scooped up the blocked extra point on Shepherd's first score and proceeded to race over 80 yard for two points followed by CU's first touchdown, a 63-yard tight end pass from redshirt freshman Dalton Brindo to McGill, late in the second quarter.

Undeterred by the double-digit halftime deficit, Concord stormed out of the locker room to score 10 unanswered points to start the third quarter off of a 40-yard field goal by sophomore kicker Andy Ellington and a four-yard touchdown reception by sophomore fullback Shaun Workinger from Novak. With five minutes to play in the third quarter, Concord trailed by just eight points at 34-26.

Shepherd answered back when running back Allen Cross scored on a nine-yard run with a minute to go in the third quarter to pull ahead 34-19. Concord continued to fight and eventually made it a one-score game once again midway through the fourth quarter thanks to Henderson, who took to the air to pull in a 33-yard pass from Novak in the end zone to cut the SU lead back to 34-26.

But the Rams once again had a counter punch for Concord in the form of 32-yard TD pass from quarterback Jeff Ziemba to Ford with 1:41 to play in regulation.

The Mountain Lions' two-minute offense proceeded to move the ball down to the Shepherd seven yard-line in five plays with the drive being capped off on a seven-yard rush from Novak to make it a 41-33 contest with 44 seconds to play. Novak's rushing touchdown was the first allowed by the Rams defense this season.

However, Concord's ensuing onside kick attempt was fielded cleanly by the Rams who in turn ran out the clock to escape with the eight-point victory.

As a team, Shepherd held narrow advantages over Concord in total yards (409-408), first downs (21-19) and time of possession (33:58-26:02).

Ziemba led SU to the conference crown by completing 14-of-15 passes for three touchdowns and 231 yards.

Saturday's game marked the final collegiate contests for Lilly, Clark, Marion, linebacker Nick Spradlin, linebacker Cody Hannah and linebacker Stephen Baldwin.