ATHENS, W.Va. – Trailing 21-15 in the late stages of the game, the Concord University football team had a drive stall out as it fell to Urbana by six, 21-15, Saturday afternoon at Callaghan Stadium in Mountain East Conference action.
The Concord (1-2, 1-2 MEC) defense forced Urbana (1-2, 1-2 MEC) to punt with 2:57 left in the contest. After the boot, the Mountain Lions were pinned at their own eight-yard line. Senior quarterback
Brian Novak completed three of his first four passes to start the drive as senior wide receiver
Jermeil Douse, redshirt freshman wide receiver
Brandon Plyler and senior wide receiver
Davon McGill netted 39 yards on the completions. With 59 seconds left in the game, Concord found itself at the UU 31-yard line. Another completion to Douse for 10 yards set the Mountain Lions on the edge of the red zone. Novak hunted for Douse near the goal line on three straight pass plays, but Urbana's defense snuffed out the attempts. A flushed-out Novak threw one last attempt into the end zone as he was drifting out of bounds from the 21-yard line that fell incomplete with nine seconds left in the game as Concord fell 21-15.
The Mountain Lions nearly avoided having to drive a long field at the end of the game as junior defensive back
Jeremiah Johnson picked off a pass at the Urbana 48-yard line in the fourth quarter, but the entire play was wiped out as Concord was called for a substitution infraction.
Earlier in the game, Novak found Douse twice for scores, once on CU's opening drive of the game and another time right before halftime. The touchdown toss for Novak put Concord ahead 15-14 with 14 seconds left until the intermission. The Blue Knights answered with a score just over four minutes into the second half as Trevon Saunders caught a six-yard pass from Cale Burdyshaw to take a 21-15 lead.
Novak completed 21-of-39 passes on the afternoon for 268 yards and two touchdowns, but also threw an interception. Douse collected 10 catches for 166 yards and two touchdowns. Junior running back
Nick Loftin was CU's top rusher with 13 carries for 63 yards.
Defensively, junior defensive back
Dominic Wilson and sophomore linebacker
Zach Malone each had nine tackles while Wilson added a tackle for loss. Senior defensive back
Akil Bordelon notched five tackles, one interception and a pass break-up for Concord. Senior defensive lineman
Brandon Hazzard tallied CU's lone sack on the day.
The Mountain Lions outgained Urbana 409-280 in total offense.
Junior punter
Garrett Lee averaged 48.2 yards per boot on six punts with a long of 56 on the day.
Concord heads to West Virginia Wesleyan next week for a 1:00 p.m. start Saturday.
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