ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University football team forced six turnovers and stopped UNC-Pembroke on the goal line in the waning seconds Saturday to pick up a 28-25 win on Senior Day at Callaghan Stadium in a Mountain East Conference contest.
Clinging to the third-point lead with less than a minute left to go, the Mountain Lions (4-6, 4-6 MEC) watched UNC-Pembroke (6-5, 6-4 MEC) drive the ball from midfield to the three-yard line with 15 seconds left. On the first-and-goal play, junior defensive lineman
Noah Overstreet stripped UNCP quarterback Josh Jones and junior linebacker
Jordan Jones pounced on the loose ball, one of his four fumble recoveries of the day.
The Mountain Lions jumped out to a 14-0 lead as they scored a pair of rushing touchdowns in the first quarter, a one-yard sneak by junior quarterback
Jack Mangel and an eight-yard tote from freshman running back
Kevon Young-Warren.
UNC-Pembroke answered the bell with two consecutive touchdowns to tie the game at 14-14 at halftime.
The Braves made it 17 unanswered points as they drove the field to open the third quarter and settled for a field goal. However, CU responded as Mangel marched the offense 80 yards over 11 plays that ended with his first of two second-half touchdown tosses to fifth-year senior wide receiver
Tywan Pearce on a 2
nd-and-18 play from the 21-yard line.
Concord was unable to capitalize on a fumbled kickoff, but after a UNCP punt was blocked CU needed five plays to cap a 28-yard touchdown drive as Mangel found Pearce for his 13
th touchdown of the season. With under a minute left in the third, Concord led 28-17.
Jones had two fourth-quarter fumble recoveries as his first snuffed out a UNC-Pembroke drive on the edge of the red zone as junior linebacker
Ty Maust came up with a strip sack of UNCP's Jones.
The six turnovers forced by the Mountain Lions' defense tied a program record that was last matched in 2013 against Lenoir-Rhyne. Along with Jones' four fumble recoveries, freshman defensive back
Kevin Howard had a fumble recovery and fifth-year senior defensive back
Jonathan Roebuck made his sixth career interception in his final game.
The top three tacklers for the Concord defense, senior defensive back
Rashon Lusane (13), Maust (eight) and senior linebacker
Tylen Fowler (six) all had a forced fumble.
Offensively, Mangel threw for 209 yards and two touchdowns with both going to Pearce who rounded out his CU career with eight catches for 86 yards to go with the two scores. Junior wide receiver
Kris Copeland had 82 all-purpose yards on eight touches (50 receiving, 32 rushing).
Pearce's 13 receiving touchdowns are second most for a single-season in program history while Mangel topped the 20 touchdown mark this season, the most for a CU quarterback since Brian Novak's 33 in 2014.
Jones' three fumble recoveries were tied for the most in a Division II game this season. Prior to Saturday's game, 13 seniors were recognized as Concord got its first Senior Day win since 2015.
Â
Â
