Statesmen Snap Losing Streak with Improbable Finish

Oskaloosa–The William Penn came up with a goal-line stand, drove the entire length of the field, and recorded another defensive stop all in the final two minutes Saturday as it defeated St. Ambrose 33-28 in Heart of America Athletic Conference North Division play.

In a matchup that featured six lead changes, WPU (2-3, 1-1 North) outgained the Fighting Bees (2-4, 0-1 North) by a 446-403 margin, including 322 yards through the air. The win snaps a three-game losing streak for WPU.

Accepting the opening kickoff, the navy and gold struck first with its aerial assault as Amir Everett (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Sports Management) hauled in a 63-yard touchdown pass from Connor Neville (Jr., Beaverton, Ore., Business Management) just 1:52 into the afternoon. It was one of four touchdowns of more than 50 yards that the sides combined for on Saturday.

Neville ended up 8-for-14 passing for 169 yards, but also had two interceptions, while Everett headlined the receiving corps with six receptions for 104 yards.

SAU answered with its own touchdown, but the Statesmen closed out the opening quarter with a long 12-play, 70-yard scoring drive that lasted 6:56. Sterling Ramsey II (Jr., Broken Arrow, Okla., Business Management), who shared time behind center with Neville, found Nureini Mohamed (So., Everett, Mass., Sports Management) for a 33-yard passing TD.

The extra point play was unsuccessful, helping lead to the numerous one-point lead changes later in the afternoon.

The visitors had the first lead switch, pulling out to a 14-13 edge with 3:21 to go until intermission, but just as they did in the first period, the Statesmen capped the second on a high note as Destynd Loring (Jr., Charleston, S.C., Sports Management) plunged into the endzone from two yards away with just 27 ticks left on the clock to make it 20-14 at the halfway point.

Following a quick strike by the Fighting Bees, WPU also made fast work of a scoring possession with Neville and Rakim Lamarre (So., Woodbridge, Va., Business Management) connecting for a 52-yard bomb. The score put the navy and gold ahead 27-21 with 11:11 still to go in the third and the squads seemed destined for many more points.

Surprisingly, St. Ambrose’s score in its next drive was the last bucket out of the proverbial well, at least until the final two minutes of action.

Still behind 28-27, the Statesmen defense had its back pinned to the goal line as the Fighting Bees looked to seal up the victory inside of the two-minute timeout.

Starting with first-down-and-goal at the six-yard line, SAU methodically inched closer to paydirt, and in the process, also squeezed out all of WPU’s timeouts. Fortunately, with the game possibly on the line, the Statesmen turned St. Ambrose away on fourth down and one yard to go as Tyler Green (Fr., Tampa, Fla., Business Management) and Lloydarius Garner (Jr., Houston, Texas, Sports Management) (among others) found the opposing quarterback for the first of two meetings for the trio in the waning seconds. The visitors had converted five fourth downs earlier in the game, but were denied going for their sixth.

Then, with 99-plus yards to go for the win, Ramsey II opened with a 10-yard completion to Loring. On the next play, he found Everett for 19 yards (a holding penalty shortened that gain by 10 yards). The junior hooked up with Everett again and then a face mask moved WPU to midfield. Ramsey, who was 10-for-12 for 153 yards and two scores, completed his 10th and final ball to Kaylon Bursey (Fr., Edwardsville, Ill., Business Management) who outran the St. Ambrose defense for the eventual game-winner, a 53-yarder with 1:11 left. The drive took just 36 seconds. The two-point conversion failed, but it soon would be a moot point.

St. Ambrose was able to make it interesting, moving near midfield, but on fourth-down-and-nine, Green and Garner sacked the Fighting Bee quarterback to lock up the win.

While the passing game got the fanfare, Loring was a quiet workhorse with 20 carries for 101 yards. Alexander Price (Jr., McKinney, Texas, Sports Management) was also an impactful offensive player with four catches for 39 yards.

William Penn and St. Ambrose punted just one time each, but they also combined for over 200 penalty yards (110 for SAU, 94 for WPU).

Six separate Statesmen defenders eclipsed double figures in tackles, led by Matt Mehrhoff (Jr., Fenton, Mo., Business Management) with 14. Malcolm Bryant (Sr., Cincinnati, Ohio, Sports Management) was next with 13, while Brian Weatherspoon (So., West Memphis, Ark., Business Management) had 12. Green and Garner had 11 stops each, and Kameron Cummings (Fr., Houston, Texas, Business Management) managed 10.

Weatherspoon and Garner shared a quarterback sack, and Jackson also brought the SAU signal-caller to the turf in a solo attempt.

“I am proud of how our guys fought until the end today,” Head Coach Marc Benavidez said. “It was a far-from-perfect performance, but the defense made two fourth-down stops at the end and the offense drove 99 yards to put us ahead. We never backed down from the situation.”

Next Up: William Penn takes a week off before traveling to Peru, Neb. on Saturday, October 19 to face Peru State in Heart North Division action at 2 p.m.

Posted by on Oct 6 2024. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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