The season is over for the University of Findlay football team. I had to cover a high school playoff game tonight but I'll have my final thoughts on the season and post-game audio as well up on the blog Sunday. Below is my story from today's game. The Oilers fell 41-28 at Donnell Stadium.
By BRIAN LESTER
STAFF WRITER
Joe Knopick sat on a bench and did his best to fight back tears. It was a battle he wasn't going to win as family members and friends did their best to console the University of Findlay senior linebacker.
Losing hurts. But the feeling is magnified when a team drops a game to its bitter Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival in the final game of the regular season, especially on senior day.
The Oilers may as well have had their hearts ripped out after falling 41-28 to Ashland on a warm, sun-splashed Saturday afternoon at Donnell Stadium.
"It's disappointing," Knopick said. "At the same time, I know I gave it my all. The seniors on this team never took a day off. Sometimes things don't go your way and that is what happened today."
There will be no no more football for Knopick. His career is over and so is a season that was filled with so much promise. UF was ranked as high as 18th in NCAA Division II this year and was in the playoff hunt most of the season.
But the Oilers turned the ball over five times and gave up one too many big plays to the Eagles in the 40th meeting between these two teams.
"Today was our day to turn the ball over," third-year head coach Jon Wauford said. "This game is a graphic example of why you win and lose football games. If you turn the ball over and give up explosive plays, you are going to lose football games. Period."
And yet, despite the characteristic number of turnovers ---- UF had only 10 coming into the game --- and despite falling behind 31-13 in the second quarter, the Oilers (7-4, 6-4 GLIAC) had a chance to knock off the Eagles (6-5, 6-4).
The Oilers' tightened up defensively, holding the high-octane AU offense to no points in the third quarter, and the offense put together a drive that gave the UF faithful among the announced crowd of 1,658 a reason to cheer.
UF started its third-quarter scoring drive at the AU 37 as a fake punt attempt on fourth-and-3 came up empty.
A 10-yard run by freshman running back Monterae Williams got the Oilers to the 10 and senior quarterback Andrew Beam connected with senior wide receiver Mike Chambers two players later on a 7-yard touchdown pass.
Chambers caught the conversion pass as well as the Oilers trimmed their deficit to 31-28 with 6:33 left. Chambers finished the day with 9 catches for 98 yards and broke Derek Hutchinson's single-season receiving record with 1,027 yards. Hutchinson tallied 1,018 yards during the 1986 season.
But there is a reason why AU quarterback Billy Cundiff is considered one of the top quarterbacks in NCAA Division II.
The senior has thrown for more than 2,000 yards in the last three seasons and he showed off his talent on a 44-yard scoring strike to Alan Dunson with 14:34 left in the game.
That play made the score 38-28 and any hope of a comeback was all but dead. It was one of three times on the day when Cundiff (23-of-36 for 298 yards, 3 TDs) threw a TD pass of 26 yards or more.
Greg Berkshire's 37-yard field goal with 1:58 remaining sealed the victory for the Eagles, who have won the last two meetings against the Oilers.
"He is a great quarterback," senior defensive back Anthony Fields said. "His line was able to pick up blitzes and he had time to scramble. If you let that happen, guys are going to get open and catch passes."
The Eagles scored 17 points off of turnovers, including a 24-yard interception return by Brian Gamble with 10:32 left in the half. Gamble picked off the pass by Beam and ran untouched into the end zone as the Eagles built a 17-6 advantage.
A fumble by Beam on the next drive led to another touchdown for the Eagles. Joe Horn ran 9 yards on a reverse and dove for the end zone as AU pushed its lead to 24-6.
Down 31-13 with two minutes to play in the half and in dire need of momentum, Beam came through with a remarkable play to keep the drive alive on third-and-10 from the 37.
He stiff armed one defender and avoided two other potential sacks near the 50-yard line before bolting 27 yards down the left sideline. Chambers laid out a nice block on the run as Beam got deep into AU territory.
Two plays later, Beam hooked up with junior wide receiver Dustin Zielaskiewicz on a 9-yard TD pass as UF cut its deficit to 31-20.
"We have a tough football team. They are resilient kids and they fight hard, win or lose," Wauford said. "We just turned the ball over too many times and gave up too many big plays. But give credit to our seniors. They did a lot of good this year."
The Oilers finished with 407 yards. Beam was 22-of-41 for 278 yards. He was sacked twice and threw 3 TD passes. Zielaskiewicz caught 6 passes for 119 yards.
UF gave up 465 yards on the day, the most the Oilers have allowed since giving up 480 against Grand Valley State in a 38-13 loss on October 17th. The 41 points is the most UF has surrendered. It came into the game with the 13th best scoring defense in the country. Knopick and Fields led the defense with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively.
Although the season is over, the seniors hope the younger players remember what they did accomplish this season and use that as a springboard for 2010.
"We had a chance to get in the playoffs but we lost our last two games. That is tough," Fields said. "It feels good to know we did something good this year but I hope the younger guys understand that you can't have a letdown at the end of the year."
Knopick echoed those thoughts.
"I wish we could have done more, but we did raise the bar for the program and that feels good," Knopick said. "Hopefully the team can keep this going next year and play football the way it's supposed to be played at Findlay."
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