GLIAC Football: Ashland handles Oilers, 41-28 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 losing 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 fell 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.”
Knopick's collegiate 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 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.”
Despite the uncharacteristic number of turnovers -- UF had only 10 entering 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' defense held the high-octane AU offense to no points in the third quarter, and the offense put together a drive that gave the UF faithful of 1,658 a reason to cheer.
UF started its third-quarter scoring drive at the AU 37 as an Eagles' fake punt attempt on fourth-and-3 came up empty.
A 10-yard run by running back Monterae Williams got the Oilers to the 10 and senior quarterback Andrew Beam connected with senior wide receiver Mike Chambers two plays later on a 7-yard touchdown pass.
Chambers caught the two-point conversion pass as well, as the Oilers trimmed the deficit to 31-28 with 6:33 left in the quarter. 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 in 1986.
But there is a reason why AU quarterback Billy Cundiff is considered one of the top quarterbacks in 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 it 38-28 and any hope of a comeback was all but dead. It was the third time on the day that 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.
“He is a great quarterback,” UF 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 that gave the Eagles a 17-6 lead.
A fumble by Beam on the next drive led to a Joe Horn 9-yard TD on a reverse as AU pushed its lead to 24-6.
Down 31-13 with two minutes left in the half, Beam came through with a remarkable play to keep a drive alive on third-and-10 from the 37.
He stiff-armed one defender and avoided two sacks near the 50-yard line before bolting 27 yards down the left sideline.
Two plays later, Beam hooked up with junior wide receiver Dustin Zielaskiewicz on a 9-yard TD pass as UF made it 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. Knopick and Fields led a defense that gave up 465 yards with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively.
“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.
Ashland 10 21 0 10 -- 41
Findlay 3 17 8 0 -- 28
First Quarter
AU -- FG Berkshire 29
UF -- FG Stevens 27
AU -- Livingston 26 pass from Cundiff (Berkshire kick)
Second Quarter
UF -- FG Stevens 27
AU -- Gamble 24 interception return (Berkshire kick)
AU -- Horn 9 run (Berkshire kick)
UF -- Winner 11 pass from Beam (Stevens kick)
AU -- Horn 27 pass from Cundiff (Berkshire kick)
UF -- Zielaskiewicz 9 pass from Beam (Stevens kick)
Third Quarter
UF -- Chambers 7 pass from Beam (Chambers pass from Beam)
Fourth Quarter
AU -- Dunson 44 pass from Cundiff (Berkshire kick)
AU -- FG Berkshire 37
Ashland Findlay
First Downs 22 21
Rushes-yards 33-167 32-129
Passing Yards 298 278
Comp-Att-Int 23-37-0 22-41-3
Punts-Avg. 5-32.0 3-45.7
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 4-2
Penalties-Yards 7-65 6-49
individual statistics
rushing -- Ashland, McCoy 14-81, Harvey 13-78, Horn 1-9, Cundiff 1-3, Gamble 1-(minus-1); Team 3-(-3). Findlay, M. Williams 16-63, Beam 8-43, Jackson 8-23.
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