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The second round of the 2011 FCS postseason is underway.
North Dakota State lived up to its billing as the No. 2 national seed in the 2011 FCS playoffs on Saturday. The Bison beat James Madison, 26-14, and never trailed, in one of the more dominant wins of the FCS postseason so far.
North Dakota State ran up 219 yards on the ground on just 37 carries. D.J. McNorton ran for 154 of those yards and a touchdown, while Sam Ojuri had 61 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
James Madison quarterback Justin Thorpe threw for 168 yards and a touchdown in the loss, but the Dukes' runners combined for just 76 yards on the ground.
Kerby Long threw a 35-yard touchdown pass for James Madison that cut the Bison's lead to 19-14 in the fourth quarter. But McNorton responded for the Bison, ripping off a 60-yard touchdown run on a one-play drive that put the game out of reach for James Madison for good.
The 11-1 Lehigh Mountain Hawks had reason to feel disrespected about their fate in the 2011 FCS playoffs. Despite going undefeated in regulation and falling only to perennial contender New Hampshire, Lehigh ended up on the road in its first postseason game. That might have just made the Mountain Hawks' 40-38 victory that much sweeter.
Lehigh trailed at three separate junctures in the second half, but quarterback Chris Lum threw for 351 yards and a touchdown in leading them back, and they got a game-winning safety with just over five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. The 40-38 lead was Lehigh's first since being up 17-10 midway through the second quarter.
Grant Enders threw for 214 yards and two touchdowns for the Tigers in the loss.
The Mountain Hawks' road gets no easier now that they have one win. Next week, they'll face No. 2 national seed North Dakota State.
Sam Houston State's No. 1 national seed in the 2011 FCS playoffs wasn't going to mean anything if the Bearkats got upset by unseeded Stony Brook. Luckily for the Bearkats, Brian Bell and Tim Flanders led them back late for a 34-27 victory.
Bell threw for 161 yards and two touchdowns and ran for two first downs on Sam Houston State's game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, while Flanders ran for 101 yards and a touchdown, getting 40 of those yards and the score on that final drive. The Bearkats held off the Seawolves despite a fourth quarter that featured 34 points, 17 from each team.
Stony Brook's Kyle Essington threw for 226 yards and two touchdowns in the loss, but completed just nine of his 29 passes.
The Bearkats move on to the third round of the 2011 FCS playoffs, and will host Montana State and play for the right to move on to the "final four" of the subdivision.
Montana State is essentially the No. 8 seed in the 2011 FCS Playoffs; in a bracket that sets the Bobcats up for a third round match-up with No. 1 seed Sam Houston State, they weren't expected to go far. But in a thrilling 26-25 comeback win over New Hampshire in the second round, the Bobcats at least earned their passage to a second game.
New Hampshire built a 10-0 lead in the first quarter; Montana State closed that to 12-9 midway through the second quarter. The Wildcats moved out to 19-9, too, but the Bobcats made it 19-16 before the end of the first half.
And then, when the Bobcats built a 26-19 lead with 10 straight points in the fourth quarter and intercepted a pass to kill a late Wildcats drive, New Hampshire capitalized on a shanked punt to come back to score a touchdown with seven seconds to go.
But kicker Mike MacArthur hit the right upright on what would have been the game-tying extra point, preserving Montana State's lead and victory.
Montana State can thank dual-threat quarterback DeNarius McGhee for their victory: he threw for 167 yards and a touchdown, and atoned for three interceptions with 96 yards on the ground and two scores.
New Hampshire quarterback Kevin Decker threw for 200 yards and two touchdowns in the loss.
Most of your knowledge of Appalachian State is probably confined to "that team that beat Michigan at home back in 2007." But they do play games every year! And, sadly for the Mountaineers, they don't win all of them.
In fact, Appalachian State was drummed out of the FCS playoffs Saturday by Maine, which generated 466 total yards in the 34-12 beatdown. Black Bears quarterback Warren Smith was 17-of-26 for 250 yards, three touchdowns and an interception in the win, while Pushaun Brown had 111 yards, including a 31-yard touchdown run, on 24 carries.
While Jamal Jackson was 26-of-45 for 272 yards and one touchdown for Appalachian State, he also threw two interceptions. And the run game was literally almost nonexistent for the Mountaineers; Appy State rushed for three yards on 25 carries, and its biggest rushing play of the day went for eight yards.
Maine will play at Georgia Southern next week in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs.
With the second ranked rushing attack in the FCS on one side, and Bobby Wilder on the other, the Old Dominion Monarchs and Georgia Southern Eagles were expected to light up the scoreboard in their second round FCS matchup on Saturday. And both offenses delivered, gaining more than 1200 yards from scrimmage and scoring a combined 103 points in a shootout in Georgia. The Eagles, who did not punt all day, advanced to the quaterfinals with the 55-48 win.
The number three seeded Eagles boast one of the country's best rushing attacks, and on they pounded it on the ground 62 times on Saturday. Dominique Swope led the way, carrying it 31 times for an amazing 255 yards. He averaged more than 8 yards per carry, gashing the Monarchs defense for two touchdowns.
As for the Old Dominion offense, Monarchs quarterback Taylor Heinicke threw for five touchdowns and ran for another in Coach Wilder's high-powered attack. Heinicke finished the day 25 of 44 for 341 yards in the losing effort. It was a tough end to an amazing season for ODU, who made the postseason in just the program's third year.
Georgia Southern moves on, and will face the winner of the Appalachian State vs. Maine game next week in the quarterfinals.
The Montana Grizzlies have played for two of the last three FCS National Championship Games, and their performance in the first round of the 2011 FCS playoffs indicates that they might well play for another this year. The Grizzlies rolled past the Central Arkansas Bears, 41-14, in their opening game of the FCS playoffs.
Jordan Johnson threw for 135 yards and two touchdowns for the Grizzlies. Peter Nguyen and Jordan Canada combined for 137 rushing yards and three touchdowns, and Montana, the No. 4 national seed, allowed the Bears to tally just 290 total yards.
The Grizzlies would have nothing of a potential upset bid by Central Arkansas, which defeated Tennessee Tech in the first round of the FCS playoffs to earn a date with Montana, and ran up a 17-0 lead in the first quarter of play and a 38-0 lead in the third quarter before letting up on the gas.
The Grizzlies move on to play the winner of a second round match-up between Northern Iowa and Wofford.
Wofford Vs. Northern Iowa Final Score, 2011 FCS Playoffs: Panthers Use Turnovers To Top Terriers, 28-21
Wofford more than doubled up No. 4 national seed Northern Iowa's total yardage and ran for 457 yards — and the Terriers still lost to the Panthers, 28-21, in the second round of the 2011 FCS playoffs.
Northern Iowa got two passing touchdowns from Tirrell Rennie, who also ran for 95 yards. But the Panthers won by capitalizing on three Wofford turnovers, and returned one fumble on a kickoff for a touchdown.
That was enough to make up for the Terriers' option attack rolling up enough yardage for Wofford to outgain Northern Iowa, 478-238. Wofford had two players run for over 100 yards — quarterback Mitch Allen had 158, while Eric Breitenstein ran for 131 yards and all three Terriers touchdowns — but could not come back from a 28-14 deficit early in the fourth quarter.
Northern Iowa, which scored 21 straight points to build that lead, will move on to the third round of the FCS playoffs, and face No. 5 Montana.
Dec 03 8:22p by Andy Hutchins - 0 comments