UWF’s Dream Season Comes To An End in National Title Game

December 17, 2017

UWF saw its amazing postseason run come to an end in a place few envisioned when the season kicked off in early September. The Argonauts finished as the Division II National Runner Up following a 37-27 loss to No. 8 Texas A&MCommerce in the championship game at Children’s Mercy Park.

UWF (11-4) grabbed the attention of the nation with its postseason run that saw it reach the title game in just its second season of competition – and its 26th all-time game.

But on Saturday night, the winners of Super Regional 2 were unable to contain the Lions and Harlon Hill Trophy winner Luis Perez. He had 323 yards on 23-of-30 passing with two touchdowns and a pair of interceptions.

A&M Commerce (14-1) had 477 yards of total offense and never trailed, leading by as many as 17 midway through the fourth quarter.

“First off, congratulations to A&M Commerce on a fantastic game,” UWF head coach Pete Shinnick said. “They had an amazing year, really played one heck of a game, well deserving of today’s win. Extremely proud today of our guys. Just how they’ve continued to fight and continued to play, throughout the course of the whole season.

“These guy have worked extremely hard to put a second year program in the National Championship. Our offensive line coach, Steve Sauliner said, ‘You know if we would have lost to West Georgia, people would have patted us on the back and said nice job for going 6-4 in your second season.’ From that point we put ourselves into the national championship.

For UWF, Mike Beaudry was 22-of-48 for 252 yards with a touchdown and interception. He was also sacked five times. The redshirt freshman ended the season with 3,215 passing yards and 29 touchdowns – both UWF single-season highs.

Antoine Griffin led all players with 112 yards on eight receptions, in addition to his first career interception on a Lion fake punt in the first quarter.

The Argos got the ball at midfield following the turnover and tied the game at 7-7 ten plays later on a Chris Schwarz 1-yard run. But the momentum swung back to TAMU-C when Reggie Kincade returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a lead they never relinquished.

The Lions stretched their lead to 20-7 with a pair of Kristov Martinez field goals before the Argos ended the half with one of their patented end of half drives. This was a 10-play, 77-yard march in 2:54 that ended with a 20-yard Beaudry-to-Griffin connection, pulling the Blue and Green within 20-14 at the intermission. It was the 11th time in 15 games to score before the buzzer.

UWF’s Johnathan Coleman came up big with a forced fumble that Austin Dukes returned to the five. The Argos moved to the one on two rushes before a sack had them settle for a 27-yard Austin Williams field goal.

Commerce converted a pair of third down plays on its next possession that stretched the lead to 27-17, before another Williams field goal – this one from 47 yards – made it a 27-20 contest.

The Lions got another quick score, going 61 yards in four plays late in the third and a Martinez 19-yard field goal with 7:41 left in the game to lead 37-20.

The Argonauts cut it to 37-27 on Schwarz’s second score with 4:45 on the clock. They got the ball one more time and moved it to near midfield but turned the ball over on downs as the Lions were able to get one first down and run out the clock.

The Argonauts had 276 yards of offense and a season-low 24 net rushing yards. Coleman had a game-high 14 tackles for his third double-digit effort in the last five games.

The future is definitely bright for the third year of the program in 2018. UWF’s starters for the majority of the playoff run had just three seniors on defense, one on offense and zero among the specialists.

Photos courtesy UWF for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

2 Responses to “UWF’s Dream Season Comes To An End in National Title Game”

  1. david lamb on December 17th, 2017 10:42 pm

    Cant wait to see the UCF/Auburn game As a Nebraskan now I am curious how Scott Frost does.

  2. bigbill1961 on December 17th, 2017 3:32 pm

    Y’all should still be proud. For only the second year of existence for this team, you made it to the championship game. Well done and good luck next year.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News, Sports, TOP sports