Published: October 12, 2008 12:47 am            

Falcons dealt third straight loss

CHARLESTON — There wasn't anything special about Fairmont State's special teams play Saturday.

As a result the Falcons failed to capitalize on a number of golden opportunities early in their game with the University of Charleston and suffered their third straight loss, 21-7, here yesterday afternoon at UC Stadium.

The loss dropped Fairmont State below the .500 mark for the first time this year. FSU is now 3-4 overall and just 1-4 in the West Virginia Conference.

Charleston, on the other hand, won for the third consecutive week and improved to 5-2 overall and to 4-1 in the league.

Things went bad for the Falcons from the get-go. Fairmont's Zack Page returned the opening kickoff 75 yards to the UC 20, but FSU was penalized for holding which brought the football all the way back to the Falcon 25.

Later in the first quarter Charleston's David Pickett muffed a punt at midfield which Fairmont's Andrew Shaffer recovered at the Falcon 47. Eleven plays later Fairmont was forced to settle for a 31-yard field goal attempt by Alex Ashley which was blocked.

Early in the second quarter in a still scoreless game, FSU senior defensive end David Hill picked off a DaRante Hunter pass and returned it 19 yards to the UC 26. Three offensive plays by the Falcons, however, lost seven yards and Fairmont was forced to settle for a 49-yard field goal attempt by Ashley which was wide right.

Two possessions later UC mounted the game's initial scoring drive when it marched 69 yards in eight plays and scored on an 11-yard keeper by Hunter to make it 7-0 with 2:50 left in the opening half.

Fairmont, though, came right back and drove 69 yards in 10 plays to give itself a first down at the Golden Eagles' 11-yard line in the waning seconds of the opening half. On first down FSU quarterback Vick Bradford intentionally spiked the ball to kill the clock. Then Fairmont got back-to-back breaks when UC was flagged twice for being offsides which put the football at the three. The Falcons, though, gave five yards back when they were penalized for a false start. After the trio of flags, Fairmont running back Omoniyi Bakare was stuffed for no gain on second-and-goal from the eight and on third down Bradford's pass for Derek Sevier in the back corner of the end zone fell incomplete. That set the stage for Ashley's third field goal attempt of the opening half – a 25-yarder on the last play which was also blocked.

“We were very fortunate today because they had some opportunities early and couldn't convert on them,” said UC coach Tony DeMeo. “I'll tell you, though, we work very hard every day on blocking kicks so I'm not surprised that we blocked a couple in the first half. We've blocked a bunch of them.

“Still, though, we were fortunate. That last block gave us the momentum going into the half.”

After a scoreless third quarter, UC struck again early in the fourth when Hunter capped an impressive 14-play, 77-yard scoring march with a one-yard TD run to give the Golden Eagles a 14-0 advantage with 14:01 remaining. The big play on the drive was an 18-yard completion from Hunter to Terrance Spencer on a fourth-and-10 play from the Fairmont 32.

The Falcons, though, refused to fold and immediately answered the UC score with one of its own with 11:49 to play. FSU drove 60 yards in just six plays doing it exclusively on the ground and pulled within a touchdown at 14-7 on an 11-yard scoring run by Bakare, who led all rushers in the game with a career-high 145 yards on 25 carries.

On the ensuing kickoff Fairmont elected to gamble and try to catch the Golden Eagles off guard with an onside kick. The Falcons indeed caught UC napping, but the kick only traveled eight yards, not the required 10, and the Golden Eagles took over possession at the Fairmont 38.

“If we make our field goals in the first half we're not even calling that onside kick,” said FSU coach Mike Lopez. “It's a team deal for us and the fact of the matter is we just didn't convert today on some opportunities. Our special teams have been solid. In fact I think our special teams play this year has improved a lot, not that they were ever that bad. Coach (Ricky) Brumfield works very hard on special teams and prepares our guys well.

“The middle onside kick is something we prepared for Charleston because we felt we could get it. It was there because they only run a four-man front on kickoffs. The timing was great, but why does that ball only go seven or eight frigging yards for us? We've got some bad luck. It was just missed opportunities for us today. We've got to convert on those and if we do this is a whole different ball game.”

After the botched onside kick, Fairmont looked like it was going to dodge a bullet when it forced UC into a third-and-23 play from the Falcon 26. However, Hunter, who ran for 40 yards and threw for 98 in the win, connected on a perfect 26-yard strike over top of two FSU defenders to running back Aaron Higdon down the middle of the field for a touchdown to make it 21-7 with 10:15 to play.

“Fairmont is a much-improved team. They really are,” said DeMeo. “I think Mike Lopez is a terrific young coach. They made us execute the entire game. They didn't give up any cheap ones to us. They played hard on defense and made us earn everything we got and they had a good game plan on offense. We won because we were able to make some plays in the second half when we absolutely had to.”

Fairmont, which only had the football three times in the second half, reached the UC 11 on its final drive of the game, but Bradford's fourth down pass to a wide open Travis Hawthorne in the back of the end zone was off the mark and UC ran out the remaining 7:27 to seal the victory snapping a streak of four straight wins in the series by the visitors.

Charleston finished with 368 yards of total offense, 270 of which came on the ground. The Golden Eagles were led by Higdon, who finished with a season-high 94 yards rushing on just 10 attempts. Eight different players carried the football in the win for UC.

Fairmont ended up with 290 total yards, 220 of which came on the ground. In addition to Bakare's 145 yards, FSU also got 48 yards on eight carries from freshman Cody Reed. Bradford, meanwhile, finished 11-of-19 passing for just 70 yards. Hawthorne was his favorite target. He caught a game-high seven passes for 34 yards.

Fairmont State will attempt to snap its three-game skid next Saturday when it steps out of the conference and visits Rensselaer, Ind. to battle St. Joseph's College in a 1 p.m. game.

UC, on the other hand, will tangle with league-leading Seton Hill the same day in Charleston at 1 p.m. The 23rd ranked Griffins' 35-28 win over 19th-ranked West Virginia State Saturday coupled with West Liberty's 42-39 loss to Glenville State give them sole possession of first place in the West Virginia Conference.

        

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