Stirring comeback propels Bears to CIAA title
Stirring comeback propels Bears to CIAA
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Shaw trails by 10 in 4th before winning in OT
By: Edward G. Robinson III, Raleigh News & Observer Staff Writer
November 10, 2007
CHARLOTTE - Shaw coach Darrell Asberry never pushed the panic
button, not even when his offense seemed mired in molasses, and his
team followed his lead.
The Bears awoke from their offensive slumber in the fourth quarter
of Saturday's Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association
championship game against Virginia Union, rallying from a 10-point
deficit before claiming a thrilling 31-24 double-overtime victory
at American Legion Memorial Stadium.
"You get one shot," Asberry told his players before the game. "You may not make it back."
It took four quarters for the coach's message to hit home.
Trailing the Panthers 24-14 with about nine minutes remaining, Shaw found its offensive know-how when it needed it the most.
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Joe Daniels Photo
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Shaw RB Aaron Ellison scores the winning |
After Ryne Powell's 18-yard field goal pulled Shaw within seven, the Bears forced overtime on a nine-play, 43-yard drive orchestrated by backup quarterback Omari Avant. His 14-yard TD pass to Mike Brown with 34 seconds left tied it 24-24 and gave Shaw new life.
The Bears seized it, scoring a touchdown in the second overtime to take a 31-24 lead and stopping the Panthers' final drive.
The Bears (8-3) are once again CIAA champions. It is their second conference title since 2004.
They did it under Asberry, a second-year coach who revamped his roster after a 3-7 season. He brought in more than 50 players, nearly 20 of them junior college transfers, and developed a squad that has excelled defensively and survived offensively.
For their efforts, the Bears will continue to play this season, possibly in the NCAA Division II playoffs or in the Pioneer Bowl. They entered Saturday's game ranked 12th in the Division II Southeast poll and await today's announcement of the 24-team playoff field by the Division II football committee.
Asberry did not express a preference either way.
"We just want to play some more football," he said.
Of course the Bears do, considering they were seemingly out of Saturday's game. Ahead 14-10 at halftime, the Bears fell behind 17-14 in the third quarter after Virginia Union senior quarterback Lamar Little, the CIAA's offensive player of the year, completed a 4-yard TD pass to Phillip Taylor.
Little, who passed for 112 yards and rushed for 72, added a 3-yard touchdown run, helping his team to a 24-14 lead less than a minute into the fourth quarter.
But instead of pouring on the pressure, the Panthers pulled back -- and their conservative play opened the door for the Bears.
"We kind of let the game slip away in our last two series, trying to run the time off the clock," VUU coach Arrington Jones III said.
Asberry already had made a quarterback switch, sitting freshman Travis Robinson for the mobile Avant, who proceeded to guide the team down the field. He completed 13 of 15 passes for 79 yards and a touchdown.
Shaw sophomore Aaron Ellison added his brand of straight-ahead running to the mix, gaining 108 yards and softening the Panthers' defensive front. It was a welcome sight for a team that had scored points earlier on a 35-yard blocked punt return by Robbie Henson and a 74-yard kickoff return by Alan Atwater.
In overtime, after securing its first lead since the second quarter on Ellison's 3-yard touchdown run, the Bears relied on a defense ranked No. 1 in Division II.
They prevented the Panthers from scoring in either overtime. In the second extra period, they stopped the Panthers (9-2) from gaining a first down, with defensive end Louis Ellis pulling Little to the ground on fourth down.
Ellis, the conference's defensive player of the year, swarmed on Little 2 yards short of a first down while he was trying to scramble up the middle of the field.
Ellis said afterward that he thought to himself: "I can't let him get the first down because I've got to get off this field."
Little, who had made something out of nothing many times before, said he felt he needed to try get those 25 yards to the end zone.
"I thought I had the middle wide open," he said. "I took off, and it closed up."
And with that tackle, the Bears erupted with jubilation, high-fiving and chest-bumping and shouting towards the heavens.
"This means a lot to us," Ellison said. "In the [conference] preseason poll, we were picked to finish dead last. To pull it out, to stick together as a family and win the CIAA championship, it means a lot to us."
