ATHENS, W. Va. – Isaiah Young’s 10-yard touchdown run with 4:32 to play lifted the Urbana University football team to a 31-24 victory over Concord Saturday afternoon.
UU (5-6, 4-6 MEC) snapped a five-game slide and finished the season tied for seventh in the Mountain East Conference standings. CU dropped to 2-9 (2-8 MEC) overall. The Blue Knights have now captured three straight wins against the Mountain Lions.
UU outgained CU, 445-396, with a season-high 295 passing yards. The Blue Knights went 7 of 13 on third downs and were nearly perfect in red-zone scoring chances with points on 4 of 5 trips inside the 20.
How it happened
CU grabbed the first lead with a 53-yard touchdown run by Josh Maxwell with 6:50 in the first quarter … UU responded with 17 unanswered points off three straight takeaways to take a 17-7 lead at halftime … linebacker Duray Hall and safety Tobias Hailey Jr. picked off CU quarterback Kyle Akin and then Mikal Toliver recovered a fumble on L.A. Kelly’s strip sack … Shemar Hooks pulled down a one-handed catch for a 48-yard TD to even the score at 7-7 with 4:57 in the first … Erik Ware followed up with a 34-yard field goal to put UU ahead 10-7.
Bailey Wallen capped an impressive 15-play, 85-yard drive with a two-yard TD plunge to put UU in front 17-7 with 8:39 until halftime … CU opened the second half with a 78-yard kickoff return and scored two plays later to make it 17-14 … following a 36-yard catch by Hooks in CU territory, WR Chad Swanson made a diving catch to haul in a four-yard TD to make it 24-14 Blue Knights with 7:19 in the third … CU tacked on a field goal and then Maxwell ran for his second TD on back-to-back possessions to tie the game at 24-24 with 6:43 left to play … on the ensuing possession, QB Cee Jay Hale found Swanson for a 63-yard strike on a third-and-eight play to put UU on the CU 15 … Young found paydirt two plays later to put the Blue Knights ahead for good.
Player stats and notes
Hale threw for a career-high 295 yards on 14-of-24 passing with two touchdowns and two interceptions … Hale averaged 21.1 yards per completion … Hooks produced a career-high 108 receiving yards and his third TD grab of the season … his three touchdown receptions are a single-season personal best … Swanson hauled in a team-high five catches for 115 yards and his second TD … Swanson’s 63-yard reception was a career-best …Young led with 125 rushing yards on 22 carries … Young is the first Blue Knight with back-to-back 100-yard rushing performances since former running back David Hill in 2013 … Young’s 873 rushing yards this season are the sixth-most in UU history, only two yards behind Hill’s 2013 total … Five rushing TDs are a new single-season career-high for Young.
Wallen scored his third career TD … Kelly produced a career outing with 15 total tackles, one sack and forced fumble … Hall had one sack, six total tackles and his first career interception … sophomore DL Marcus Omosule recorded his first sack of the season and has 3.5 sacks in his career … Hailey Jr. grabbed his second career interception and recorded a career-long 42-yard return … Toliver posted two tackles for loss … Toliver has a new career-high with 19.5 TFL (10th-best in UU single-season history) for 100 yards (fourth-best in UU single-season history) … senior OL Doug Hardin started all 44 games in his career … senior P Brandon Purk of Mechanicsburg leaves the program as the school’s all-time leader in punt average (39.9) … Tyler Haines improved to 15-29 (.341), tied for the second-most wins for a UU head football coach in four seasons.
