Spiders rally late past UNI to reach first FCS title game

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa -- When junior quarterback Eric Ward was practicing passing plays this week, senior tight end Joe Stewart was usually his third option.

Stewart said he had told Ward: "Don't forget about me over there. Give me a chance."

On Saturday, Stewart got his chance. His 71 receiving yards and five catches were career highs, and his touchdown with 14 seconds left in the game led the Spiders to a 21-20 win during the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals against the University of Northern Iowa.

"We've probably run that play 20 times this week," Ward said. "That's the first time I looked at him."

The usual receivers were redshirt freshman wide receiver Tre Gray, who had six receptions for 68 yards, and Kevin Grayson, whose 40-yard touchdown gave the Spiders a 7-3 halftime lead. Grayson left the game at the end of the first half with an injury, and Ward had only four passing attempts during the third quarter.

"Eric is a young man who's very poised," coach Mike London said. "You can yell at Eric, and he doesn't get disheveled. You can praise him, and he won't get too high."

Richmond started the fourth quarter down 20-7. Ward, who had a career-high 280 passing yards, pulled the Spiders within six on a 1-yard rushing touchdown with 11:16 left to play.

"We stayed confident that we could do this," Ward said. "You just kind of stay level-headed and take what they give you."

The Spiders got the ball back with less than eight minutes to go, but senior running back Josh Vaughan's failed fourth-down conversion gave UNI possession with 2:13 left to play. The Richmond offense was back on the field just 29 seconds later because the team used all three of its timeouts to stop the clock during the Panthers' drive and keep them from getting a first down.

"They had a lot of momentum going into the second half," said junior defensive back Michael Ireland, who tied for the team lead with 11 tackles. "We had to keep our composure. We knew that we could play with them."

The team practices a two-minute drill every Tuesday, Ward said, but it needed only 1:30 to put together its nine-play, 62-yard, game-winning drive. That possession culminated in the 13-yard touchdown pass to Stewart, who also had a 42-yard catch -- the longest of his career -- during the game.

"We were just hitting some little plays down the field," Stewart said. "It was great and he finished it with a perfect ball to me."

Northern Iowa coach Mark Farley said he would have changed some aspects of his defensive plan at the end of the game, but that the team's two missed field goals were part of some offensive mistakes the team made as well.

"When you play in the final four going down the stretch ... there's little room for error," Farley said.

Richmond's passing success was important because it usually relies more on its running game, averaging 189.3 rushing yards a game to its 177 passing yards a game. The team had 134 rushing yards against a tough Northern Iowa defense.

"They're physical up front," said Vaughan, who had 86 rushing yards. "They're physical all around. They start to shut down the run and it starts to open up the passing game."

Defensively, junior defensive back Derek Hatcher had a career-high 11 tackles, and the Spiders limited the Panthers to six successful third-down conversions out of 13 attempts. But the Spiders allowed 146 rushing and 224 passing yards, compared with their season average of 94.2 rushing and 164.7 passing yards allowed per game.

The Spiders defense failed to force any turnovers for just the second time all season -- the last was being the team's loss to James Madison University on Oct. 11. Instead, Richmond turned the ball over when Gray fumbled during the third quarter, allowing the Panthers to extend their lead to 17-7 less than two minutes after they'd scored their first touchdown of the game.

The Spiders also had some trouble with false-start penalties throughout the game. London had tried to prepare the team for the noise in the UNI-Dome during the past week, but said the crowd of 12,062 was one of the loudest environments he had ever been in.

"They settled in and looked at the center," London said about the team's response to the false start calls.

"When he snapped it, we went. They were focusing in on what they had to get done to win this game."

Back at home, the Robins Center -- sparsely filled with Richmond fans watching a live ESPN telecast on big-screen projectors -- echoed with cheers and screams from fans watching the winning touchdown. Elsewhere, other students watched the game in apartments and dorm rooms, and there were reports of yelling, cheering and honking horns throughout campus after the victory.

Athletics Director Jim Miller, speaking to a reporter at the women's basketball game in Richmond, said the win firmly established Richmond as a national contender in college football.

"Last week was this biggest win ever for our program," he said. "Now this is the biggest win ever."

For the senior student-athletes, getting to a national championship is an accomplishment they deserve, Miller said.

"When we turned the ball over on fourth down at the end of the game, I was a believer ... but I wasn't sure," he said laughing, referring to the drive that led to the Spiders' winning touchdown.

This was Richmond's second trip to the semifinals. Last year, the team lost to Appalachian State University, the second seed this year that Richmond beat during the quarterfinals. Now, Richmond is headed to Chattanooga, Tenn., to play in the first national championship game in program history.

"We wanted to take a step forward" from what the team did last year, London said. "We took that step today."

To reach the championship game, the Spiders had to beat three conference champions -- Eastern Kentucky University from the Ohio Valley Conference, Appalachian State from the Southern Conference and Northern Iowa from the Missouri Valley Conference. Northern Iowa ended its season with a 12-3 record.

"There's no question it's hard and so disappointing because you feel so bad for these guys who are sitting here," Farley said. "Having it taken away in the last second, that's what's hard. This one hurts because we had it."

The team was minutes away from accomplishing what it set out to do for the season, but Farley said he didn't want the players to think that they could or should have played better against the Spiders.

"What they've done this season is much more important than what they did today," Farley said.

Richmond will travel to Chattanooga on Wednesday to prepare for the championship game against the University of Montana, which beat first-seeded James Madison University in the other semifinal game on Friday. The game is at 8 p.m. on Friday and will be televised on ESPN2.

"There's something truly unique about these guys and about this season," London said. "We have one more game to live this dream."

Contact staff writer Barrett Neale at barrett.neale@richmond.edu

Collegian staff writer Dan Petty contributed reporting from Richmond.