Richmond beats Elon 16-13, hosts App. State Saturday

The University of Richmond football team survived and advanced in the 2009 Football Championship Subdivision playoffs with a 16-13 win against Elon University at UR Stadium. Elon missed two field goals during the final 90 seconds to give the Spiders the win.

Richmond senior defensive lineman Parker Miles partially blocked the second attempt, a 48-yard field goal from Elon place kicker Adam Shreiner, as time expired.

"It was coming down to our field goal block team and we have a lot of pride in our field goal block team," Miles said. "Martin [Parker] and Pierre [Turner] got a great push and I just jumped up and put my hand up and got it."

Shreiner also missed a 27-yard field goal with 1:30 to go during the fourth quarter.

"We felt good about going into overtime," Elon coach Pete Lembo said. "This week of practice was about as good as [Shreiner] has had all year. ... His first two [field goals] were right down the pipe so I didn't have any second thoughts about his ability to make it."

The Spiders led the Phoenix 16-6 with 12:19 to go during the game after senior place kicker Andrew Howard made his third field goal of the game, but Elon would not go quietly.

On the ensuing drive following the field goal, Elon quarterback Scott Riddle led his team down the field before hitting wide receiver Terrell Hudgins on a 22-yard touchdown with 9:04 to go during the game. After that, Howard's missed 46-yard field goal and Shreiner's two misses were the only chances either team had to score.

"It was a very physical game and a back-and-forth game and in the end it just came down to who was going to make the plays," Richmond head coach Mike London said. "Around here, we've won a lot of games like this. People get down on you because you don't win by enough. ... If you win by one or you win by 20, it doesn't matter. I believe there's only eight teams in the country that have the opportunity to keep playing."

The Spiders managed only one touchdown during the game, which came on a 74-yard run by senior quarterback Eric Ward on the first play of the second quarter. Ward rushed for 136 yards on 10 carries during the game and threw for 140 yards on 14-of-26 passing on the way to becoming only the 34th FCS player ever to gain more than 10,000 total yards during his career.

"They did a great job in coverage," Ward said. "Most of the time it was just great coverage and I tried to get what I could on my feet. They did things in the passing game to try to take away deep ball, we just had to take what they gave us."

For Elon, Hudgins had only three catches during the first half, but finished the game with 12 catches for 167 yards. The 12 catches make Hudgins the all-time leader in career FCS catches with 395.

"That's an NFL player," London said of Hudgins. "They moved him all over the place and they found a way to get him the ball."

Richmond senior running back Justin Forte carried 25 times for 96 yards and junior wide receiver Kevin Grayson caught six passes for 60 yards. The Spider defense allowed only 27 yards rushing during the game.

With the win, the Spiders advance to the quarterfinal round next Saturday against Appalachian State at UR Stadium. It will mark the third time in as many seasons that Richmond has faced Appalachian State during the playoffs.

"I think it's going to be an incredible physical battle," said Lembo, whose Elon team faced the Mountaineers three weeks ago. "These are two big, strong physical teams, two teams with corners that can really cover and obviously quarterbacks that are winners, they just find a way to make plays. It should be a great game."

Richmond junior linebacker Patrick Weldon said the team was excited to get to play the Mountaineers at home this time around.

"It's always exciting any time you get to play a team like App State," Weldon said. "The past two years we've gone to their place. To have them come here for the first time, it's exciting."

Kickoff for next Saturday's game is scheduled for 7 p.m. and it will be broadcast on ESPN360.com.

Contact staff writer Reilly Moore at reilly.moore@richmond.edu