Somehow, Eagles Beat Ferrum (Daily News-Record)

Daily News-Record - By Jeremy Cothran

FERRUM — As pandemonium erupted in a sea of white jerseys at Adam’s Stadium, a Ferrum College linebacker could only wonder aloud — as tears welled in his eyes — what went wrong.

“How did we lose that game?” Shaun Green said, his voice cracking.

It almost seems ironic. How could the Panthers (0-2), having sliced and diced the Bridgewater defense like a ripe tomato in a late-night kitchenware commercial, fail to net a single foot when given three shots? How did the Eagles (3-0), who seemed destined to suffer their first loss, escape this southern Virginia hamlet with a 30-27 overtime victory?

By making three gutsy stops.

After sophomore Luke Taylor kicked a 41-yard field goal to put the Eagles up 30-27 in the first overtime, it was the Panthers’ turn to take over on offense. Ferrum, which had gained a ridiculous 493 yards rushing, methodically worked its way to the 1-yard line using a variety of misdirection option runs.

“I told my team in the huddle,” BC linebacker Craig Smith said, “to keep playing hard. It’s what we’ve always done and it’s what we’ll continue to do. No matter what.”

It was at about that point when Smith (14 tackles) heeded his own advice. The fifth-year senior stopped Kere Whitehead not once, but twice, for no gain as the Panthers’ stocky running back tried to leap over the pile.

“We just ripped through the gaps,” BC defensive coordinator Grant Higgison said. “We tried to stuff the dive and the quarterback. It was a hell of a play. Craig Smith right there. We tell those linebackers that you’re our toppers. If anything goes over the top, you hit it in the face. I could take [those plays] to a clinic and show what a topper does.”

Then, facing a fourth-and-1, Ferrum opted not to attempt a chip-shot field goal to tie the game. But instead of running or handing off, quarterback Jermaine Pitts dropped back to pass and spotted tight end Chris Silk wide open in the corner of the end zone. His pass, however, was tipped at the line of scrimmage by junior safety Desmond Jalloh, sending the Eagles storming onto the field.

The Panthers’ failures at the game’s end did little to take the sparkle off of a scintillating effort by Pitts, who rushed for 242 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. His efforts broke the Ferrum record for rushing yards in a game (235) set by former Seahawks All-Pro running back Chris Warren in 1988 against Rhodes.

But as dominating as his performance was, he still could focus only on the end results.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Pitts said afterward. “It hurts. It hurts more than anything. People say it shouldn’t matter because it’s not the conference. I mean, we could have lost 48-0 and it wouldn’t have hurt this bad.”

Ferrum coach Dave Davis said he had no intention of kicking a potential game-tying field goal because of the ease with which his team was moving the ball.

“The play we selected was the right play,” Davis, in his 13th season as Ferrum’s head coach, said of his fourth-and-1 call. “We just didn’t execute. It takes both. I couldn’t see from the sideline, but I heard [Silk] was wide-open. The defense just made a great play.”

The decision to go for it may also have stemmed from an early fourth-quarter Ferrum possession in which the Panthers advanced the ball – courtesy of Pitts’ 68-yard scramble – all the way to the BC 5 before stalling. The ensuing field goal was blocked.

Of course, the Eagles could have avoided a lot of the drama by ending the game in regulation, which they seemed poised to do.

Taking over possession at the 41-yard line after a Ferrum punt with 1:41 remaining and the game tied at 27, BC went into its two-minute, no-huddle offense. Junior quarterback Jeff Highfill completed three straight passes to receiver Brandon Copeland, and fullback Robbie Matthews ran 8 yards to bring the ball to the Panthers’ 21 with 48 seconds left.

It was right then that Highfill — playing in front of about 30 friends and family members who made the 40-minute drive from his hometown of Roanoke — erred.

Looking for receiver Michael Oakes on a deep corner, Highfill (15-of-24, 176 yards, two passing touchdowns) stared down his receiver, which allowed Panthers cornerback David Coleman to read the pass perfectly and intercept it.

“We were trying to do our rally offense,” Copeland said. “Bad things happened. I’m just glad the defense stepped up today, along with kicking and special teams.”

Which means Taylor can now add game-winning kick to his resumé. The rotund 5-foot-9, 224-pound sophomore from Williamsburg, who had never been in a similar situation, barely pushed across the 41-yarder in BC’s overtime possession, drawing plenty of congratulations and a little ribbing from his teammates.

“All that eating you’ve been doing is paying off,” one Eagle chirped while Taylor was speaking with reporters after the game.

Even the game’s other hero had some good-natured jokes at Taylor’s expense.

“Oh man, ol’ blue shoes,” Smith said, mocking Taylor’s bright blue kicking cleats. “We rag on him a lot. He stretched my jersey out, too. When I got injured last year [Achilles tendon tear] he wore my No. 25 and stretched it out.”

Next up for the Eagles, ranked No. 10 by d3football.com, is a chance to stretch their non-conference record to 4-0 for the first time since 2002. BC will host LaGrange, which is in its first year playing varsity football, to Jopson Field on Saturday at 1 p.m.