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Dec. 7—MANKATO — Four yards.
That’s the distance the Bemidji State football team was from pulling one more rabbit out of the hat on Saturday afternoon at Blakeslee Stadium in Mankato.
Minnesota State had a 27-23 lead over the Beavers with just 1:04 to go in the fourth quarter of the NCAA Division II Tournament quarterfinals.
Facing fourth-and-2 with possession at the BSU 36-yard line, the Mavericks elected to attempt the conversion and put the game away with their offense on the field.
On a day where Bemidji State’s defense had struggled to contain a potent MSU rushing attack, the unit returned to its season-long form, stuffing a designed quarterback run from senior Hayden Ekern for a loss of a yard, handing the keys to the offense for a potential game-winning drive.
Senior quarterback Sam McGath got to work quickly. He tossed a 12-yard pass to redshirt junior wide receiver Drayton Lehman, who scampered out of bounds to stop the clock.
On the ensuing play, a personal foul on Minnesota State handed the Beavers 15 free yards. McGath kept the chains marching along, throwing 4 and 8-yard passes with an incompletion sandwiched in between. He gained another 13 yards with his legs two plays later and followed it up with a 7-yard pass to redshirt sophomore running back Jayden Washington.
Just like that, it was second-and-3 on the MSU 4-yard line with less than 20 seconds left on the clock. BSU had three shots to put it in the endzone — barring just enough yardage for a first down.
McGath targeted Washington on second down, but it was knocked away by Cody Brown. On third down, he tried to target Lehman down the middle of the field but the speedy slot receiver couldn’t come down with it.
With just one last shot to score the likely game-winning touchdown, McGath turned to fifth-year senior wide receiver Joey Baron.
But Micah…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/beavers-fall-4-yards-short-033600759.html
Author : The Bemidji Pioneer, Minn.
Publish date : 2024-12-08 03:36:00
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