Mustangs drop overtime heartbreaker in NAIA title game

Mike Josifovski kicked a 26-yard field goal to lift fifth-ranked Marian University to a 30-27 overtime victory against No. 3 Morningside in the 2012 Russell Athletic-NAIA Football National Championship held Thursday night in Rome, Ga.

Marian finished with a 12-1 record to win a national championship in only its sixth season of football. Morningside bowed out at 13-1 while making it's first-ever appearance in a national championship football game.

Josifovski, who sent the game into overtime tied at 27-27 with a 35-yard field goal as time expired, was also the hero in the Knights' 20-17 upset victory against No. 1 Missouri Valley College in the NAIA Championship Series Semifinals when he kicked a 51-yard field goal as time expired.

Morningside also had some late game heroics when Joel Nixon tossed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Schuck with 1:04 left in regulation time to bring the Mustangs back from a 24-20 deficit to go up 27-24.

Morningside finished with 384 yards total offense compared to 349 yards for Marian and also had a 34:29 to 25:31 advantage in time of possession. However, the Mustangs lost the turnover battle 3-1 as two interceptions and a lost fumble led to three of the Knights' scores.

Adam Wiese passed for 233 yards and a touchdown, Tevin Lake rushed for 104 yards and two touchdowns, and Nathan Jones caught five passes for 99 yards and a touchdown to lead the Marian offense.

Fred Jones rushed for a season's high 118 yards and two touchdowns, Joel Nixon completed 22 of 39 pass attempts for 228 yards and two touchdowns, and Joel McCabe (eight catches for 60 yards) and Kyle Schuck (four catches for 74 yards) each had touchdown receptions for the Mustangs.

Marian rallied from a 20-10 deficit in the fourth quarter and it was a turnover that got the Knights started. The Mustangs appeared on the verge of putting the game away when they drove to the Knights' four-yard line before Ryan Hartnett intercepted a pass in the end zone.

"We had that drive where we needed to stick it in the end zone," said Morningside head coach Steve Ryan. "They got life out of that. We had a chance to put it away and just didn't get it done."

"We made some great plays at the end of the game and I thought we were going to do it, but it just didn't happen," Ryan said. "We had a very special year just in the way the team came together and improved every week."

The Mustangs' 13 victories were a school record and the team won its second consecutive Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) championship.

After Hartnett's fourth quarter interception, the Knights marched 88 yards in 11 plays to close within 20-17 on a four-yard touchdown run by Lake with 7:33 left in the game.

Marian got the ball back on its own 28-yard line with 6:02 left in the game and took the lead on a 61-yard touchdown bomb from Wiese to Jones with 2:46 remaining.

The Mustangs weren't finished, though, and marched 67 yards in eight plays for a go-ahead score when Nixon flipped a seven-yard touchdown pass to Schuck with 1:04 left in the game. The Mustangs' season was on the brink earlier in the drive when they faced a fourth-and-15 from their own 44-yard line. Nixon, under heavy pressure, threw the ball up for grabs and Schuck pulled the ball away from a crowd of Marian defenders for a dramatic 35-yard completion that put the ball on the Knights' 21-yard line. Marian was penalized for pass interference on the next play to set up the Nixon to Schuck touchdown pass.

"I just let the ball go," Nixon said of his fourth down heave to Schuck. "I've always felt that it's a high percentage pass anytime I throw the ball to Kyle."

"I just saw the ball leave Joel's hand and knew I had to come down with it somehow," Schuck said.

The seven-yard touchdown pass from Nixon to Schuck gave Morningside a 27-24 lead with just 1:04 left in the game, but the Knights had one more rally in them and drove 51 yards in 11 plays to tie send the game into overtime on a 35-yard field goal by Josifovski as time expired.

Morningside failed to score on its overtime possession. Marian ran Lake four times for 16 yards before it sent Josifovski out to kick the game winner on third-and-five from the Mustangs' nine-yard line.

Morningside started the game by scoring on its first possession of the game when a 10-yard touchdown run by Jones put the Mustangs up 7-0 with 10:25 left in the first quarter.

Marian made the first big defensive play of the game later in the quarter to set up a game tying touchdown. Facing a third and five from his own 39-yard line, Nixon dropped back and was pressured out of the pocket and forced to retreat in a play reminiscent of when the Dallas Cowboy's Bob Lilly sacked Miami Dolphin quarterback Bob Griese in Super Bowl VI. Marian's Robert Palmer forced Nixon to fumble the ball and the Knights' Billy Baker recovered on the Mustangs' seven-yard line in a play that resulted in a 32-yard loss. Marian scored one play later on a seven-yard touchdown run by Lake to tie the score at 7-7 with 6:19 left in the first quarter.

Morningside answered with a 70-yard touchdown drive to regain the lead at 14-7 with 1:44 left in the first quarter. Thirty of the yards came courtesy of Marian when the Knights were penalized for two separate personal fouls on the same play. The touchdown came on a fourth-and-goal from the six-yard line when Nixon was again forced out of the pocket, scrambled for several seconds, and then found Joel McCabe open in the back of the end zone for his school-record 48th touchdown pass of the season.

Marian capitalized on another Morningside turnover to close within 14-10 on a 36-yard field goal by Josifovski with 3:55 left in the opening half. The score was set up after a Robert Palmer interception gave the Knights the ball on their own 43-yard line.

Morningside's defense rose to the occasion late in the first half after a short punt set the Knights up on the Mustangs' 30-yard line. Marian had the ball for just one play when senior linebacker Taylor Johnson intercepted a Wiese pass to give the ball back to the Mustang offense, which used the running of Jones to run off the rest of the first half clock.

Morningside gained some breathing room to start the second half when it took the second half kickoff and marched 78 yards in 13 plays to go up 20-10 on a one-yard touchdown run by Jones with 9:34 left in the third quarter.

Jones topped the 100-yard mark for the first time this season and his 118 yards in the NAIA final enabled him to finish his career as the fourth leading rusher in Morningside history with 1,747 career yards.

Mustang senior linebacker Chris Calvillo bowed out with one of his best performances of the season. He topped the Mustangs with 12 tackles and had two of their three quarterback sacks. Marcus Smith had the other sack. Cole Boger had eight tackles, while Sean Elliott, Jared Goforth, and Aaron Roberg all had six. Taylor Johnson had four tackles to go along with his interception.