Fourth quarter heroics give Fairmont State homecoming win against Braves

Sep. 26—FAIRMONT — Whatever can be said about Saturday's MEC football matchup between Fairmont State and UNC Pembroke, one thing's certain — the packed homecoming event at Duvall-Rosier Field was not left wanting for dramatics.

Fairmont State (1-3) pulled out a fourth-quarter comeback against the UNC Pembroke Braves (1-3) to earn their first win on the Falcons' Homecoming Weekend, securing a 25-23 victory.

Trailing 21-10 with 4:25 to play, Fairmont State, which had struggled to gain traction throughout much of the game, scored two quick touchdowns, both on receptions by sophomore Kobe Harris, with a onside kick recovery by Jovon Jackson and two-point conversion catch by Jeremiah Taylor in-between.

The first touchdown came on a five-yard strike delivered from the pocket by quarterback Michael Floria to trim the lead to three, 21-18, while the second touchdown from Harris came in the middle of chaos — a broken third-down play from the 35-yard line. Floria had to escape the Braves' rush by rolling out of the pocket to his right, and throw a ball while being forced out of bounds to Harris along the sideline, who had improvised his route once the play broke down.

The two scores gave Fairmont Senior a 25-21 lead, and gave UNC Pembroke 1:57 to score, starting their drive from their own 33-yard line after a return that was aided by a personal foul against the Falcons that was enforced on the kickoff.

After five plays, UNC Pembroke had a first down at Fairmont State's 22 yard-line, and the Falcons called their final timeout of the game to organize their defense with 51 seconds to play.

Two incompletions made it third down, and then senior defensive back Anthony Fordham put his stamp on the game, intercepting what would've been a first-down pass over the middle by jumping over and around the intended receiver, ripping the ball upwards out of the receiver's arms and into Fordham's own.

With 33 second to go, Fairmont State had only to kneel the ball out — but the Braves still had all three timeouts. And the Falcons were at their own 10 yard-line. After three negative plays, Fairmont State had a fourth down at their own one yard-line, and after UNC Pembroke's final timeout, 14 seconds left.

Instead of punting from their own end zone, the Falcons opted for something a little more unorthodox. They kept their offense on the field, snapped the ball to Floria at quarterback and had him evade the rush for as long as possible before eating a safety and punting the ball with less time left.

Floria managed to run around for almost 10 seconds before finally going down and fumbling the ball.

A gasp of fright from the crowd at Duvall-Rosier field turned into a sigh of relief as, after the dog-pile was pulled apart. The offense still had the ball, and only took a safety.

With the score at 25-23 and three seconds left, the Falcons covered the ensuing punt, and batted away a long, desperation pass attempt to end the game.

The win was Fairmont State's first of the year, and came right on time for head coach Jason Woodman and company.

"It was much-needed," Woodman said. "We have a bunch of young kids and you're preaching to them all week to work hard and it's hard for young guys to believe in it and trust you without success, so we really needed this win today.

"I'm still not sure how we pulled that one off, I think if I went back and watched the film, we played pretty bad for three quarters. But we were in it in the end, made a couple big plays on offense and defense when we had to and we're fortunate to come away with a win."

Fairmont State's Myles Miree was a workhorse for the Falcons on Saturday, toting the ball 19 times for 115 yards and a touchdown, but outside of him, all other rushers netted just 26 yards on 20 attempts.

Through the air, Floria completed 16 of 29 passes for 220 yards, while tossing two interceptions and two vital fourth-quarter touchdowns. Harris (five receptions, 81 yards, two touchdowns) and Joshawn Lewis (six receptions, 98 yards) were Floria's favorite targets Saturday.

His UNC Pembroke counterpart, Josh Jones, completed 21 of 38 passes for 253 yards, a touchdown and a late-game interception.

The touchdown pass from Jones came on the first drive of the game, on a flea-flicker play call that left receiver Alex Alvarado wide open down the sideline for a 74-yard touchdown that put the Braves ahead 7-0.

UNC Pembroke and Fairmont State traded punches early, with Miree answering the touchdown reception a few drives later with a burst of speed and a 56-yard touchdown to tie the game.

A blocked Braves punt by Jovon Jackson set up a 34-yard field goal from Serge Buchheit, and put the Falcons in the lead by quarter's end, 10-7.

Fairmont State did not score again until the fourth quarter, as their run game didn't produce the same big plays it did in the first quarter, and their passing game yielded six sacks and multiple barely-missed deep shots, including two deep touchdown catches where the receiver was ruled to not get a foot inbounds.

With the offense stuck in neutral, Fairmont State's defense was on the field plenty, but still kept the game in reach, allowing a modest seven points in each of the first three quarters, before buckling down even further in the fourth, where the Falcons' intentional safety was UNC Pembroke's only points.

The defensive line showed up Saturday. Randy Robinson was a stone wall on the defensive interior, finishing with three tackles for loss. Senior Chris Thompson and freshman Nemo Roberts both had sacks, while Thompson added two tackles for loss, Roberts one.

"I think we were able to keep the quarterback in the pocket for most of the day, that was a big emphasis," Woodman said of his defense. "We know he's very dynamic when he gets out of the pocket he can make things happen. We did a very good job of that throughout the day, and they have athletes, they have playmakers, and we let them in the game."

While the UNC Pembroke lead grew over the next two quarters, the Falcons fired up in the nick of time. But going forward, Woodman would like to see his team avoid the need for such heroics.

"I've got a group of fighters, I know that," Woodman said. "They're not going to give up, they're going to keep working. But it also tells me we're immature. So many things that happened were things that we knew going into the game were things we couldn't do, and we were still getting burnt on some things.

"But our defense, especially there at the end — we've really stressed our pass defense these last couple weeks — and for them to come in and make a play when we had to, I'm really pleased with that too."

The inconsistent performance may have been a sign of growing pains for the still-young Falcons, and after their first win of the season, Fairmont State will look to grow from the victory next week. The Falcons travel to Athens, West Virginia to play Concord University on Oct. 1.

Reach Nick Henthorn at 304-367-2548, on Twitter @nfhenthorn_135 or by email at nhenthorn@timeswv.com.