Box Score

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - It was billed as a battle between seemingly the top two teams in the West Virginia Conference and both defenses showed up to put on a spectical, but in the end mistakes on offense proved to be the difference.

UC (3-1) jumped on the board first as the Golden Eagle defense made their first move of the day with an interception of Shepherd quarterback Bobby Cooper that took the ball all the way down to the Ram 32 yard line. Just as Charleston gave SU its first taste of their defensive prowess the visitors pushed back with a defensve stand of their own to force a Puma Nuredini (Naples, FL) field goal from 22 yards out as the home team took the early 3-0 lead.

The homestanding Golden Eagles looked to be in control of the contest early as their defense continued to make stand-after-stand to push the Shepherd offense in the wrong direction. UC used the early momentum to take a 10-0 advantage when Maurice Leak (Waxhax, NC) found speedster Shaq Williams (Charleston,WV) across the middle of the field for a 27-yard touchdown at the 9:48 mark of the second quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff the University of Charleston reached into the bag of tricks in an attempt to continue to light up the scoreboard as they successfully recovered an onside kick at SU was caught sleeping in coverage. Leak and company managed to work their way down the field to the Shepherd 38 yard line and just as it looked like the home team was going to open a three-possession lead the first miscue erased the hope of points. Leak's final pass of the drive came as a Ram lineman got a hand on a bullet to the left side that deflected straight up allowing the SU secondary to easily record the interception.

Charleston recovered from the interception but the following Troy McNeill punt pinned the good guys back in the shadow of their own endzone with only two minutes left before halftime.  The Golden Eagles moved the ball on back-to-back plays with backup QB John Knox (Salisbury,NC) at the helm making it look as if they had time to work down the field for one last shot at scoring, but all chances were dashed in a moment that turned the tide in the contest. On a 1st and 10 play from the home 48 yard line Knox look for a short dump pass to gain needed yardage to work for field goal position, but Shepherd All-Conference defensive back Keon Robinson sniffed out the pass with a clear lane to the endzone which is where he stopped after cutting the UC lead to 10-7 with only 30 seconds remaining before half.

After halftime the SU defense turned up the heat as they felt the momentum shift. A bruising rushing attack finally found some success mid-way through the third quarter when Jihad Rasheed plunged into the endzone to cap a 75 yard drive and errode the University of Charleston lead to 14-10 for the visitors.

Beyond the third play scoring drive neither offense found much space to operate against their opponents as the defenses smothered their respective foes. A safety in the fourth quarter came from an intentional grounding call in the Charleston endzone as Knox was trying to escape a collapsing pocket with 12:06 remaining in the game.

UC managed to make a move on their final possession in the last 30 seconds to get within reach of a hail-mary for the win, but the attempt was unsuccessful allowing Shepherd to sneak away with a 16-10 victory despite managing only one offensive touchdown in the contest.

Shepherd led the box score with 303 total yards to Charleston's 191, yet the Golden Eagles held SU's All-WVIAC quarterback Cooper to only 88 yards in the air. Cooper entered the afternoon averaging 224.7 yards per game.

Matt Duncan (Jonesborough, TN) paced the University of Charleston defensive effort with 11 total tackles, while Nathaniel Berry (Miami, FL) and Demetrius Reddick (Cleveland, OH) each registered 1.5 tackles for loss and split a sack in the game.

On the afternoon the teams were sloppy in combining for 24 fouls for over 200 yards.

Charleston looks to recover and continue their trek for a conference championship next Saturday as Fairmont State comes to UC Stadium for a noon kickoff.