The HQ got a full dose of the NAIA Championship this week in Rome, Georgia...
And, we don't really care, if it's Number One versus Number Two regardless of the brand-name attached- it should be a good match-up... and it was a good match-up...
These two schools, top-ranked Sioux Falls and second-ranked Carroll College ((Pictured over there, thanks Alondra Alondra)) met in Rome two years ago in what could best be described as a bowl of chocolate pudding. The rain took over Rome's virgin voyage of hosting a title game for that week, and it was cold, wet, rainy, and any other adjective that fit. The game was 23-7 in favor of Sioux Falls, but the images that keep popping in my mind are those of what-used-to-be white uniforms turned brown...
That game was the impetus for a US$52-million bond issue for grand improvements to Historic Barron Stadium- which, thankfully, included astroturf that debuted on television this year. The surrounding track and buildings will be renovated and turned into a quality facility when all is done. There's a videoboard as well that is capable of showing replays and such...
Top notch...
And since the NAIA title game is in Rome until 2015, the renovations needed to be done for long-term viability...
Even after Stage One, the place looks different... and it feels different...
A step up... ((See...? Over there is proof, thanks Alondra Alondra))
One of the Sioux Falls players actually came up to me and, jokingly, asked before kickoff where all the mud was. It was, thankfully, on the levee-side, in the parking lot, and in the grass that surrounded the place...
It was a game of two incredible defense that locked down two electric offenses- quarterbacked by Jon Eastman of USF and Gary Wagner at Carroll. Eastman has only been around for one season after transferring from Colorado State and Wagner, on the other hand, was a sixth-year senior.
Wagner is an automatic soundbite and a treasure for those of us who needed a quote-and-a-half... He's the kind of guy who will tuck and run instead of throw the ball away- and, quite surely, drove head coach Mike Van Diest crazy. Eastman is extraordinarily talented and knew to get the ball to NAIA Player of the Year Jon Ryan when he was in a jam.
But it was Wagner's 83-yard uphill run in the open off a draw/scramble that got the first points on the board. It was widely panned as the slowest touchdown run in the history of the NAIA. But USF came back with a steady drive of their own to tie it at seven.
"We came into this game knowing that we were going to be coming up against one of the top rushing defenses in the nation,” Carroll's John Camino said, and he couldn't have been more spot on. When you can hear the hitting over the crowd and the cold, you know you're in for one of THOSE games...
It stayed that way after three, and half-way through there was a bit of redemption for Carroll kicker Tom Yaremko. He had doinked, and I mean flush-doinked, two other field goal attempts in the game. Not to show impartiality, he hit each set of uprights on either end of the field.
Coach Van Diest admitted he's pretty hard on his kickers and didn't say anything to Yaremko going out for his third attempt. But the kick went through the target and Carroll had a 10-7 lead.
"He’s never had to win a football game and today he did, and he deserved it because I’m pretty hard on kickers,” Van Diest said. “He’s a hero back in Portland.”
They had to hold onto that three-point lead with everything they had as Carroll
couldn't convert on a new set of downs after USF flunked a 4th-and-19 pass from Eastman to Ryan ((Pictured again over there, thanks Alondra Alondra)).There were close to 30 seconds for the Cougars to get into field goal range for Brandon Wieking. They gave him the shot with 8 seconds left.
The breeze coming off the levee was cruel and pushed Wieking's field goal to the left and a bench that thought they had overtime started spiking helmets and had come to the realization that their 42-game win streak and the idea that they had won 69 of 70 under Kalen DeBoer and Jed Stugart was coming to a sudden end.
The Fighting Saints were champs again and the Cougars were heading to D2.
On to Year Four for the Host Committee and new challenges. The HQ just hopes their cell phones were turned off Sunday- all day Sunday.
Here's local USF coverage from David Brown and his friends at KELO-TV...
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