Rude awakening
Dukes rally late in fourth quarter, avoid upset scare
By Brian Hansen, sports editor
Posted on September 5, 2006

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

JMU wasn’t supposed to struggle in their home opener. They weren’t supposed to be shut out for the first three quarters by a Division II school. They weren’t supposed to be held to just 99 rushing yards by a team that has only eight-and-a-half scholarships. In the end, though, a win is a win, and the Dukes will take it.

“We escaped, but it’s a win,” Dukes’ junior wide receiver L.C. Baker said. “You have to take it where you can get it.”

JMU scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns Saturday on its way to winning 14-3 at home against Bloomsburg. It was a game a lot of people expected would be over by halftime.

“You really have to credit Bloomsburg,” JMU coach Mickey Matthews said. “They came in here and they expected to win. That being said, we played very poorly on offense today.”

The two scores for Madison were set up by their defense.

Early in the fourth quarter with the score still 3-0, JMU’s defense stopped the Huskies at their own 14-yard line, forcing a punt that gave the team its best field position all game. On the next play, senior quarterback Justin Rascati hit Baker for a 52-yard touchdown pass, giving the Dukes their first lead and points of the game.

“Every time we ran that play, it was kind of open,” Baker said. “We came back with it at an opportune time.”

The play was just a simple bubble screen pass, but Baker got good blocking from his fellow wide receivers and was able to outrun the rest of the Huskies defense for the touchdown.

JMU’s second touchdown was set up by a junior free safety Tony LeZotte’s interception with 4:21 left to play in the fourth quarter.

“They like to play a lot of two-man games,” LeZotte said. “On that play they ran a curl flat and I just undercut the curl and picked the ball off.”

After that the Dukes finally got their running game going, handing the ball eight straight times to senior running back Maurice Fenner for 29 yards. The last carry was a 1-yard touchdown plunge to seal the game for the Dukes.

The Madison defense played much better than the offense, holding the Huskies’ normally high-powered offense to just three points. Bloomsburg, however, was without its top offensive weapon, Jamar Brittingham, who sat out the game with a knee injury.

“They did a great job tonight,” Rascati said. “They were forced to play the whole game, since the offense wasn’t able to get anything going.”

Aside from holding the Huskies to three points, the Dukes were able to sack Bloomsburg quarterback Dan Latorre six times while pressuring him throughout the whole game.

“They run that 1965 sprint draw, which people don’t run anymore,” Matthews said. “Early we were running by that play a lot. We had to explain to our guys how slowly that play develops. After we slowed our guys down, we were able to stop that play.”

It was clear from his post-game comments, though, that Matthews was not pleased with his team.

Said Matthews, “Offensively we played very badly tonight. We need to get better in a hurry or it’s going to be a long season.”

The Dukes were just 3 for 11 on third down conversions and two of those came on JMU’s last drive of the game. They also dropped four passes, three of which would have resulted in first downs.

“When you keep going three and out, it’s hard to get in a rhythm offensively,” Rascati said. “We didn’t make plays and we need to get better.”

Madison will need to drastically improve over this next week, as they will head down to Boone, N.C., to take on defending national champion Appalachian State. Next Saturday’s game is being tabbed as the “Game of the Year” by I-AA.org. ASU lost on Saturday to N.C. State 23-10. Game time is 3:30 p.m. at Kidd Brewer Stadium.