Posted on November 19, 2007
When playing a staunch defense like the one Towson put on the field this season, even JMU and its potent scoring attack had to work for every point it scored.
Although the Dukes sneaked out of the regular season with a win over Towson on Saturday they didn’t do it in typical high-scoring fashion. Instead, coach Mickey Matthews was forced to rely on his special teams to create the 10-point advantage in a 23-13 grind-it-out battle.
With the victory, JMU claimed third place in the Colonial Athletic Association and earned an at-large bid to the 16-team NCAA tournament. The Dukes will travel to Boone, N.C., to face Appalachian State out of the Southern Conference.
The Dukes (8-3 overall, 6-2 in the CAA) found out yesterday as the JMU athletic department held a gathering at the Festival Grand Ballroom to watch the selection show on ESPNU.
“We got a high amount of momentum, we’re coming off [two] great wins and we’ve been playing really hard,” sophomore Scotty McGee said following the announcement. “I felt like yesterday we needed that type of adversity with the situations that we we’re in that game.”
It was the first play of the day, Saturday – a 100-yard kickoff return by McGee – that gave JMU the momentum it needed for the “must-win” game to get into the playoffs.
“[After] five weeks out, I had the opportunity last week to do something, didn’t get it done, [and I] told myself I refused to get caught again,” McGee said.
McGee missed five games prior to last week’s game at William & Mary due to injury, creating a void on the kickoff return unit and in the defensive secondary where he starts at cornerback.
“I’m excited to be out there on the field,” McGee said. “I wanted to be out there rallying with the troops, but I didn’t get the opportunity to a whole lot of games this year.
“Coach Durden was telling me they got a lot of creases. Our kickoff team is a steel rod. Everybody goes down there on the same level, and these guys are just on all different levels; so he said there would be creases out there. He was right.”
The Virginia Beach native wasted no time making up for his missed action, not only taking the opening kickoff from about five yards deep in the endzone, but catching the ball over his shoulder. He then labored through a number of seams in Towson’s coverage, before out-racing the Tigers for the score.
Towson (3-7, 1-7) answered with its West Coast passing offense on its first possession to tie the score at seven. On a methodical drive, Tigers’ junior quarterback Sean Schaefer led his team down the field, completing six of his first eight passes in a 15-play scoring drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run from senior running back Rasheed McClaude.
Schaefer led Towson to another score early in the fourth quarter with his team trailing 23-7, finding junior wide-out Marcus Lee for a 16-yard touchdown. Schaefer finished the game 40-of-59 for 349 yards.
A stagnant Madison offense allowed the Tigers three more opportunities in the fourth quarter, but the Dukes pressure in the backfield disrupted any continuity Schaefer tried to establish.
“[It’s the] Story of our season all year,” Towson coach Gordy Combs said. “We play hard for 60 minutes, and we had a play going for us, and it would seem like there would be a play against us. When we got the roughing on [our] punter, we had holding by us.”
Towson’s young offensive line, including two freshmen, was no match for the Dukes’ front four. Madison registered nine quarterback sacks led by senior defensive tackle John Baranowsky’s four. The face-painted leader of the defense was on Schaefer’s heels all game and even knocked him down during the last play of the game.
“We knew we needed to get that pressure,” Baranowsky said. “It basically was a carryover from last week; this was another opportunity if you win you continue playing. Around the locker room, it was like if you can’t get fired up for that you’re in the wrong spot.”
Offensively, JMU went with what worked all year: running the ball and keeping it in the hands of junior quarterback Rodney Landers.
Landers mixed it up right before the half to give JMU a 16-7 lead. On second-and-one from the JMU 39-yard line, Landers hooked up with sophomore tight end Mike Caussin over the middle for 28 yards. On the next play the dual-threat quarterback looked left and hit sophomore receiver Rockeed McCarter for nine yards. Sophomore Bosco Williams became the third recipient of a Landers’ pass in the sequence, this one going for six yards on the right side for a first down to the Towson 18-yard line. Landers then took it himself on a quarterback draw, running 15 yards before meeting Towson’s Kenny Scott and carrying him the remaining three yards into the endzone to cap the 57 second, 86-yard drive.
“I was able to spring some big runs,” Landers said. “The blocking scheme that we had was pretty much try to capture the edge and pick up the first down. They over-pursued it and I took my time and found the crease.”
Landers struck again early in the fourth quarter on a 23-yard run, where he pulled his best Harry Houdini impersonation, escaping a tackle and bursting through for the score. Landers finished with 150 rushing yards and 71 passing yards.
Non-conference losses by Colgate, Georgia Southern and Alabama A&M likely opened up at-large bids for the third, fourth and fifth CAA teams that received bids.
New Hampshire (7-4, 4-4) was in the first pairing announced and will travel to the No. 1 seed Northern Iowa (11-0). Delaware (8-3, 5-3) will host a much-anticipated matchup with Delaware State (10-1) in the schools’ first ever meetting. Richmond (9-2, 7-1) will host Eastern Kentucky (9-2) and Massachusetts (9-2, 7-1) rounds out the CAA five with a home game against Fordham (8-3).
JMU last played App. St. in the 2006 regular season, losing 21-10.
“I kind of figured it would come down to [Appalachain St.],” senior safety Tony LeZotte said. “We’re excited we kind of get a little chance at revenge after what happened in Boone last year.”
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