JMU extinguishes Liberty Flames in fourth, earns first road win since '99

Trailing heading into the fourth quarter, the JMU football team rebounded to score two touchdowns to edge Liberty University 14-7 Friday in Lynchburg, ending its season on a positive note. The win ended the Dukes' nine-game losing streak and marked the first road win since Oct. 16, 1999.

The game remained scoreless until Liberty quarterback J. K. Scott found receiver Travis Burns for a 26-yard touchdown midway through the third quarter, giving the Flames a 7-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Dukes found Liberty driving deep into JMU territory again two possessions later. On second down, Flames' running back Eugene Goodman fumbled at the JMU 35-yard line. Dukes' junior defensive end Richard Hicks came up with the loose ball.

On the first play on that possession, freshman running back Rondell Bradley found an opening and ran 65 yards for a touchdown, swinging the momentum in the Dukes' favor. Bradley's score was his first offensive touchdown in only his second game at running back after playing the first nine games as a cornerback.

"I thought Rondell's run was the biggest play of the game," JMU coach Mickey Matthews said.

Junior quarterback Mike Connelly said, "That run sparked us and got us going."

His 65-yard run marked the longest run of the season for JMU, breaking the previous mark by 38 yards.

"Rondell played great," senior full back Robert Carson said. "After the fumble (he had at the start of the third quarter), he was a little shaken up, but I pulled him to the side and talked to him and made sure he kept his head in it and came back out and did exactly what he told me he was going to do."

JMU forced Liberty to punt on the Flames next possession, and the Dukes took over on offense at their own 17-yard line. JMU took advantage by literally running down the field to take the lead. The Dukes drove 83 yards on 10 running plays, including six by Connelly. Connelly scampered in on a 14-yard touchdown run to give JMU a 13-7 lead with less than five minutes to play.

George nailed the extra point to put the Dukes up by seven.

However, the Flames refused to roll over. On its first play from scrimmage, Liberty fullback Verondre Barnes rushed 32 yards to get the Flames into JMU territory at the Dukes' 42-yard line. Two plays later, Scott hit Barnes with a pass for a 21-yard gain to get Liberty to the JMU 20-yard line. On third down and six, JMU stopped Barnes well short of the first down and would have forced Liberty to go for it on fourth down, but a JMU player was called for unnecessary roughness.

The penalty gave the Flames an autamatic first down at the 8-yard line. A holding call on Liberty pushed the Flames back to the 18-yard line. On the next play, Scott threw to the endzone, but the Dukes' junior cornerback Quentin Collins picked off the pass in the endzone and ran it back to midfield, extinguishing the Flames' chances.

"That was a game-winning play for us," Carson said. "You couldn't help but celebrate."

Senior linebacker Derick Pack said,"It feels like we won the national championship to me. It's been over two months and it just feels so great. I just jumped for joy. I knew it was over when (Collins) got it."

Matthews was also glad to get the seniors a win in their final college game.
He said, "This group of seniors has been through a lot. They've been through the first conference championship in school history, through a not great season last year, but a solid season and this season they have been through a lot. It's a great bunch of kids and we will surely miss them. I told them they will never forget their last college football game. When you get to be bald and 40, you will remember your last college football game and we were really glad to get it for them."

Connelly said, "It definitely feels good to get a win and have the seniors go out with a victory and get some confidence going into next season."

According to Matthews, JMU's offense got things going with its blocking late in the game.

"I told them there was no such thing as an ugly win," Matthews said. "We've had ugly losses and no one felt sorry for us. I thought we really played well in the fourth quarter. (Liberty was) mixing up their defenses and our kids decided to block. Our kids really blocked solidly in the fourth quarter."

Early on, both teams struggled to get their offenses down the field. Matthews said the heat late in the game was the cause of the late outburst of offense.
"I wish we would have played better offense in the first half," Matthews said. "But I thought both defensive fronts got tired in the fourth quarter because of the unusual heat. Both groups of offenses took advantage of that."

"The first half we were kind of sleepwalking a little bit, and a lot of that is probably my fault," Connelly said. "I couldn't really get anything going."

Bradley finished with 116 yards on 13 carries, while Connelly ran 18 times for 63 yards. The Dukes finished with 231 yards on the ground to end the game with 274 yards of total offense. The Flames finished with 232 total yards of offense.

JMU finished the season with a 2-9 record and 0-9 record in the Atlantic-10.
On Wednesday senior linebacker Derrick Lloyd was named the CAA's co-Defensive Player of the Year along with the University of Maine's Stephen Cooper.