OSG NAIA: Edward Waters Comes From 34 Down To Win

((HT: Joshua Jackson))

J-Jacks is a voice in Jacksonville with the Sharks and Edward Waters College- whom the HQ has seen play at Raines High School against Shorter in their NAIA days.

He was around in Pikeville, Kentucky a week and a half ago when EWC was down 48-14 with seven minutes to go in regulation.

What happened was amazing and really cool as they came back to win 49-48

Here's the highlights from the last seven minutes that include a TD pass with no time left on the clock in regulation and a really tough point after touchdown that followed


Admittedly, UPike is in a big transition period this year. Allan Holland, Junior was named interim head football coach in mid-August. Dudley Hilton had to step down for personal and health reasons. The Bears, with the loss, are now 1-3 with another loss this weekend to Lindsey Wilson.

EWC is 2-2 before this weekend's game with Point.

OSG NAIA: Southern Poly's End Of The End...

The HQ does some television programming for the premier conference in the NAIA- the Southern States Athletic Conference...

And, as is the case these days, mergers and acquisitions can't even escape the land of colleges and universities...

The University System of Georgia had a round of mergers and dissolves within the past year that had an effect on two Atlanta-area universities: Kennesaw State University and Southern Polytechnic State University. Southern Poly ranked highly in a lot of categories state-wide including enrollment increases, test scores, and all those academic-type things that keeps you desirable and profitable in a university system.

But, at the end of the day confusing a lot of people, Southern Poly was told THEY were the ones who were going to be merged with Kennesaw and not going to be left to their own devices as a technology university.

That meant one thing- a lot of people were going to lose their jobs...

And even more students were going to be displaced athletically in four sports...

The Hornets have a history: The baseball, soccer, and basketball teams have won conference titles and made plenty of post-season appearances in the NAIA tournaments. This season alone, the women's basketball team under LaQuanda Dawkins won the SSAC Eastern Division title and made an appearance in the NAIA tournament in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Here's that story about leaving a legacy in the "Southern States Showcase" TV program from early March
The segment airs at the 9:45 mark...
((HT: Workhorse Video Productions))


And the baseball team is ranked in the top-20 in the country...

The issue with the transition in the first place is always the "when..."

Initially, the thought was that SPSU players, coaches, and personnel would have another year to figure out their futures. But that idea got squashed and put the slow fade of the Hornets on a fast track. As a result, when teams would lose their last game of the 2013-2014 season, it would be their last loss ever.

Like the last home game for the men's basketball team...
((HT: Taylor McDonald))


And, this weekend, the last home game for regular-season baseball... a three-game, two-day series against the University of Mobile. The two teams split the Thursday double-header which led to Senior Day on Friday.

The outgoing president, Dr. Lisa Rossbacher, was there with her husband and pit bull mix- wearing a Southern Poly hat that was given out to all who wanted one. Her husband, a St. Louis Cardinals fan, had as a condition to them getting married that she had to learn how to score a baseball game.

She can do that, by the way...

The day had more of an Irish wake feel to it than a baseball game if you knew what was going on. People could have lunch, take their picture taken with the Hornets' mascot (who, from the looks of things, was well on his or her way to losing a good ten pounds in water weight), play side-show games, or watch the game itself. And, by the transitory nature of the crowd, it seemed like people would come by. They just couldn't stomach hanging around for the end.

Both literal and figurative...

After the last regular season game with the Rams, all that is left of a six-decade athletics program is the conference tournament and a possible trip to regionals-slash-nationals...

And that's it...

No more nothing... except alums and a Hall of Fame-to be...

And it also makes you wonder... do you claim your alma mater with a sense of pride or hide from it once your school is eaten up in today's view of colleges and universities...??? All the banners in the gym get rolled up. The floor gets put somewhere unless Kennesaw wants to use the facility for intramurals and the same goes for baseball...

All you're left with are memories because you're history...

As both an imperative and an adjective...

UPDATE: So you know, naturally, the last game on campus lasted a while... especially near the end...

Mobile broke out to a 6-0 lead, but Southern Poly scored three in the 7th and 10 in the 8th...

Southern Poly sent 15 hitters to the plate in the 8th inning, scoring 10 runs on six hits after the inning started with a walk, two hit-batsmen, a walk and a grand slam. There were 14 pitchers used in the game, including eight by SPSU. Mobile pitchers issued 18 walks and hit five batters in the game. Southern Poly left 15 runners on base and the Rams nine.

It was Senior Day for Southern Poly’s eight senior players - Chris Dykes, Forrest Garrett, Chad Livingston, Dalton Martinez, Reese Patten, Tyler Roach, Zach Smith and Khirus Ware

Southern Poly finishes their last regular season going 38-16 and will play Wednesday in the conference tournament in Montgomery.

OSG NAIA: Blind Hoopster Hits 3, Wins Food For A Year

((HT: NAIA/joeschmoe2011/Lost Lettermen))

Take you to College of the Ozarks...

Simple promotion... shoot a three and get free fast food from the Golden Arches for a year...

Michael Quin is blind...
You can see where this is going...
Evidence below...


Even if it is McDonald's, this is really cool...

OSG NAIA: Another Miracle In Montgomery... A Goal With :01 Left...

((HT: AUM Athletics))

Here's one way to get yourself to a national final...

The game-tying goal by Mathis Kroeger came off a set piece with :04 left in regulation to send the #11-seed Auburn University-Montgomery Warhawks into overtime against #2-seed (and 9-time NAIA national champ) Lindsey Wilson during the NAIA Men's Soccer National Tournament in Montgomery, Alabama.

AUM was down 1-0 and only had 10-men. They went on to defeat Lindsey Wilson in overtime.

Here's the play...


AUM will take on Martin Methodist in an all-SSAC showdown for the second year in a row...

First-Timers On The Field: Mercer, Berry, and Reinhardt...

The HQ has always been one of those places where we like to hidden gems, stories that are cool, just off the trail, and a champion for those places that have their niches...

Is it "Nitch" or "Neesh," we digress...

And having been in the circles of a few places over the past few weeks, it's fun to see new shiny things as the HQ hopes the novelty doesn't quite wear off when the newness does...

First stop was Mercer University in Macon- the first time that football would be on campus in 70-plus years. They played Reinhardt University. Mercer is a developing Division I program coached by Bobby Lamb that is in the Pioneer League this year as they move forward into Division I-AA next year. Reinhardt is working their way in the NAIA ranks in the Mid-South Conference in football and the AAC in every other sport.

The Eagles brought in long time Georgia high school head coach Danny Cronic who went to Reinhardt when it was a junior college. He has a roster that is full of Georgia kids (only 6 are not from the state) in their roster of 130 athletes. The first game for both was a 40-37 shootout in front of a crowd of just under 13,000.

Here's their recap, thanks to FOSG Andy Stabell...
((HT: Mercer Bears))


Reinhardt moved on from there to have their home opener against Lindsay Wilson in Waleska.


So, if you look at Berry College, Reinhardt, and Mercer...

You see three schools in varying degrees of business (which is what athletics are these days) and hoping they all move their audiences to being around on a consistent basis.

They'll all be royal pains to their more experienced squads they have on their schedules this season- and all the coaching staffs are solid and know what will put people in the seats...

Home grown talent... something the HQ notices is lacking in their larger brotherhood...

Sometimes, it's guys like Lamb, Cronic, and Kunczewski that could teach Division I power conferences a thing a two about building their fan bases...

And that's the cool part- in addition to being entertaining...
See you on the field...

OSG NAIA: A Triple Play For Your Friday

((HT: Belhaven Athletics))

FOSG Kirk McDonnell let us know about this...
5-4-3 triple plays are cool to see...

So, here's one for you as Belhaven turned it against rival William Carey to end a rally in the first inning...


Enjoy your weekend...

Best Cheerleader Basketball Trick Shot Ever

We'd give you the "Don't try this at home" qualifier for this trick shot, but we're pretty sure that you still wouldn't be able to do this.

Words can barely describe this running flipl, pick-up-the ball at half court while upside down launch it in during the roll and it goes in shot by Ashlee Arnau, a cheerleader at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

((OSG Note--William Carey is part of the NAIA's Southern States Conference who's weekly TV show is produced by your friends at OSG Sports Media))

This may be the greatest half-court trick shot ever.

 

OSG NAIA: Here's How You Win A Title

((HT: Tourbeau Sports/NAIA))

Shorter University and Oklahoma City University had to go to extra innings to figure out who would be the 2012 national champ.

Hawks center fielder Charlsie Broome made sure the game made it to the bottom of the ninth...


Shorter would score a run in the bottom of the inning for their University national championship, 1-0, in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The Hawks are moving to Division II's Gulf South Conference, so the HQ is fairly certain that OCU is more than happy to see them leave...

OSG NAIA: Saint X Takes Out Carroll

((HT: KFBB-TV Helena))

Caoch Mike Feminis was on the platform accepting the NAIA Football Championship trophy in his 24-20 win over Carroll College Saturday night and he finished with the catch phrase of the year:

"One goal... Achieved!"

And it was... first time there, and a win...

Now, what does he do for an encore...??? That's the question...

His offense, led by QB and MVP Jimmy Coy, seemed to give the Saints defense fits early. There was no in-between for the zone read draw of Coy combined with the dink-and-dunk way of keeping the other guy off the field. Changing from a three to a four-man front slowed their offense down by the mid-point of the second quarter.

The defense looked like they were going to have Dane Broadhead beat them in the air as they sold out to the run and wouldn't let NAIA player of the year, RB Chance Demarais, run all day.

In a game that moved faster than the 10-7 Carroll win last year, it took a red-zone stand by Saint X to get it that far...

Here's the recap from our friends up north...


And from our friends at KXLH-TV in Helena...


When you're on the sidelines, as the HQ was, you run into folks...

We ran into the father of Carroll WR Matt Ritter... and it was funny and somewhat excruiating a the same time... to talk to him during that last Carroll drive as they moved right in front of him. Ritter has been a pain in the butt for a lot of NAIA schools over his four years. He had one TD catch earlier in the game, but you also see the father's anguish when the ball goes through his hands in the corner of the endzone on that last set of four downs trying to score late in the game.

Oh, the two pass interference calls on the last drive...???

The HQ knew close to half of the TV crew so we asked...

First down...??? Good defense...
Fourth down...??? Well, it was fourth down in a title game...

Another good crowd for year four- bring on year five...

OSG NAIA: Another Title Game For Carroll

((HT: KFBB-TV Helena))

Mid-South Conference East Division winner Georgetown College (KY) lost to Carroll College and their Fighting Saints 35-3. The defending national champs will defend their title against St. Xavier ((IL)), who beat Marian ((IN)), in two weeks at Historic Barron Stadium in Rome Georgia.

TE Anthony Hogan said about the win: "We just stuck together as a team, and corrected our mistakes we made last week. We really hurt ourselves and this week we wanted to change that. We made the right corrections and we're just working as a team all the way down and putting up points."

Here's how Carroll got there...

OSG NAIA: Down To The Final 4

((HT: KFBB-TV Helena))

Carroll College is turning into a regular tenant of Rome, Georgia for the NAIA National title game. They might be there again this year with their win over Azusa Pacific...

Here's how that happened...


Carroll hosts Georgetown (KY) who won 26-14 against St. Francis
The highlights are at the end of the sportscast...
((HT: WKYT-TV Lexington))


Top-ranked Marian ((IN)), a five-year-old program in Indianapolis, gets St. Xavier-Chicago in a rematch from earlier this season in the other semi.

OSG NAIA: Faulkner and Union Combine For 184 Points

((HT: LightAdrenaline))

The football seasons for Faulkner University and Union College were going nowhere in the last week of the regular season in the Mid South Conference. So, as is the case in a lot of games that don't have much meaning- regardless of sport- defense was optional...

How optional...???

75-75 at the end of regulation and a 95-89 final...
Here's the last play...


The 184 total points blows out the previous NAIA mark of 141- set a year ago in Union's game against Bethel. Saturday's game even set a new record for a record in regulation with 150.

It was the second-highest scoring game in college football history, surpassed only by Georgia Tech's 222-0 win over Cumberland in 1916.

OSG NAIA: Faulkner Gets 61-YO Kicker

((HT: CBS News))

Admittedly, the HQ is hip-deep in coverage of the NAIA during most of the football season...

And Faulkner is right in the wheelhouse...

As it happens, the eagles have a 61-year-old placekicker...

And he's a straight-on kicker, too...
Head Coach Gregg Baker is down with the idea of having Alan Moore around...

Here's the story...


The HQ will see Faulkner first-hand in early October...
We'll update you, then...