The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Raiders, led by quarterback Chris Brown, a record-setting Jamaal Branch, a gritty Luke Graham, and a defensive unit that came up with big stop after big stop, are heading to the NCAA Division I-AA championship game after beating Florida Atlantic 36-24 on Saturday.
Snow, sunshine, it just doesn’t seem to matter to the fourth-seeded 51³Ô¹ÏÍø squad, which pushed its season record to 15-0 and its overall winning streak to 21, the best in the nation.
The Raiders will play the Delaware Blue Hens, who beat Wofford 24-9 in the other , for the championship at 7 p.m. Friday in Chattanooga, Tenn. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
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Road to Chattanooga ‘ what fellow supporters say about going to Tennessee to watch the championship game. And if you have photos from your alumni club gathering for the FAU game, e-mail them to us. We’ll try to post those that are of a good quality. More coverage ‘ from the victory over FAU ‘ 400 students, fans ‘ John Frieser’s online ‘ Players exams with practice ‘ New York Times ‘ Palm Beach Post ‘ Associated Press ‘ Sun-Sentinel looks at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø team snubbed in ‘ 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s featured in Sun-Sentinel ‘ Rochester Democrat and Chronicle writes about ‘ of the Western Illinois game ‘ 51³Ô¹ÏÍø supporters comment on the over Western Illinois. |
Brown completed 16-of-26 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns, and carried 14 times for a career-high 78 yards and one touchdown.
Branch also had a big day for the Raiders with a career-high 45 carries for 130 yards and one touchdown.
Branch broke four NCAA Division I-AA record: most rushing yardage in a season, most rushing TDs in a season, most 100-yard games rushing in a season (12), and most carries in a season.
Branch opened the scoring for 51³Ô¹ÏÍø with his 29th rushing TD of the season on the first possession to cap an 85-yard drive in 12 plays. He scored on an eight-yard burst up the middle.
Lane Schwarzberg booted a 30-yard field goal for a 9-0 lead tying him for the school record for consecutive FG made with eight.
In the second quarter, FAU got on the board on a one-yard run by Doug Parker with 11 minutes left in the half.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø came back with a pair of touchdowns 1:10 apart for a 23-7 halftime lead. Graham, who had injured his shoulder during the Western Illinois game, caught a six-yard strike from Brown with 3:49 left. On the ensuing kickoff, the Raiders recovered the ball at the FAU 30 when the Owls failed to cover the ball. Nate Thomas recovered for the Raiders.
Three plays later, Brown connected on a 14-yard TD pass with Graham for a 16-point advantage at halftime.'xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office' />
FAU opened the scoring in the second half with a 43-yard field goal by Mark Myers before 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s DeWayne Long catch an eight-yard TD pass from Brown with 2:07 left in the third quarter.
The Owls came right moving 74 yards in six plays to score on a one-yard TD pass to Doug Parker from Jared Allen to cut the deficit to 30-17 entering the final quarter.
Brown put the game out reach with 9:19 left when he scored on a three-yard bootleg run for the touchdown. FAU added its final score when they blocked a punt with 5:17 remaining.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø had 412 yards of total offense ‘ 205 rushing and 207 passing ‘ while the defense, which had three interceptions, held FAU to 318 yards ‘ 52 rushing and 266 passing.