COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Union Boots UVa.-Wise

BY JIM CNOCKAERT
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

WISE, Va. – UVa.-Wise coach Bruce Wasem didn’t point any fingers once he’d huddled his players together at midfield after Saturday’s last-second loss to Union College.

He didn’t have to.

“This was a team loss,” Wasem acknowledged. “Everyone – our offense, defense and special teams – had a hand in it. When we had to perform, we didn’t do very well.”

The record book will show that No. 10 Wise dropped a 37-34 decision to No. 21 Union on Jacob Appleby’s 21-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining Saturday at Carl Smith Stadium.

But Appleby’s field goal, his third of the game, simply finished off what the Highland Cavaliers ultimately did to themselves.

Though the offense moved the ball seemingly at will through much of the first half, it had nothing to show for three trips into the red zone in the third quarter, when the game was there for the taking.

The defense stood tall at times, but it also gave up three long scoring plays that enabled the Bulldogs to overcome an early 17-point deficit.

And special teams? The Cavaliers lack an appreciable kicking game, and that makes it tough to win in the kind of close games that determine champions.

“In a game like this, every play counts,” Wise junior wide receiver Matt Barbour said.

A win Saturday would have been the 100th in the 18-year history of the Wise program, would have kept the Cavs unbeaten in the Mid-South Conference’s Eastern Division, and it would have dramatically improved the team’s chances to make the NAIA playoffs.

Now, sitting at 4-1 in the conference and 7-2 overall with two games remaining in the regular season, nothing is certain. Meanwhile, Union, which last week lost at Shorter, pulled even with Wise in the East Division and overall.

“There’s no question, it was a game we needed to have,” Union coach Tommy Reid said.

For much of the first half, however, Wise appeared to have the game well in hand.

With senior quarterback Randy Hippeard back in a groove after a two-game slump, the Cavaliers scored on their opening possession and had a 27-10 lead with six minutes remaining in the first half.

After that, it was as if Wise shifted its game into neutral, and it didn’t get it back into gear until it fell behind midway through the fourth quarter. Union’s defense had something to do with that: The Bulldogs shut down Wise’s running game and began to pressure Hippeard from all angles, eventually sacking him four times.

“Our game plan going in was to stop the run and force them to throw the ball,” Reid said. “That might sound crazy with Randy and some of the weapons he has out there, but we didn’t want to have to defend two things. We wanted to try to limit them to throwing the ball.”

Early on, Hippeard foiled that game plan. He threw a 46-yard touchdown strike to Brad Ricker on the game’s opening drive, and he then tossed touchdown passes of 32 and 43 yards to Aric Evans as Wise built its advantage.

But Union freshman quarterback Mike Brinkley, aided by a better running attack, brought the Bulldogs back with big passing plays of his own. He threw scoring passes of 40, 13 and 64 yards. Brinkley was 17-of-26 passing for 329 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.

Hippeard, who completed 26 of his 44 pass attempts for 469 yards and the three touchdowns, got a lot of help from Barbour. The junior needed seven catches and 128 yards to become Wise’s career leader in both statistical categories. He got both, tying a single-game record with 13 catches and finishing with 177 yards.

“A loss like that shadows anything you might do as an individual,” Barbour said. “You don’t want to focus on individual records too much anyway.”

This game eventually turned on special teams. Before Appleby hit his game-winner, he booted a 49-yarder that squared things at 27-all. Wise junior Lance Ayers, who’s already had four field-goal attempts blocked this season, never got a crack, not even when the Cavs got as close as the Union 10-yard line early in the third quarter.

Union’s last two scoring drives were a microcosm of the day’s troubles for Wise.

On the first, a roughing-the-kicker penalty on a punt play gave the ball back to the Bulldogs, and on the next play Brinkley hit Chris Thomas with a 62-yard scoring pass.

After Wise roared back to forge a 34-34 tie, Union started its game-winning drive with a 32-yard run by Terrence Pollack and got into chip-shot field-goal range on Birnkley’s 30-yard pass to Rolando Dyer.

“We didn’t get anything when we needed to,” Wasem said. “The defense did a pretty good job, but the big plays hurt us. We did a better job of protecting Randy in the second half, but we still didn’t get the ball moving the way we wanted to.”

jcnockaert@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2572