WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabod football team had three turnovers in its final three drives of the game as the Ichabods came up on the short end of and back-and-forth contest in a 31-28 loss at Central Missouri on Saturday afternoon. The Ichabods will be back in Yager Stadium next Saturday hosting Nebraska-Kearney for Washburn's Homecoming.
After winning the toss to start the game, the Ichabods deferred and Central Missouri drove 75-yards on 12 plays using 3:43 off the clock converting five first downs in the process taking a 7-0 lead.
The Ichabods (2-6, 2-5 MIAA) came right back on their first drive of the game, Washburn responded with a 12-play, 91-yard drive capped by a
Sam Van Dyne to
Maury Sullivan 23-yard score knotting the game at 7-7.
Neither team scored the remainder of the half, but Central Missouri (5-3, 3-3 MIAA) scored on the first play of the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Zach Zebrowski as the Mules took a 14-7 lead.
Washburn's next drive came up empty after a 87-yard touchdown pass from Van Dyne to
Tre Richardson was pulled off the board after a penalty setting up the Ichabods' first punt of the game.
Washburn's defense forced a punt on the Mules' next drive tying the score at 14 using another long drive – this time a 14-play, 80-yard drive using 7:26 off the clock, when
Keller Hurla scored on a 1-yard Ichabod push with 7:26 remaining in the half.
UCM wrapped up the first half scoring with a 44-yard field goal by Brett Grupe holding the Mules who had a first and 10 from the 10 and after back to back sacks by
L.J. Minner, Jr. and
Justice Akinmoladun set up the long field goal.
On the second half's opening drive, Washburn marched 75 yards, needing 12 plays and taking a 21-17 lead with 10:36 to play when Van Dyne connected with Richardson on a 22-yard touchdown pass.
The Mules came back with a touchdown drive of their own on an 8-play, 75-yard drive retaking the lead a 24-21 when Zebrowski hit Jack Pospisil on a 21-yard touchdown pass for his second touchdown grab of the season.
Starting their fifth drive inside their own 20 in the game, the Ichabods jumped back in front of the Mules after an 87-yard touchdown pass from Van Dyne to Richardson capping a 3-play drive with 5:12 to go in the third quarter.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Mules regained the lead when backup defensive lineman Weston King scored a big man touchdown from 1-yard out as the Mules went back in front at 31-28.
Washburn then suffered its first turnover of the game after a 78-yard drive down to the UCM 5-yard line that the Mules recovered with 8:25 to play. However the Ichabod defense forced the Mules into another punt after three plays as the Ichabods took over and their own 39 with 6:52 to go. The Ichabods the drove down to the UCM 39, but the Mules picked off a pass intended for Richardson at its 7-yard line with 3:24 remaining.
Again, the Ichabod defense came back forcing the Mules into a punting situation after allowing one first down and the Ichabods took over at its own 33 with 54 seconds to go.
Washburn then had a short pass play, a sack and its third turnover of the game with one second left on an interception as the Mules took one kneel down ending the game.
Richardson finished with 229 receiving yards on 11 catches with 172 yards after the catch as he averaged 20.8 yards per catch not counting the 87-receiving yard touchdown pass that was called back with an Ichabod penalty. Richardson's 229 receiving yards is third on the Ichabod single-game chart trailing only Sam Sissom's 231 yards against Colorado Mines in 2005 and Troy Slusser's 252 yards against Emporia State in 1988.
Sullivan had six catches for 53 yards and one score.
Tyler Bowden had 10 carries for 33 yards.
Van Dyne was 18 for 23 for 330 yards completing 78 percent of his passes with three touchdowns.
Jordan Finnesy had a career-high 16 tackles with 11 solo stops to lead the Ichabod defense.
J.C. Heim had a career-high 10 tackles of his own.
The Ichabods had a season-high 452 yards of total offense (coming off last week's season-high of 441 yards against Missouri Southern) compared to 389 for the Mules as the Ichabods tallied 350 passing yards. The Mules came into the game averaging more than 500 yards a game.
