SoCon Weekend Review

By Russell V.
SouthernPigskin.com

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It is with great sadness and regret that I write the following words: The 2011 SoCon football season is officially over.

Georgia Southern has lost in the FCS semifinals. The Eagles’ great run through the playoffs ended in the same place it did last year, just one step short of the national championship. The Eagles played far from their best game against the Bison and it showed. Congratulations are due to the Bison for their performance and making the title game, but for Eagle fans, this one will hurt for a little while.

North Dakota State 35, Georgia Southern 7

North Dakota State took Georgia Southern out of their element, something all but Appalachian State have failed to do this season. The Eagles, who had averaged 332 rushing yards a game, managed only 186 against the Bison and went a combined six for 20 on third- and fourth-down conversions. NDSU kept the Eagles out of third and short situations, which this offense thrived off of. When faced with third and five-plus against one of the best defenses in the nation, well, you saw the result.

The three turnovers did not help the Eagles’ cause at all and seemed to come at the worst times – though there isn’t really ever a good time for a turnover. Georgia Southern’s first two turnovers, the second at NDSU’s four-yard line, led to 14 Bison points. On the final play of the first half, the Eagles got a little too cute, faking what looked like an easily makeable field goal for Adrian Mora and instead going for the endzone. The pass fell incomplete.

I felt this was big because a field goal would have made the score 14-10 NDSU going into halftime with the Eagles getting the ball to start the second half and having momentum on their side.

The backbreaking touchdown came early in the third quarter, when NDSU quarterback Brock Jensen, who was playing with the flu, faked a fly sweep and then took the ball 55 yards to the house to give the Bison a 21-7 lead they would never come close to relinquishing.

Jensen finished with 231 total yards and two touchdowns while the running back tandem of Sam Ojuri and DJ McNorton combined for 194 yards and two touchdowns as the Bison piled up 451 yards on Georgia Southern’s defense.

Dominique Swope led the way for the Eagles with 96 yards and a touchdown and Kyle Oehlback had nine tackles and one tackle for loss.

The good news for the Eagles is that they still return many of their starters next year. The bad news among the starters they will lose are quarterback Jaybo Shaw, offensive lineman Brett Moore and corner Laron Scott. There is nothing to be ashamed of for Eagle Nation though. Few teams can claim to making back-to-back semifinal playoff appearances, particularly after missing the playoffs for so many years.

And with that, SoCon football season 2011 is done. It will be one remembered for the end of App’s run as conference champs and the Eagles’ first conference title of the Jeff Monken era, the year Furman began their rise back to the higher ranks of the SoCon and the final time that Dennis Wagner strolled the sidelines as the Catamounts’ head coach, among many others.

Here’s hoping for more great memories in 2012.

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