Birds of prey

ASHLAND, Ohio - In its biggest game of the season to date, Wayne State's offense sputtered and its defense, ranked ninth coming into the game, gave up a season-high number of points in a 41-14 loss to Ashland on Oct. 4.

"It was a total team loss," coach Paul Winters said. "I think we didn't play very well on special teams today. We didn't cover very well, we didn't return very well."

Ashland's Dawon Harvey opened the scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run, set up by his 22-yard scamper on the previous play. The Eagles would score minutes later as Billy Cundiff connected with Nick Bellanco on a 16-yard score, putting their team up, 13-0.

Wayne State looked down-and-out as Kevin Smith threw his second interception of the game, and defensive end Daunte Akra departed with an apparent leg injury. But Jeremy Jones forced a Harvey fumble inside the WSU 20-yard line and Jason Thomas recovered for the Warriors.

Just like most of its previous possessions, however, Wayne State went three-and-out, giving the ball right back to Ashland.

With Cundiff's 10-yard touchdown pass to Christian Livingston, the Eagles appeared to have the game put away before halftime.

Winters had a different idea, replacing Smith with Mickey Berce with less than a minute left in the second quarter. The move immediately paid dividends, as Berce completed two passes, the latter a 48-yard bomb to Ed Sanders.

"He (Winters) just told me to get ready," Berce said. "He's told me to stay ready ever since he decided to put Kevin in there."

Berce went 9-for-20 for 126 yards, but was better than the numbers indicated, as his receivers dropped multiple passes.

"This isn't rocket science," Winters said of the drops. "Just catch the ball."

WSU running back Joique Bell completed a fake-run, pop-pass on the ensuing play to Brian Rilley. It was Rilley's first collegiate touchdown.

But the momentum didn't carry over, as Ashland scored the first points of the second half on a 61-yard touchdown reception by Johnny Long.

Wayne State recovered a Cundiff fumble at the end of the third quarter and scored on an eight-yard run by Bell, but the Eagles followed it up with another touchdown reception from Long.

D'Marris McCoy scored on a 17-yard run with four minutes to play for AU.

"We just made some small mistakes," Thomas said. "Everything is fixable. I just think we need to play harder. We just need to play our game like we have been."

Ashland improves to 4-2 (4-1 GLIAC), and Wayne State falls to 4-2 (3-2 GLIAC).

The Warriors will host Northern Michigan in their Homecoming game on Oct. 11.

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