FSU Football Finishes Season with Loss at Glenville

On Saturday, Nov. 16th, the Frostburg State University (FSU) Football team traveled to Glenville, West Virginia and suited up for their final game of the regular season against the Glenville State Pioneers. For the Bobcats, it had been a roller coaster ride of performances coming into this game, losing to the top-seeded Notre Dame Ohio and then getting back to their winning ways, beating Kentucky Wesleyan. Against Glenville, just like in the Bobcats’ 2 losses this season, they would struggle to find offensive stability.

In the first half of the game, the Bobcats received possession and did what they do best, fed the ball to Gavin Lavat for 4 out of 7 plays. Unfortunately, the 7th play of the drive would end in an interception thrown by Will Brunson, starting the Pioneers drive start at their own 12-yard line. It wouldn’t take the Glenville offense long to get off the field, punting in within 5 plays. Later in the 1st quarter, Glenville would also show instability on offense, possessing the ball for only 8 seconds before throwing an interception to Vincent Persichetti. This was his second interception in as many weeks. Glenville also fumbled two possessions after that. The fumble was forced and recovered by Avery Thurman. The Bobcats offense had chances to obtain points out of those takeaways but failed each time. Two field goals were missed by Frostburg, making you wonder if the outcome would’ve been different had they been made. After punting back and forth to each other four times in a row, Glenville finally struck broke through, scoring a field goal that made the score 3-0 at the end of the first half.

In the second half, the Bobcats came out and answered the 3 points scored by Glenville. The Pioneers received the ball first to start the second half and was shut down by the Bobcats defense. Gaining possession of the ball, Frostburg structured an 11 play drive that included a 16-yard run by Gavin Lavat, a 25-yard pass to Lovell Dijeya and a 14-yard pass to Lincoln Ikwubuo. Topping off this drive was Ben Sexton receiving a 5-yard touchdown, thrown by George Richardson, making the score 7-3 Frostburg. Three possessions later, Glenville put together a decent drive of their own, which was aided by a costly fourth-down pass interference call on Frostburg that kept the drive alive. Glenville ended the drive with a field goal making the score 10-7, Glenville. Punts and good time management on the part of Glenville helped drag out the game, leading to a final score of 10-7 and a victory for the Pioneers.

The offensive leaders of the game in passing were Will Brunson and George Richardson. Receiving leaders were Lincoln Ikwubuo, Terrell Brown, and Lovell Djieya. Gavin Lavat and Aizsha Horne led in rushing. Leaders of the defense were Zach Strand, Monte Jones, and Michael Morgan.

It was a great year by the Bobcats football team. They shattered all expectations and finished the season 8-3 in only their first year in Division II Athletics. The Bobcats finished third in the conference after being picked to finish ninth in the preseason. With the hard work and dedication the team is accustomed to show, next year will bring bigger and better accomplishments to this rising program.