Patriots fall to Grand View 35-23 in NAIA Championship game

Special teams mistakes, untimely penalties and a slow start sabotaged a chance for the University of the Cumberlands to add a perfect finish to the Patriots’ first ever appearance in the NAIA football national championship game Saturday. The Patriots fell to Grand View 35-23.

Down 21-3 at the beginning of the second quarter, Cumberlands roared back before halftime.

Senior running back D’Angelo Jordan ripped off a 45-yard touchdown run with 11:32 to play in the second quarter, closing the gap to 21-10. He finished the game with 128 yards rushing on 17 attempts. The Patriots racked up 309 rushing yards in a game that pitted two teams with opposing styles against one another. Grand View had 300 passing yards, and quarterback Derek Fulton tossed four touchdowns.

With 6:34 to play in the half, the Patriots seemed poised to take control of the game. Freshman quarterback Adam Craig bounced off tacklers and backed into the end zone to cut the Vikings’ lead to four, 21-17.

Cumberlands brought withering pressure on Fulton and forced a punt with 5:29 before halftime, but disaster struck. A leaping Cumberlands player accidentally touched the ball, and Grand View recovered. The Patriot defense held and was forced to make big plays again when the Vikings had four chances from inside the five-yard-line but couldn’t score.

The Vikings capitalized in the fourth quarter on a pair of Cumberlands turnovers. Junior Iquan deed mishandled a punt that eventually led to a successful Grand View drive – an 11-yard TD strike with 12:44 to play that stretched the lead to 28-17.

Craig was able to rally the Patriots with another short-yardage score with 7:28 to go in the game, making it a 28-23 contest.

Fulton sealed the win for the Vikings with 4:53 to play, bulling his way into the end zone for a 35-23 advantage.

Deed fumbled again on an option run. Grand View with 3:42 to go, and the Vikings defense held one last Cumberlands drive in check for the win.

"We are extremely disappointed we didn’t win the football game. Our players fought hard and I’m proud of that and the season we had," Cumberlands coach John Bland after the game. "We fought and I thought we were good enough to win the ballgame … We just didn’t make the plays and Grand View did."

UC quarterback Adam Craig finished the game with with two rushing TDs and 94 total rushing yards. He had another 60 yards in passing and completed five passes on 11 attempts and had one interception.

Fulton amassed 300 passing yards for Grand View, throwing for four TDs and running for another.

Defensively, Patriots senior linebacker Weston Hazelhurst had a game-high 17 tackles.

Grand View head coach Mike Woodley said the difference in the game were Patriot turnovers the Vikings were able to parley into scores. He also praised what he characterized as his team’s underrated defense.

"It was a heck of a football game … the stats were pretty even. They were averaging 48 or 49 a game and we held them to just [23]. That’s a great complement to our defense."

For full coverage, read next week’s print edition of The News Journal.