WICHITA, Kan. – The No. 4-ranked Friends University Falcons defeated the No. 13-ranked William Penn University Statesmen 53-36 on a chilly day (Nov. 29) at Adair-Austin Stadium to advance to the NAIA Football Championship Series (FCS) Quarterfinal round for the first time in program history. In the process, the Falcons rushed for 340 yards to break their own NAIA single-season record from last year and now have 5,641 rushing yards for the season.
K'Vonte Baker, the KCAC Player of the Year, got going on the first drive of the game with a 32-yard run and then ran 28 yards for the first of his three rushing touchdowns on the day to put the Falcons in front.
William Penn answered, with Destynd Loring capping a six-play, 61-yard drive with a 12-yard score to make it 7-7.
The Falcons wasted little time in responding, as a 40-yard run by E'derian Sykes set up Baker's second score from eight yards out to put Friends right back on top just more than two minutes later.
Truitt Bosher then hit a squib kick on the kickoff that was muffed to give Friends a short field starting at the William Penn 30-yard line.
Three plays later, a 16-yard touchdown run by Nick Cordova made it 21-7 with still 3:33 left in the third.
Following a punt on their next possession, the Statesmen got a big play from the defense with a safety to cut the Falcon lead to 21-9.
Tavi Agnew then came down with an interception to thwart a William Penn drive deep in Friends territory, but the Falcons gave it back by being stopped short on 4th and 1 at their own 29.
This time the Statesmen took advantage and got a touchdown pass from Sterling Ramsey II to Loring to make it a one-possession game of 21-16 with 7:02 left in the first half.
The Falcons though locked back in and dominated the rest of the half to create big separation, starting with Baker finding DJ Pearson for a 39-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing possession.
Next up, it was the defense's turn to get in the scoring act when a strip sack by Andrew Arnold was scooped up by Cooper Skrobecki and taken to the house 15 yards for a score that pushed the lead to 35-16.
The Falcon defense again made another stand with a critical stop on fourth and one to take over at the Statesmen 33-yard line.
On the first play of the new drive, a bit of trickery paid off when Kaden Rigsby took the handoff and proceeded to connect with Austin Pratt for a 33-yard touchdown that suddenly had the Falcons up 42-16.
Wetu Kalomo then recorded a strip sack and recovered the fumble on third and two from the Falcon 17 to put the finishing touches on the half in a big way and keep the lead at 42-16 heading into the locker room.
After the Statesmen opened the third quarter with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Ramsey II to Amir Everett that made it 42-22, the Falcons once again had a firm response with big runs by Michael Lopez and Elias Pino setting up a one-yard plunge by Baker. Pino then ran in the two-point conversion to give the Falcons a 28-point lead of 50-22.
The Falcons then got another stop to obtain another short field when a mishandle on the punt started the next possession at the 13. The drive stalled but Truitt Bosher hit a 27-yard field goal, his ninth field goal of the season to effectively put it away with 12:55 left in the fourth quarter.
Ramsey II threw a touchdown pass on each of the Statesmen last two possessions, but the Falcons were never seriously threatened from there.
Baker finished with 86 yards rushing with four total touchdowns (three rushing, one passing) to be named the Offensive Player of the Game, while Sykes led the 12-0 Falcons with 119 yards on the ground.
Loring led William Penn with 175 rushing yards for the Statesmen and Ramsey II passed for 205 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
Wallace, the Falcons' leader in tackles, had another big day with a career-high 13 stops along with 2.5 tackles behind the line. Arnold had nine stops with 1.5 sacks and a forced fumble, with Skrobecki making eight tackles with a sack and a touchdown to earn the Defensive Player of the Game honors. Braelyn Jay also had eight tackles for the Falcons.
Jovoni Welch paced the Statesmen with 12 stops on the day, who finish their season at 11-2 overall.
It was announced earlier tonight that the Falcons will host No. 5 Benedictine College in the NAIA FCS Quarterfinals next Saturday (Dec. 6) at 1 pm at Adair-Austin Stadium. Benedictine rallied from 17-7 down to upend No. 12 seed Campbellsville (Ky.) 21-17 earlier today.
Fans can purchase tickets for next week's quarterfinal matchup HERE!
Falcon postgame media quotes:
Head coach Terry Harrison:
"Anytime you can host a postseason game and have success and start making school history to advance further than anyone's ever done, it's exciting. We have awesome players and awesome young men who are just elite people and to see those people have success is the most fun of all."
Quarterback K'Vonte Baker:
"As long as I follow the game plan, I know we're always going to be great position because our coaches set us up in the best position we could be in."
Linebacker Cooper Skrobecki:
"As a defense, everyone's got to fill their own role and I got to give credit to Andrew Arnold who forced the fumble on my touchdown and I can't score without him making that play. Everyone on the defense was flying around and everyone gets the credit."
