MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Morehead State football scored 15 fourth-quarter points, including a go-ahead four-yard touchdown from quarterback
Carter Cravens to wide receiver
Bronson England with 1:06 left in the game, as the Eagles pulled another comeback win, this time upending Davidson 28-24 at Phil Simms Stadium Saturday.
Morehead State (5-5/3-3 Pioneer League) claimed its third straight victory and in the process dumped Davidson to 1-8 overall and 0-5 in the league. The three wins have come by a combined 10 points.
Cravens completed eight passes on the Eagles' final drive, marching MSU 77 yards in 1:01 for the go-ahead score. Trailing 24-13 after three periods, the Eagles also drove 77 yards in six plays earlier in the fourth quarter to cut the margin to 24-21. On his only run of the game, tailback
Garnett Davis III plunged in from a yard away to get MSU within striking distance. England caught a pass on the two-point PAT try and lateraled to tailback
Jackson Lanier, who finished off the score from the seven-yard line.
The crucial play on the drive came on a fourth-and five from its own 28-yard line when Cravens connected with favorite target
Ryan Upp for a 70-yard gain to to the Wildcat two-yard line. MSU was 1-of-15 on fourth-down tries for the season before that. Upp finished with eight catches for a game-best 169 yards.
"I told our coaches that the first drive of the second half was going to tell us a lot," said head coach
Jason Woodman. "We were able to stop them, and while we didn't score, we flipped the field position on them. I thought Carter (Cravens) did a nice job on those last two scoring drives being able to hang in the pocket, step up and make some plays. Davidson did a good job bringing pressure, but very proud of how he played."
Cravens finished with 278 passing yards and a touchdown on 21 completions. Running back
Isaac Stopke recorded a team-best 115 rushing yards and scored a TD himself - his second straight 100-yard effort. Upp moved to 2,280 career yards, where he sits in third place in program history.
MSU's defense also came up with a pair of interceptions after only having two all year.
Jackson Benjamin picked off a pass in the first, and
Richard Sweeney III collected an INT deep in Davidson territory in the middle of the fourth quarter. The ensuing drive ended up as a missed 30-yard field blocked by Davidson's Mikah Kent with 3:50 remaining and MSU trailing 24-21. But, the home team forced a three-and-out possession for the visitors. Breyson Palmer's punt went to the MSU 23-yard line, where the Eagles set up the game-winning drive.
The Eagles got on the board quick as Stopke found paydirt with 12:48 left in the opening quarter on a one-yard jaunt. He had a 46-yard scramble on the drive to set up his score. Davidson drilled a 29-yard field goal, but
Thomas Schwartz V nailed a career-best 48-yard boot with 13:12 left before halftime for a 10-3 Eagle lead.
A six-yard scoring pass from Coulter Cleland to tight end Langston Green tied the game 10-10 at the 7:11 mark, but Schwartz was good again on a 41-yard field at the 3:45 point in the second quarter as MSU moved ahead 13-10. Another Davidson TD saw the Wildcats leap ahead 17-13 with 17 seconds left in the second stanza.
Neither team scored in the third, but Davidson surged further ahead (24-13) with a two-yard run with 14:11 left in the game. Defensive lineman
KJ Hardesty led the defense with a career-best 11 tackles, including one for a loss.Â
MSU's final home game is set for Saturday when the Eagles host Butler at 1 p.m. ET.Â
England talks about his game-winning TD
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