Mercer riding high after miracle win over VMI
There were several miracle finishes Saturday throughout college football.
Not to be outdone, Mercer came up with its own at VMI for its first Southern Conference victory of the season.
The Bears led the whole game only to have VMI take the lead in the final minute. But Mercer, getting the ball back with 19 seconds left and trailing by three points, rallied to tie the game and force overtime on a 42-yard field goal from Cole Fisher on the final play in regulation. Mercer then won 33-30 in overtime when John Russ found Avery Ward for an 18-yard touchdown pass after VMI had kicked a 25-yard field goal.
Georgia lost Saturday when Tennessee got the ball back with 10 seconds left and scored the winner on a 43-yard desperation pass. North Carolina beat Florida State with a 54-yard field goal after getting the ball back with 23 seconds left.
“I’ve been in a lot of games, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a game when it’s 19 seconds on the clock, and you’ve got to receive a kickoff, and you end up winning the game,” Mercer head coach Bobby Lamb said. “I called the team up at the beginning of overtime. John took care of the coin toss and all that, but I called the team up and said, ‘Guys, we’re here for a reason. We got ourselves in this situation. We’ve gotta finish it off.’
“The best thing that happened in overtime, we won the coin toss, and we played defense first, and our defense forced a field goal, and that gave our offense free rein to go score a touchdown.”
The Bears did that quickly, and Russ said he knew the play was going to work for a touchdown. Mercer faced third-and-2, and VMI loaded the box to stop Mercer junior running back Alex Lakes, who had 21 carries for 91 yards. Russ, however, found Ward for the win, which improved Mercer’s record to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play.
The Bears travel to third-ranked Chattanooga at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
“They had 10 guys in the box; it was one-on-one with Avery,” Russ said. “Avery’s our best route runner. I trust him just as much as any receiver on the field. I know that it was going to be a touchdown.”
But first the Bears had to get to overtime. They did so with a terrific trick play and a little help from the Keydets.
From the 32, Russ hit freshman Kelby Brock, and he pitched the ball to Jordan Marshall on a hook-and-lateral for a 28-yard play. VMI was called for a personal foul to add 15 more yards to the gain to put the Bears in position for the tie.
“I didn’t say much. I just said, ‘We’ve gotta execute the play,’ ” Russ said of the huddle before the play. “You’re just saying, ‘You’ve gotta execute the play, get protection, and hopefully Kelby and Jo Jo make a heck of a play,’ and they did.”
Lamb then turned to his sophomore place-kicker who is now 8-of-10 on field goals to lead the conference. And Fisher made the kick to keep the game — and the Bears’ chances at their first conference win — alive.
“Really, it was just relief,” Fisher said. “When I looked up, and it was going down the middle, I knew it had plenty of leg to get there, so once I saw it was going to fall over the crossbar, I just kind of turned and went toward the sideline. But it was definitely a huge relief.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Mercer riding high after miracle win over VMI."