ASHLAND — It was a victory worth waiting for.
Andrew Vaughn scored a pair of touchdowns, including the game-winner with 5:28 remaining, as the Eagles knocked off previously unbeaten Saginaw Valley State 21-17 in a weather-delayed Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game Saturday evening at Jack Miller Stadium.
Ashland cornerback Isiah Roberts sealed the victory with an interception with 1:47 remaining in a driving rain and swirling winds. Moments later, lightning flashed and the game was delayed for 45 minutes. When play resumed at 10:14, only a handful of fans remained to witness the Eagles (3-3, 3-1) take a pair of knees to run out the clock.
“We had a lightning delay at halftime with a game against Grand Valley early in my career here that we didn’t finish. That’s about as close as I can remember,” AU coach Lee Owens said. “It’s a real tribute to our guys coming off a tough loss last week at Ferris to come back home and play as well as they did against a really good defensive football team.”
SVSU (5-1, 2-1) took the opening kickoff and marched 68 yards on 15 plays to grab the early lead. Quarterback Ryan Conklin hooked up with receiver Chad Gailliard on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 7:41 remaining in the first quarter.
The Eagles responded when quarterback Austin Brenner found wideout Logan Bolin for a 57 yard touchdown on the final play of the first quarter. The redshirt freshmen changed the play at the line of scrimmage after Owens said he had called a run play.
“Just step up in the pocket and let it out there and see if Bolin can make a play,” Brenner said of the longest completion of his career. “We’ve got a lot of guys on the outside who can make plays and he did.”
Vaughn scored the first of his two TDs on a 1 yard plunge with 4:38 remaining in the second quarter for a 14-7 advantage. The Cardinals cut it to 14-10 on Connor Luksic’s 25 yard field goal just 50 seconds before halftime.
SVSU reclaimed the lead midway through the third quarter when Conklin connected with Dominick Fiscelli on a 7 yard TD pass after the Eagles muffed a punt deep in their own territory.
“The muffed punt was big,” Owens said. “We did all we could to not finish. That’s kind of been the scenario for this football team. We’ve been close against really good teams but haven’t been able to finish.
“But we’re a better team now than we were earlier in the year and we found a way to finish.”
The Eagles finished when Brenner hooked up with Vaughn on a 10 yard TD strike with 5:28 remaining.
“It’s a great feeling to score, especially in the end with limited time left,” Vaughn said. “Brenner gave me a good ball and I had a lot of space to work with. It was just a great play call.
“There’s a lot of fight left in this team. To finish against a 5-0 team, that’s a good feeling.”
Ashland’s defense settled down after the opening drive. The Eagles surrendered 68 yards on SVSU’s opening drive and 188 yards the rest of the evening.
“This win was crazy,” said defensive end James Prater Jr., who broke Allen Lattimore’s record for career tackles for loss. “Of course I’m excited (about the record), but I just wanted to win.”
