Ichabods roll at UMR

For immediate release - Oct. 16, 2004
Box Score | Season Stats

TOPEKA - The Washburn football team held off Southwest Baptist 38-35 at Yager Stadium Saturday afternoon. Mike Odupitan’s 6-yard touchdown catch from Tyler Schuerman gave the Ichabods a 36-35 lead with 31 seconds left. It was the second time in a row that Schuerman and Odupitan had connected in the final minutes of the game to go ahead of Southwest Baptist. The combo scored with 1:11 remaining in a 41-37 win last season over the Bearcats in Bolivar. The Ichabods improved to 4-3 and 3-2 in the MIAA heading into Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at Missouri-Rolla.

After Southwest Baptist took a 35-30 lead with 1:46 left on JoJo Rawls’ 9-yard touchdown run, the Ichabods made their winning drive - a 13-pay, 73 yard trip that saw the Ichabods convert two fourth-down conversions. The Ichabods added the two-point conversion on a Schuerman to Sam Sissom pass in the corner of the endzone.

The Ichabods took an eary 7-0 lead on Ra’Shawn Mosley’s 7-yard scamper that completed a 14-yard drive who took advantage of a SBU failed fake punt
attempt.

The Bearcats scored two touchdowns in the second quarter both on long drives - the first a 77-yard, 13 play drive and the second, a 74-yard, nine play drive and took a 14-7 lead into halftime.

In the third quarer, the Ichabods marched 74 yards on Sissom’s first of his two touchdown receptions to tie the score at 14. Southwest Baptist came back on the ensuing drive to take a 21-14 lead on Robert Clardy’s 7-yard run.

The Ichabods would tie the score on Sissom’s second touchdown reception and then take the lead as the Ichabods’ Chris Brown blocked a Southwest Baptist punt as Tramaine Young scooped it up for a 24-yard return for a score with 52 seconds left in the third quarter.

Washburn’s Connor Sabel added a 32-yard field goal to push the Ichabods lead to 30-21, the kick was the first field goal for the Ichabods this season. After two Southwest Baptist TD scores to put them up 35-30, the Ichabods made the go ahead drive with Odupitan’s reception with 31 seconds left.

However, Southwest Baptist had one last chance. After returning the kickoff to their own 35 yard line, the Bearcats ripped off runs of 23 yards and 20 yards to put the ball on the Ichabods’ 20 yard line. After SBU ran another play to spot the ball in between the hash marks, Ryan Smith pushed his 37-yard field goal to the right and the Ichabods would take a knee to end the game.

Schuerman had a season-high 264 yards passing completing 22 of 38 passes and three touchdowns. Against the Bearcats, he also became Washburn’s all-time leader in total offensive yards passing Joe Schartz’s record of 6,622. Schuerman now has 6,840 yards for his career (5,352 passing and 1,488 rushing). His total also places him ninth on the MIAA’s career total offensive chart for all game and seventh in regular season games, needing only 29 yards to move into sixth on the all-time chart.

Mosley had his best day rushing for the Ichabods with a career-high 143 yards on 23 carries. In the receiving corps, Sissom had 10 receptions for 98 yards and two touchdowns and Odupitan had seven receptions for 102 yards.

Defensively, the Ichabods were led by linebacker Evin Beck who had 13 tackles. Grant Gould added 12.