College Football

Youngstown State slips past EWU to reach FCS final (Dec 17, 2016)

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 11:47 p.m. ET

(STATS) - It was clutch, miraculous and just enough to get Youngstown State back to a place it used to go to frequently:

The FCS national championship game.

Redshirt junior tight end Kevin Rader caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hunter Wells with 1 second remaining to lift Youngstown State to a 40-38 victory over No. 2 seed Eastern Washington in a national semifinal Saturday at frigid Roos Field in Cheney, Washington.

The Penguins (12-3) will play No. 4 seed James Madison (13-1) in the national final Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas. Although they are appearing in the playoffs for the first time in 10 years, the program won four FCS (then NCAA Division I-AA) national titles in the 1990s and has been the runner-up twice. They are 29-7 all-time in the playoffs.

The winning drive came after Eastern Washington (12-2) took a 38-34 lead on wide receiver Shaq Hill's 1-yard run with 4:24 left.

Following a squib kick by Eastern Washington, the Penguins drove 58 yards on 11 plays. The 6-foot-5, 250-pound Rader caught his winning touchdown in the rear of the Eagles' end zone when he wrapped his right arm under linebacker Ketner Kupp's arm and secured the football on the defender's back with his feet on the ground before he was pushed out of bounds.

"They played it very well, that linebacker walled me off. He played it pretty much perfect," Rader said. "I saw the ball in the air and I made the play on it."

"I didn't have a good look at it," YSU second-year coach Bo Pelini said. "All I could hear is the guys right next to me going, 'He caught it, he caught it, he caught it.'"

An official's review of the play confirmed the touchdown. Ahead 40-38, the Penguins took a knee on the extra point to avoid risking a blocked kick that Eastern Washington could return for two points. On the ensuing kickoff, the Eagles went through a number of laterals before the Penguins downed Cooper Kupp with the ball to end the game.

"It was a heck of a football game. A real crazy way to end it," Pelini said. "We had guys making plays all night, they had guys making plays in tough conditions."

Tevin McCaster rushed for 154 yards and three touchdowns and the Penguins won despite facing as much as a two-touchdown deficit (24-10) in the second quarter.

The Penguins also overcame a tumultuous week in which there were reports of key players being suspended for the semifinal because of positive NCAA drug tests following the team's second-round win over Jacksonville State on Dec. 3.

While Pelini and school administrators did not confirm or deny the suspensions during the week, the short-handed Penguins played without second-leading rusher Martin Ruiz; wide receiver Darien Townsend, who leads the team in receiving yards; and safeties Jameel Smith and LeRoy Alexander, their No. 2 and 3 tacklers, respectively.

The game-time temperature was 12 degrees and it eventually dipped below 0 with wind chill. Eastern Washington's Gage Gubrud passed for 353 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions. Cooper Kupp had 10 receptions for 180 yards and two TDs, including one from Sam McPherson on a halfback option pass.

Much of Eastern Washington's aerial assault came in the first half. The Penguins' running game grew more effective in the second half, with Jody Webb finishing with 101 of their 263 yards on the ground.

In fact, Youngstown State outgained the Eagles' more prolific offense 506-478. Wells was 16 of 24 for 243 yards, also throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Alvin Bailey to pull Youngstown State within 31-27 early in the fourth quarter.

"They might have changed a few things, and I felt like they were getting decent pressure, so sometimes it was a little tougher to let some things develop," Eagles coach Beau Baldwin said. "We ran only so many plays, too, in the second half, so there weren't as many opportunities. We were still able to get a two-score lead going into the fourth quarter."

The loss marked the fourth time Eastern Washington has fallen in the FCS semifinals. The Eagles won their only title in 2010.

Gubrud wound up passing former Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke's FCS single-season record of 5,076 passing yards, finishing with 5,160. His 5,766 yards of total offense set the Big Sky Conference's single-season mark.

NFL-bound Cooper Kupp ended his amazing career with 428 receptions, 6,464 receiving yards and 73 touchdown receptions - all Division I records.

But the passing play that will be forever remembered in the thrilling semifinal was Wells-to-Rader-to-the-FCS-final.

"I knew if he threw me the ball," Rader said, "I had to come down with it."