Dec 20, 2002
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CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - They've been called a Cinderella team this postseason. Whether or not that's true is debatable, but now they can be called something else.
National champions.
Jason Michael threw for a career-high 185 yards Friday and Jon Frazier added 159 yards rushing to lead 15th-ranked Western Kentucky University to a 34-14 win over No. 1 McNeese State in the NCAA Division I-AA title game at W. Max Finley Stadium/Davenport Field.
The Hilltoppers (12-3) tied a school record for victories and set another with their 10th consecutive win this year, avenging a 38-13 loss to the Cowboys (13-2) in the process. It's the school's first NCAA I-AA championship. Western defeated each of the top three seeds during its playoff run, with the offense averaging 38.8 points per game in the postseason.
"In 50 years, they'll look back to 2002 and say Western Kentucky University is national champion and that's a beautiful thing," said WKU head coach Jack Harbaugh. "Our guys took the challenge and looked it straight in the eye. They're really warriors."
Michael was 6-of-10 passing, connecting with Jeremi Johnson -- who recorded a career-high 90 receiving yards -- three timesincluding a 16-yard touchdown that gave the Toppers a 7-0 lead with 9:36 left in the opening quarter. The duo also combined for a 49-yard pass that set up Frazier's 14-yard touchdown run on the Hilltoppers' opening drive of the second half that made the score 24-6.
Frazier also scored on a 55-yard run on the first play of the second quarter en route to his school-record-tying ninth 100-yard effort of the season. The senior led WKU on the ground for the 12th time in 2002, moving up to second on the season record list with 1,537 yards this year.
Brian Lowder led the Hilltoppers with 12 tackles and Charles Thompson added 11, his ninth game of the season with double-digit stops. Sherrod Coates added five tackles with two behind the line of scrimmage, posting a sack in his ninth consecutive game. Karl Maslowski made seven stops and intercepted a Scott Pendarvis pass on the Cowboys' first play of the game to set up Western`s first score.
It's the fifth straight game that the Hilltoppers' opponent entered the contest ranked in the top 15 nationally in scoring but fell short of matching its average.
Johnson's touchdown came with the Toppers facing 3rd-and-11, giving WKU the lead for good. After Frazier's first score, the Cowboys put together 10-play, 56-yard drive, but had to settle for a 30-yard John Marino field goal when Pendarvis fumbled the snap on 3rd-and-2 from the WKU-13. Western built its lead back to two touchdowns when Peter Martinez connected on a 40-yard field goal with just under five minutes left in the half.
The Toppers were attempting to run out the clock when McNeese forced and recovered a fumble -- Western's only turnover of the postseason -- at the WKU-25 55 seconds prior to the half. But after picking up a first down, Pendarvis threw a pair of incompletions as the Cowboys were only able to manage a 24-yard Marino field goal with seven seconds to go, making the score 17-6 at the break.
Trailing 24-7 with time winding down in the third period, MSU put together an eight-play, 75-yard drive that Pendarvis capped with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Luke Lawton -- he connected with Jeff Hamilton on the two-point conversion to pull the Cowboys to within 24-14 and 3:49 remaining.
But McNeese would not score again as the Hilltoppers put the game away with two scores in the final quarter.
Michael's 2-yard run at 13:49 made the score 31-14, and Martinez kicked a 23-yard field goal with just under three minutes remaining for the final points of the contest. Martinez set school season records with 18 field goals and 103 points by kicking, and also claimed sole possession of Western's all-time mark with 49 field goals.
Pendarvis was 21-of-38 for 244 yards, but he and replacement Ryan Corcoran were intercepted three times. B.J. Sams caught seven passes for 69 yards and Jermaine Martin added five catches for 74 yards as nine different players had a reception.
Marcus Trahan had 82 yards on 12 carries and Sams added 32 yards on the ground, but the Hilltoppers limited the latter to 127 all-purpose yards after he set a McNeese game record with 316 in the first meeting between the two teams.
The Cowboys' Roderick Royal matched Lowder for game-high honors with 12 stops.
"We came up a little bit short, but my hat's off to Western Kentucky," McNeese head coach Tommy Tate said. "They don't give these national championships away, you have to earn them. Western Kentucky did that."
-- WKU --
