Mercer Takes Down Furman, 27-20, in Overtime Thriller

Saturday, November 14

Greenville, S.C.

1:30 pm

Mercer University

Furman

Mercer Takes Down Furman, 27-20, in Overtime Thriller

11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football

Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Mercer University football team came up with big plays down the stretch, to pick up a 27-20 overtime victory over Furman on Saturday afternoon at Paladin Stadium.

RECORDS UPDATE
Mercer improves 5-5 on the season and 2-4 in the Southern Conference, while Furman slides to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in league play.

HEAD COACH BOBBY LAMB'S TAKE
"First of all, I about had a heart attack in the fourth quarter. As I told the team, we tried to lose this game maybe three times in the fourth quarter. We did some uncharacteristic things (Saturday). No. 1, we turned it over, and No. 2, we had penalties. But I'm proud of the way we came back and played there late in the overtime period. I'm proud of our defense for getting the interception. Furman did a good job of getting back into the game in the second half, after we really dominated the first half."

"It's just a big, big win, another momentum boost to get us to the next game so hopefully, we can finish 6-5."

TURNING POINT
Mercer led 20-14 for most of the fourth quarter, but Furman appeared to have scored the game-winning touchdown with 43 seconds remaining. However, an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty forced the Paladins to attempt a potential game-winning 35-yard extra point attempt that was missed to send the game into overtime.

The Bears took advantage, finding pay dirt after just three plays as Alex Lakes bruised his way through the Furman defense to hand the team a 27-20 advantage. Mercer officially won the game on the next play, as Zach Jackson came up with a game-saving interception for the second straight week.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Mercer turned in a dominating first half of play, outgaining the Paladins, 214-34, to jump out to a 13-0 lead following a pair of field goals from Jagger Lieb and a six-yard touchdown reception by Avery Ward. The Bears pushed their lead to 20-0 midway through the third quarter, as John Russ connected with Avery Ward for the second time, this time from three yards out.

However, Furman rallied back in a nearly heart-breaking fashion, as back-to-back touchdown grabs by Andrej Suttles made it a six-point game. The Paladins completed the comeback with a two-yard touchdown plunge by Kealand Dirks for 20 unanswered points, but the missed extra point attempt was the difference.

STAT OF THE GAME
Mercer's rushing attack was stellar this afternoon as the offense ran for 286 yards in the game, the team's highest output since the 2013 campaign. The Bears had two rushers reach the century mark for the first time since their season-opening win over Austin Peay with Lakes (141) and Mitchell (112) each reaching the mark.

OFFENSIVE STAR
Lakes gashed the Furman defense throughout the contest, picking up four rushes of 10 yards or more including a game-best 31-yard scamper in the second half. He finished with 141 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, averaging an impressive 7.4 yards per tote.

DEFENSIVE STANDOUT
Tosin Aguebor led an impressive performance by the Bears' defense, making the most of his three tackles on the afternoon. Two of those stops were sacks, which included a crucial sack, forced fumble and eventual recovery to turn the momentum in the fourth quarter. Aguebor's big day pushed his season total to 7.5 sacks.

MOVING UP
Today's win moved head coach Bobby Lamb into fourth place all-time for wins as a Southern Conference coach. Lamb now has 78 victories as the head ball coach for a SoCon team, moving past former Wake Forest coach D.C. Walker.

OFFENSIVE HIGHLIGHTS

Russ continued to put his name all over the Mercer record books, as his second completion of the day, a 11-yard completion to Avery Ward, eclipsed the 6,000-yard mark for his career.

Russ has now thrown a touchdown pass in 30 of 34 games over his career and pushed his season total to 16 with a pair of scoring strikes to Avery Ward.

With Jagger Lieb's 43-yard field goal in the first quarter, Mercer has scored in 40 consecutive games dating back to the 1941 season. Lieb matched a season-high with the 43-yard field goal and now has 11 made attempts on the year with two this afternoon.

Lakes went over 100 yards for the second time this season and recorded his seventh touchdown of the year. He now has 24 scores for his career.

Mitchell found the century mark for the fifth time this season, while growing his team-leading yardage total to 893.

Ward's two touchdown receptions matched a career-high and gives him a team-leading six scoring grabs this season.

DEFENSIVE NOTES

The Bears held Furman to just 60 yards rushing in the contest, the fifth time this season they have held an opponent under 70 yards.

The Mercer defense did not allow Furman to cross midfield in the first half, after only giving up two first downs in the opening 30 minutes of play. Furman did not cross into Mercer territory until nearly 39 minutes into the game.

The Bears held Furman to just 34 yards of total offense in the first half, also a season-best.

The Mercer defense has now forced a turnover in 19 of its last 21 games, after forcing two fumbles and one interception.

Junior linebacker Tyler Ward led the team with eight tackles.

Senior cornerback Alex Avant added seven tackles, while tallying his sixth pass break-up of the year. He also nearly came up with his second interception of the year, but it was called back due to defensive holding.