The University of Richmond Spiders overpowered the Montana Grizzlies 24-7 on Friday night to take home the school’s first national championship—in any sport—in 178 years.
Richmond got it done on offense, special teams, but most importantly: defense. Montana did manage to rack up over 300 yards of total offense; the majority of it coming from their passing game. The Spiders had a suspect pass coverage coming into this game and it showed at times when Montana senior quarterback Cole Bergquist dropped back to pass. He had 4 completions over 20 yards, including a spectacular 47 yard catch by Marc Mariani. Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, the 69 yard drive would end in a missed field goal. Mariani showed his ability to get through the secondary with ease accumulating 172 yards on 7 catches in the Grizzlies loss. The Spiders held Montana to a negligible 39 yards rushing. Although, this stat is kind of skewed considering the Grizzlies were playing catch-up from the opening kickoff and running soon became out of the question.
On the offensive side of the ball, Richmond quarterback Eric Ward played lights out. He went 12/18 passing for 96 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 46 yards. He also added a receiving touchdown on a trick play pass from fullback John Crone to score Richmond’s opening touchdown. Josh Vaughan was also a critical part of the Spiders success on offense, rushing for 162 yards and a TD. Vaughan proved imperative to Richmond’s 2nd half clock management considering the Spiders were more or less on cruise control after going up 21-0 in the first half.
The most important factor to the Grizzlies loss? The Richmond defensive line. The Spiders sacked Bergquist seven times, four of those sacks came from senior defensive end Lawrence Sidbury. Remember that name. Sidbury can flat out play defense and any NFL team that passes him up would be missing out. At 6’4 265lbs, he’s got a similar build to a Julius Peppers or Daryll Tapp. He reminds me of Daryll Tapp (mainly because I’ve watched DT more than Julius Peppers) with his uncanny ability to get past a lineman and put pressure on the quarterback. One play in particular that reminded me of Tapp was one in which Bergquist completed a pass out in the flat, the cornerback missed the tackle springing the receiver for a first down. Guessed who caught him? Yep. Sidbury chased him down from the line of scrimmage and brought him down. That’s what makes a defensive player great in my mind. The “motor” that runs until the play is over, not until the play is on the other side of the field. Sidbury could be a great player at the next level with his speed, power, and focus. Going back to the rest of that defensive line, both Pierre Turner and Martin Parker added a sack to Sidbury’s 4. Parker also forced a fumble on 1st down after Montana got the ball back, down 21-0, before the end of the half.
Richmond simply overpowered Montana on both sides of the ball. Their offensive line provided good protection for Ward and opened big holes for Vaughan to run through. Their defensive line imposed their will on the Grizzlies linemen and could very easily have had more than 7 sacks. The defensive pressure the Spiders put on Bergquist and the rest of the Grizzlies made any type of offensive rhythm hard to come by and in turn, points.
Hats off to 1st year head coach (and UR alum) Mike London and the rest of his coaching staff for an incredible coaching job in this game, the come-from-behind win 21-20 win over Northern Iowa the week before, and the unseating of 3 time defending champion Appalachian State. Gotta beat the champs to be the champs right? That’s what they are now. Congrats to the Spiders for winning the National Championship and for winning the way it should be *cough* playoff *cough* .
-Casey
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