West Texas A&M 33, Ashland 28

Almost as quickly as the 2012 playoff run for the GLIAC began, it concluded. After an unbeaten regular season hallmarked by outstanding efficiency and mistake-free (+11 in turnover margin with only seven giveaways) play, Ashland turned the ball over four times and yielded four sacks to the nation's top pass-rushing team and fell 33-28 to West Texas A&M.

Despite things not going as smooth as they'd like, the Eagles had the affair in their favor midway through third with a 28-19 lead and a rushing offense that was going essentially unchecked. Anthony Taylor finished the day with 151 yards and a score on the ground (he added another TD via the air), and the Ashland ground game churned out more than five yards per carry for the afternoon. Unfortunately, balance eluded them as quarterback Taylor Housewright was under constant pressure and turned the ball over four times as a result. We talked in our preview about how the Eagle front would need to find a way to keep WT's Ethan Westbrooks blocked, and that didn't happen as he racked up three of his clubs four sacks and led a Buffalo defense that had limited the Eagle passing attack to 102 yards in the game's first 59 minutes. Despite the constant harassment, Housewright and his receiving corps used three big, chunk receptions to move from their own 12 to the WT 26 in the game's waning seconds. That was as close as they would get, however, as Westbrooks' final sack of the day forced a fumble that WT recovered to seal the result.

Housewright's final collegiate game wound up at 20 of 34 for 166 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions...tough to take in the loss for the senior who had been picked-off only once the entire season heading into Saturday. His season and career were far better than this one outing would suggest, and the Eagles know that. His counterpart was far more successful...and he had to be as the Ashland defense was particularly stingy against the run, holding the Buffs to only 53 yards rushing on the afternoon. Dustin Vaughan was "on" throughout, finishing 35 of 50 for 398 yards and four touchdowns. He was intercepted once. His favorite target all year has been Torrance Allen, and Allen was huge on Saturday hauling in 13 grabs for 185 yards and three scores.

Despite the big days had by Vaughan and Allen, the Ashland defense really did a pretty good job in this one. They stuffed the run all day as previously mentioned, scored a first half TD on a blocked punt return, and they stalled a couple of promising WT drives deep in Eagle territory to force field goals. In the fourth quarter, the D got the ball back for their offense by holding WT on downs twice, with the second of those stops coming on a brilliant goal-line stand to keep the Buffalo lead to a single score. Brian Gamble led the group with 14 tackles, and even contributed with his speed on offense with four grabs for 66 yards. In the end, despite the D doing "enough", the offense simply wasn't able to generate the needed points for Ashland to advance. The Eagles conclude their year at 11-1.


Well, that's it for the season, folks. Again, thanks for making us a part of your football weeks. It's tough to know that from top-to-bottom the GLIAC was much better than an 0-1 playoff record would indicate, but not every season can go the way we'd like. 2013 should prove interesting to see if a team or two in the North can separate from the rest of their division the way Ashland did this year and provide the GLIAC with a chance to get at least one additional team into the bracket. Of course, as always in football, time will tell...