Down by five with 1:21 left and no timeouts, Bryan Bennett led a six-play, 85-yard drive for the win against Sam Houston State in the second round of the FCS playoffs Saturday night at Strawberry Stadium in Hammond, Louisiana.
Bennett was 6-6 on the drive, the last a 1-yard touchdown pass to receiver Jeff Smiley with just 36 seconds on the clock. The victory vaults the Lions to next week’s quarterfinals. Ironically, they’ll face Chip Kelly’s old New Hampshire squad in their quest for their first-ever FCS title.
Roaring to the quarterfinals: SELU teammates and head coach Ron Roberts celebrate after former Oregon Duck Bryan Bennett engineers an 85-yard drive for the winning touchdown with just 36 seconds to play in the FCS playoffs (lionsports.net photo).
Bennett zipped completions of 11, 12, 21, 15 and 25 yards to get SELU in position for the winning score. He told Trey Mongrue of the Baton-Rouge Advocate,“I just thought to myself, ‘We have to score here,’ ” said Bennett, who completed all six of his passes on the final drive. “We just had to keep believing in what we were doing, and we were able to get it done there in the end.”
The former Oregon qb was 19-33 passing, for 286 yards, two tds and one interception. He also led all rushers with 19 carries for 83 yards. He suffered a pick six early in the game, but on a scoring drive in the second quarter with his team down 21-10, the Bennett hit Smiley for 30-yards to get the Lions out of a deep hole on their 12.
For the season, the junior transfer has accounted for 35 tds in an 11-2 campaign, including the school’s first-ever Southland Conference Championship.
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