ARVADA – Fifth-seed and 9th-ranked Ohio Dominican used a 24-10 first-half advantage and withstood a late comeback attempt by fourth-seed and 17th-ranked Colorado School of Mines to capture a 34-23 victory on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs at the North Area Athletic Complex.
The loss drops Mines to 10-2 on the season while Ohio Domincan improves to 10-1 and will face top-seed and third-ranked Ferris State next Saturday in the Super Region Four semifinals. Saturday's contest was the 1,000th in the history of the Mines football program.
Mines churned out 108 plays and 519 yards of offense in the contest, including 409 yards through the air. The squad was hampered by turnovers, including a pair deep in ODU territory.
Sophomore Justin Dvorak, the nation's leader in total offense entering the contest, led the offense with 409 yards on a 42-of-71 passing performance with a pair of scores. He was also picked off once and added 46 rushing yards on 19 carries. He set a program record for total offensive plays in a season with 730 during the 2014 campaign (160 carries, 570 pass attempts) for a total of 4,671 yards and 44 total touchdowns.
His 71 pass attempts on Saturday were the second-most in a single game in program history.
Senior Tevin Champagne carried 17 times for 51 yards to lead the rushing attack and junior Devin Reaves took his lone carry 13 yards.
Junior Jimmy Ellis caught a game-high 14 balls for 133 yards to lead Mines' receiving corps. The Littleton product set a new career high for receptions in Saturday's loss.
Cole Spurgeon added five catches for 29 yards and a pair of scores, giving him 11 on the season to lead the team. Champagne added 46 receiving yards on nine receptions and senior Diamond Gillis notched six catches for 98 yards, including a 51-yarder.
Linebacker Kole Kadavy closed his fantastic senior campaign with 12 tackles (five solo) and 3.0 tackles for loss to lead the defense. The former walk-on upped his program record for single-season tackles to 144 on Saturday, including a program record 84 solo stops.
Senior Ian McFadden added 12 stops (five solo) as well and added 0.5 tackle for loss. Redshirt freshman Drew Stephon picked off a pass and chipped in nine tackles (four solo) in the defensive backfield with 0.5 tackle for loss.
Emmanuel Graves, a Gene Upshaw Award nominee, added seven stops (two solo) and 0.5 tackle for loss to bring his season total for the latter category to 19.0. He finished his junior campaign 2.0 tackles for loss shy of the program record of 21.0 set by NCAA career sack record holder Marc Shiechl (2007-10).
Junior Billy Sprague added six stops and 1.0 tackle for loss and Dallas Fields and Andrew Renfrew added four stops apiece and combined for 2.0 tackles for loss on the defensive interior.
Avery Llewellyn made each of his three field goal attempts and was true on tries from 27, 37 and 33 yards. He made each of his two extra points as well for 11 points in the game. He punted twice for a 49.0-yard average and added four touchbacks on five kickoffs.
Scoring Summary
Qtr Time Scoring Play | Score
1st 09:55 CSM - Cole Spurgeon 1 yd pass from Justin Dvorak (Avery Llewellyn kick) | Mines, 7-0
04:47 ODUFB - Brandon Schoen 1 yd run (Brent Wahle kick) | Tied, 7-7
2nd 12:59 ODUFB - Dez Stewart 68 yd pass from Mark Miller (Brent Wahle kick) | ODU, 14-7
09:00 CSM - Avery Llewellyn 27 yd field goal | ODU, 14-10
06:11 ODUFB - Brent Wahle 45 yd field goal | ODU, 17-10
03:03 ODUFB - Mark Miller 4 yd run (Brent Wahle kick) | ODU, 24-10
3rd 06:42 CSM - Avery Llewellyn 37 yd field goal | ODU, 24-13
00:03 CSM - Avery Llewellyn 33 yd field goal | ODU, 24-16
4th 13:27 ODUFB - Brent Wahle 32 yd field goal | ODU, 27-16
06:55 ODUFB - Brandon Schoen 29 yd run (Brent Wahle kick) | ODU, 34-16
03:07 CSM - Cole Spurgeon 10 yd pass from Justin Dvorak (Avery Llewellyn kick) | ODU, 34-23
