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Jimmies football falls in 39-29 heartbreaker at Morningside

maxwell o'neill, the jamestown sun, n.d.
·4 min read

Oct. 21—SIOUX CITY, Iowa. — The University of Jamestown had all of the momentum up 29-24 early in the 4th quarter but a fumbled punt gave Morningside University the ball on the Jimmies' 30-yard line and that was all they needed to take the lead for good in a 39-29 win on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the Mustangs' Elwood Olson Field.

"It's tough because I think we played three and a half quarters well enough to beat the number three team in the country and we couldn't finish it," Jimmies head coach Brian Mistro said. "We made some mistakes mentally, we made some mistakes physically that ultimately led to the end of the game the way it happened and we gotta clean those up if we want to compete against top level teams."

After playing the last six games, the Jimmies were without quarterback Ty Monson today due to what Mistro called a nagging lower back injury. The team relied upon Nick Martinez who only played the opening drive going 3-for-9 for 37 yards and John Grann who went 28-for-54 for 377 yards and three touchdowns and three interceptions.

"Johnny Grann was a warrior out there today," Mistro said. "He did a really good job of managing the game and taking some shots. That's a third year kid in our program that's taken a ton of reps and he had his time to shine and he did a good job. I love that kid, he's had so much resiliency and the ability to overcome adversity and hasn't been the guy since he was in high school. He gets the chance today and really shined, I'm really proud of Johnny Grann."

After the Mustangs (8-0, 7-0) opened the scoring, the Jimmies took the lead midway through the first quarter when Grann aired it out to Carlos Julian who walked into the end zone to make it 6-3. The Jimmies (2-6, 2-5) went for two and got it to make it 8-3. Later in the quarter, the Mustangs responded with a touchdown drive of their own to take a 10-8 lead.

On the first play of the second quarter, the Mustangs punched it in to push their lead out to 17-6. The ensuing kickoff was returned to the Mustangs' 40-yard line by Parker Hager. The Jimmies used the field position to their advantage as Grann found a wide-open Micah Madyun in the end-zone to make it 17-15 with 10:35 to go in the first half. Later in the second, the Mustangs' Jamal Jones jumped a Jimmies route and returned an interception 75 yards to the house to push his team's lead out to 26-15.

Midway through the third quarter, the Jimmies had a chance to cut into the lead with a field goal but it was blocked keeping the score right where it was at 26-15. The Jimmies responded with a stop and then a touchdown to cut the deficit to 26-21. Early in the fourth, Grann found Collins for another touchdown to go up 29-24.

After the Jimmies fumble on the punt that allowed the Mustangs to take the lead, the Jimmies had 36 passing yards, negative eight rushing yards and two interceptions.

The Jimmies are back in action at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28, when they go to Dakota Wesleyan University.

UJ 29, MU 39

UJ: 8 7 7 7—29

MU: 10 14 0 15—39

Scoring plays:

First quarter:

MU: Bryson Wilke 35-yard field goal

UJ: John Grann 58-yard touchdown to Carlos Julian (two point conversation is good)

MU: Lennx Brown 72-yard run (kick is good)

Second quarter:

MU: Brown 16-yard pass to Ryan Cole (kick is good)

UJ: Grann two-yard pass to Micah Madyun (kick is good)

MU: Jamal Jones 67-yard interception return (kick is good)

Third quarter:

UJ: Zach Hammett one-yard run (kick is good)

Fourth quarter:

UJ: Grann 10-yard pass to Ryan Collins (kick is good)

MU: Brown eight-yard run (two-point conversion is good)

MU: Brown five-yard run (kick is good)