UPDATE

At Sioux City, Iowa

Briar Cliff 31 Jamestown 25

SIOUX CITY, Iowa- (UJ) – The Briar Cliff University Chargers scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to hand the University of Jamestown football team its first loss of the season, 31-25 Saturday afternoon at Memorial Field. 

The Jimmies (2-1 overall, 1-1 GPAC) led 10-7 at the half on a 22-yard Aanon Peterson (FR/Andover, Minn.) field goal and one-yard Zach Hammett (FR/Mohave Valley, Ariz.) touchdown run. 

Briar Cliff tied the game on a 40-yard field goal by Jonathan Branner with 12:45 to go in the third quarter. After each team had their next drive stall out, UJ took over at its own 32-yard line following a Charger punt.

Thirteen plays and 68 yards later, Jamestown found the end zone as Cade Torgerson (SR/Billings, Mont.) and Steve Justice (SR/Henderson, Nev.) connected on a 28-yard touchdown pass, and Peterson’s extra point made it 17-10 with 4:45 remaining in the third. Torgerson completed five passes for 55 yards on the drive, including three to Justice for 44 yards.

Charger quarterback Luke Davies found Steven Whiting on an eight-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 17 with 11:42 remaining. The next two Jimmie drives ended in a fumble and a punt, while the defense was able to intercept Davies on the following Briar Cliff possession. 

Davies engineered another scoring drive following a UJ punt, completing a 39-yard pass to Spencer George on second-and-23, and the Chargers had their first lead since 7-0 in the first quarter. 

The Jimmies took over on their own 10 yard line with 7:55 to play, and covered 90 yards on 15 plays as Torgerson ran for a seven-yard touchdown to make it 24-23 with 1:29 left in the game. Instead of going for the tie with an extra point try, UJ went for the two-point conversion and the lead. Torgerson passed to Ryan Collins (JR/Akron, Ohio) for the successful try and Jamestown went back in front 25-24.

Briar Cliff started their final possession on their own 18-yard line and Davies found Damarreon Nelson for 12 yards and Kobe Johnson for another 28 on the first two plays, and the Chargers quickly marched into Jimmie territory. Back-to-back six-yard completions to Nelson moved the ball to the UJ 30, and with 22 seconds left, Davies and Nelson capped off the drive with a 30-yard scoring pass.

After a fair catch on the ensuing kickoff, Jamestown started at its own 25 yard line, and moved up to the 32 on a 7-yard pass to Javon Bowie-Monteiro (SR/Sacramento, Calif.). On third down, Torgerson’s pass was incomplete to Ethan Goss (SO/Fresno, Calif.), and on fourth-and-three, Torgerson completed a three-yard pass to Goss on what appearted to be a first down. However, Torgerson was ruled to have thrown an illegal forward pass, and the game was over.

Torgerson completed 30-of-51 passes for 326 yards and a touchdown. Hammett carried 10 times for 58 yards and a score, and Justice finished with eight catches for 77 yards and a touchdown.

Rob Anderson (JR/Alexandria, Minn.) finished with 10 tackles, while Ezra Belingheri (SO/Sparks, Nev.) and Jed Rantz (SO/Arroyo Grande, Calif.) each had eight. Rantz and Paul Vandal (JR/Jamestown, N.D.) recorded sacks and Hershell Jefferson (SO/Pensacola, Fla.) had UJ’s only interception.

Jamestown returns home to host Northwestern (Iowa) College Saturday at 1 p.m.

Box Score