One thing is undeniable. The 2014 John Carroll University football team had a lot of heart.
John Carroll's historic season came to a close on Saturday afternoon in Alliance, Ohio. The Blue Streaks dropped a 36-28 decision to the Purple Raiders in the NCAA Football Championship quarterfinal.
"The experiences that I've had with this group, words can't describe the type of people that we have in our locker room," said an emotional second-year head coach Tom Arth. "What they stand for and represent, the success that they're going to have far beyond the football field. I promise you that. These are some special people. (They are) some intelligent people, some high-character people who will go out and make a difference in the word. They will be great husbands, they will be great fathers. At the end of the day that's what this game's about. It's about teaching you to be the best person that you can be. And I don't think there's a better platform to do it.
"That's what I'll remember about this group is everything they gave. Everything that they've given, the sacrifice that they've made for our school, our program, for me, for our staff; what they've meant to us, to our school, to our alumni – that's what I'll remember about this group."
After falling behind 14-0 early John Carroll roared back tying the score at 14 and 21.
Zach Strippy set John Carroll up at the Mount Union 2-yard line to start the second quarter. The senior made a lunging catch on a ball that appeared to be overthrown.
From there the Blue and Gold turned to Tommy Michals and the senior plunged in from two yards out. The touchdown, Michals' 20th of the year tied Carl Tassef's 64-year-old school record for most rushing touchdowns in a season.
"Tommy fought hard, like he's done all year," said Arth. "He fought all day and I wish we could've done more for him."
Myers connected with Strippy from 1-yard out on John Carroll's next possession to tie the score at 14. JCU's defense set up the score with Marty Gibbons returning a fumble forced by Brody Zangaro 64 yards.
Mount Union would reclaim the lead with 2:55 remaining setting up a shootout with 21 points over the next 1:31. Kevin Burke found Sherman Wilkinson from 22 yards out.
John Carroll answered.
Myers, eluding the rush, found a wide-open Marshall Howell from 75 yards out tying the score at 21 with 2:39 remaining in the half. The touchdown reception, Howell's 14th, set a new single-season school record. It also moved Howell past Lane Robilotto's 2012 mark for most receiving yards in a season by a Blue Streak.
Howell would finish with four receptions for 119 yards. His season would conclude with 1,126 yards.
The 75-yarder marked the longest completion by Myers in his career.
John Carroll's defense took over in the third quarter. Mike Tozzi and Chris Rizzo would come up with strip sacks of Burke. Jovon Dawson added a third sack of the Purple Raiders' senior signal caller in the frame.
The Purple Raiders' took advantage late in the quarter capitalizing on a punt snap through the end zone, recording a safety with 1:35 remaining in the frame. Mount Union would make it a 15-point game 25 seconds later on Burke's 5-yard pass to Luc Meacham.
John Carroll had new life with Myers and Strippy connecting from 3 yards out with 6:51 making it a 36-28 game. Myers finished 31 of 55 for 362 yards and three scores. For the year, Myers would break his own single-season school record and finish with 3,428 yards.
The Blue Streaks defense forced a Purple Raider punt on the ensuing possession. Offensively, John Carroll could not mount a drive and put the game in its defense's hands.
Said Arth, "In the end, you want to put it in your players' hands. Our defense has been the catalyst of our program for the last two years. I believed in them with my whole heart. I wanted to put the game in their hands. Unfortunately, we had two timeouts, we felt good about that. Mount Union made a play there on third down to get the first. One way or another, I wanted this game to come down to our players. I think it did."
A 5-yard run from Burke picked up the game-clinching first down.
Defensively, John Carroll was led by Kevin Cope's eight tackles and two breakups.
Said Arth, "I feel great about our future. We have so many great, young players in our program. A lot of them you've seen out there the last few weeks. A lot of them also didn't have this experiences these past few weeks. They're blessed because they've been around a strong of a senior class as I could've ever hoped for. I think those guys, they knew coming into this that their responsibility was to leave a mark on our program and to make our program better and to provide an example to our younger players, what John Carroll football is all about. They've done that. These young guys have looked up to them and learned so much from them."