CNU claims NJAC title and NCAA playoff berth
Former Tallwood star scores go-ahead TD with 1:14 remaining
Christopher Newport is headed back to the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time since 2015 — and with its first New Jersey Athletic Conference championship in tow.
Virginia Beach’s Gunner White scored the go-ahead touchdown from 10 yards with 1:14 to go, giving the Captains a come-frombehind 27-21 victory before 489 fans on a chilly Friday night at The College of New Jersey.
TCNJ threatened to answer in the final minute, getting to CNU’s 23-yard line. But Noah Martin made a clinching interception of Trevor Bopp’s last pass.
CNU (7-3, 5-1 NJAC) won the title outright and avoided a complicated potential tiebreaker if more than one team had finished 4-2 in the conference. The Lions (5-5, 3-3) were one of those.
“Our guys could have folded, could have said, ‘Woe is me, here we go again.’ But we responded, too many guys to count,” CNU coach Paul Crowley said on the postgame radio show.
The Captains will learn their playoff pairing in a show at 5 p.m. today, when the 32-team bracket will be revealed.
CNU, which squandered its first clinching opportunity in a disappointing 19-14 home defeat last Saturday to Montclair State, came out afire in Ewing, New Jersey, just across the state line from Philadelphia.
Trey Hayes’ kickoff return to the 50 set up Matt Dzierski’s
7-yard touchdown pass to White, and Dzierski and Hayes hooked up for a 27-yard score on CNU’s next possession. Ryan Castle missed the PAT try wide, leaving the Captains ahead 13-0 halfway through the first quarter.
With CNU facing fourth down, Amir Vick swung the momentum TCNJ’s way by returning an interception 64 yards for a touchdown. About five minutes later, Bopp’s 8-yard TD pass and Bobby Wortman’s second PAT gave the Lions a 14-13 lead.
Red-zone woes hampered the Captains, though Castle sandwiched 22- and 21-yard field goals around Malin Jasinski’s 59-yard catch-and-run TD from Bopp. That left TCNJ ahead 21-19 as clutch time arrived in the fourth quarter.
With the four-minute mark approaching, CNU downed a 37-yard Baylor Gallagher punt at the 1, and its defense forced a three-and-out. After a 25-yard TCNJ punt, the Captains started their decisive drive at the Lions’ 33 with 2:30 to go.
Crowley got the ball to White — a former Tallwood High star — on all four plays, plus the subsequent two-point conversion run.
“He’s a phenomenal football player,” Crowley said. “He’s scored a lot of touchdowns this year. When we’ve needed a play, he’s made ’em.”
With TCNJ desperate, Bopp completed 4 of 5 passes to move the Lions 52 yards, but Martin snagged his sixth throw of the drive deep in Captains territory to spark a CNU celebration.