FCS Playoffs-Round 1

Round one of the FCS playoffs was completed last night, and other than one game, there were no real surprises (and the one surprise was not much of one). Lets break down the action...

Western Illinois 17, Coastal Carolina 10
The Leathernecks bounced out to a 10-0 lead on the road, but needed Matt Barr's second rushing TD of the day with1:50 left to push themselves up over the upstart Chanticleers on the road. WIU now stays on the road next week when they meet Appalachian State.
Matt Barr had hit Bryce Flowers on a 38 yard pass play to set up Barr's 5 yard scoring run. The Chanticleers then drove all the way to the Leatherneck 4 yard line before Zach MacDowell tossed his 4th pick of the game and WIU was finally able to breath. CCU had 5 turnovers total on the day. Their final drive to tie the game was aided by 2 major penalties by WIU.
Barr passed for 233 yards on the day and rushed for 45. He was picked twice.
The game featured 13 total penalties and 7 total turnovers. MacDowell finished with 292 yards for Coastal Carolina, and he rushed for 71 more on the day.

Lehigh 14, Northern Iowa 7
Lehigh provided our second road winner on the day, as the Mountain Hawks scored 14 in the third and shut down the Panthers after a score in the first to get the win.
Chris Lum passed for both TDs amongst his 262 yards passing, and All-Bilo WR Candidate Ryan Spadola caught 9 passes for 127 yards and a score.
This was the 8th straight win for red hot Lehigh.
Lehigh (10-2) now advances to take on Delaware on the road next weekend.
Billy Hallgren missed 3 FGs on the day for UNI in the loss, and the Panthers finish 7-5.
Panther QB Tirrell Rennie tossed 3 picks and completed only 6 of 14 passes in the loss.

Georgia Southern 41, South Carolina State 16
The Eagles scored 16 in the 1st and another 16 in the 4th to sandwich the Bulldogs at home in Statesboro, despite losing QB Jaybo Shaw to an early injury. SC State had only been allowing 77 yards rushing per game, but the Eagles rolled up 323 yards rushing in their triple option offense. The Eagles scored twice on safeties, and also scored on a fumble return against the mistake prone Bulldogs.
Shaw left the game with an apparent concussion and no news is available oon his condition as the Eagles now prep to take on William & Mary next weekend.
Robert Brown rushed for 77 yards for GSU, but was replaced with FB Lee Banks after his 3rd fumble of the game. Banks rushed for 56 yards.
Malcolm Long was held to 166 yards passing and was picked 3 times for SC State, who finishes at 9-3 on the season.

North Dakota State 43, Robert Morris 17
ND State trialed the Colonials 7-6 at the half, but blew the game open in the second half, as Brock Jensen passed for 2 scores and rushed for another to pull out the 1st round win for the Bison at home. DJ McNorton rushed for 110 yards and added another 110 yards receiving, while scoring twice. ND State rolled up 482 yards in total offense, including a Bison post season record 229 yards passing by the redh=shirt freshman QB Jensen.
All-Bilo candidate RB Myles Russ rushed for 117 yards and both Colonial TDs as Robert Morris fell in their first playoff appearance to finish 8-3 on the season.
NDSU now travles to take on Montana State next weekend.