Miles had trouble getting its offense on track Saturday afternoon but the defense did more than enough to keep the Golden Bears in the win column with a 9-6 Homecoming victory over Lane at Sloan-Alumni Stadium. It was the third straight win for Miles (3-3, 3-1 SIAC), which used a late defensive stand against the winless Dragons (0-6, 0-4), who have now lost 16 straight contest.
The Golden Bears had two interceptions and two sacks, and
Tre Jones (five tackles, one tackle-for-loss) blocked a punt out of the end zone for a safety that gave Miles a 9-6 lead early in the fourth quarter. But with the offense failing to gain much traction, the defense had to close the game out.
Lane got the ball at its own 10 with 3:26 left in the game and put together a drive against the Miles defense and the clock. Still needing to go 92 yards in two minutes, the Dragons completed three passes that got them to the Miles 11-yard line with less than 30 seconds left. But the Golden Bears finally got pressure on quarterback Chris Overton and the secondary started closing down on the routes to force four straight incompletions and a turnover on downs. Miles got into victory formation and ran out the last 15 seconds of the game.
Miles looked as if it would be able to run away from Lane from the beginning. But the Golden Bears turned the ball over four times inside the Lane 3-yard line, with three interceptions between
Brinley Vandiver and
Anthony Mix, Jr., and a fumble by
Roderick Thomas.
Rourke Davis also missed two field goals, which left a ton of points on the field. Still, a 31-yard run by
Edward Osley set up a 7-yard scoring run by
Andre Gianopoulos with 6:40 left in the first quarter to give Miles a 7-0 lead it would take into halftime.
Lane nearly went ahead in the third quarter when Overton connected with Rkisch Hyppolyte for a 10-yard touchdown pass with two minutes left in the third quarter. But the two-point conversion failed and Miles held on to a 7-6 lead.
Donsha Gaither had a team-high six tackles while other defensive stalwarts included
Jonquavious Russell (five tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks),
Antonio White, Jr. (four tackles, one TFL, one interception),
Vintavious Johnson (two tackles, interception) and Steven Voss (two tackles, sack).
Miles is back in action when it travels to face Kentucky State next Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
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