HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State's undefeated season ended on Saturday (Nov. 25) at Lewis Field Stadium in a 31-21 loss to Ferris State in the second round of the NCAA Division II Playoffs. Ferris State (11-1), ranked No. 10 in the nation, moves on to the national quarterfinals, while FHSU, ranked No. 4 in the nation, ended its season at 11-1 overall.
 
The teams played to a stalemate through the first three drives, but Ferris State gained momentum by taking the ball 61 yards on 14 plays on its fourth drive that took 5:03 straddling the first and second quarters. The Bulldogs capped it with a 28-yard field goal. They extended the lead to 10-0 on their next drive, triggered by a 41-yard pass from Reggie Bell to Brandon Walker. Four plays later, Jahaan Brown took the ball in from three yards out on a run.
 
Fort Hays State had just one first down until its final drive of the first half, when it managed to move the ball 57 yards with a pair of first downs. The Tigers had a chance to put points on the board, but a Jevonte Alexander blocked a Brandon Brown 48-yard field goal attempt to leave the Tigers scoreless in the first half.
 
After a rough first half where the Tigers had just 83 yards of total offense, the stadium erupted when Kenneth Iheme ran the ball 66 yards to the house on the third play of the second half, suddenly cutting the Ferris State lead to 10-7. FHSU then forced Ferris State to punt on a 3-and-out drive, but FHSU did not get anything accomplished on the next drive to keep the momentum in its favor.
 
Following that drive, Ferris State took the wind out of Fort Hays State's sails with a seven-play 51-yard drive, capped by a 3-yard touchdown run by Davontae Harrington. The Bulldogs pushed the margin back to seven at 17-7, and then shut the Tiger offense down for nearly the remainder of the game.
 
Later in the third quarter, Bell found Malik Taylor for a 19-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-7. Early in the fourth quarter, Brown punched in a 3-yard touchdown run to make it 31-7.
 
FHSU put 14 points on the board in the final minute of the game. Iheme broke off an 81-yard touchdown run on the second-to-last attempt of his career. FHSU recovered an onside kick, benefitted from a personal foul, then Monterio Burchfield went to work. He caught passes of 29, 6, and 4 yards to put the Tigers in the endzone again with 10 seconds remaining. That made the final margin of 31-21.
 
Outside of Iheme's two big runs that helped him total 162 rushing yards, the Bulldogs handled the Tiger running game. All of Fort Hays State's other rushers finished with negative yards and FHSU finished with 146 rushing yards overall. Jacob Mezera was 23-of-37 passing for 170 yards and Burchfield made a team-high 10 catches for 92 yards. The final catch for Burchfield pushed him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season, finishing with 1,003 and sixth on the single-season list at FHSU. Iheme finished the season with 1,380 yards on the ground, the fourth-most rushing yards in a season in FHSU history. Mezera finished with 2,824 passing yards for the season, fourth most in a season in FHSU history.
 
Ferris State used a balanced attack, finishing with 460 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs rushed for 224 yards and passed for 236. Ten different players ran the ball for Ferris State, led by Bell with 70 yards. He threw for 168 yards on a 13-of-23 effort. Walker led the Bulldogs in receiving yards with 119 on three catches. The 460 total yards allowed by FHSU was a season high. Field position was key in the game as Fort Hays State's average drive start was its own 16 yardline, while Ferris State's was its own 36.
 
Defensively, Jose Delgado finished with a team-high 13 tackles and 107 for the season, while Connor Shedeed also reached double figures with 10. Tavierre Thomas and Jevonte Alexander led the Bulldogs in tackles with six each. Neither team turned the ball over in the game.
 
The Tigers set a new program record for wins in a season and put together the best season in school history under the 11-week regular season model. The 1917 team is the only FHSU team to go undefeated, but did so with just a seven-game schedule.
 
Fort Hays State still searches for its first-ever NCAA Playoff win, now 0-3 all-time. This was the first appearance in the NCAA Playoffs for FHSU since 1995 and first conference championship team since the same year. Ferris State moves on to host Harding in the Super Region 3 Final next Saturday.