For 51 minutes, Tiffin University and Lake Erie College delivered on the expected shootout.
But over the final 9 minutes, the Dragons turned the ball over on two critical fumbles ultimately leading to two late scores as Lake Erie outdistanced the Dragons 50-32 in the season finale for both schools. The Dragons finish the season 2-9, 1-9 in the GLIAC.
Tiffin opened well, driving 86 yards in 14 plays before Jerry Brown scored on a 4 yard run to put TU up 7-0 at the 9:15 mark of the first quarter.
Lake Erie responded with a touchdown and a safety, one of 9 sacks of Antonio Pipkin on the day. The Dragons got on the board early in the second quarter, with Davion Bowers scoring at the 11:53 mark on a 1 yard run. After getting the 2 point conversion, TU led 15-8.
Lake Erie scored at the 5:54 mark to tie the score at 15-15 and scored again just before the half on a 78 yard touchdown pass to lead 22-15 at the half.
Lake Erie expanded their lead to 29-15 after a 36 yard TD run with 12:39 left in the third quarter. The Dragons defense, however, forced a turnover which was recovered for a touchdown by Ronald Johnson at the 6:59 mark to make the score Lake Erie 29, TU 22.
The Storm bounced right back to score on an 8 yard run, pushing their lead back to 14 points 36-22, but the Dragons' Tony Shead caught an 8 yard pass from Pipkin to climb to within a touchdown 36-29 with 1:39 left in the third.
Tomaslav Derezic booted a 19 yard field goal at 12:04 of the fourth quarter to make the score 36-32. The Dragons seemed poised to take the lead as they started to drive into Lake Erie territory, but a costly fumble was recovered by Lake Erie all the way back at the Tiffin 5 yard line at the 9:04 mark. The Storm capitalized two plays later to make the score 43-32.
Tiffin then started another drive, pushing to the Lake Erie 24 yard line before Pipkin fumbled on another sack at the 7:03 mark, ending another drive. After TU turned the ball over on downs late in the fourth, Lake Erie put the game away with a touchdown with 17 seconds left.
TU totaled 32 first downs to Lake Erie's 23, while the Storm just edged TU 474-459 in total offense. Pipkin had 346 yards passing on 33 of 49 attempts with a touchdown and an interception.
Tony Shead had 119 yards receiving with a score while Marcus Beaurem also had 82 yards receiving. Jerry Brown also rushed for 46 yards while receiving for 37 more.
Defensively Terry Harper had 12 tackles with 3 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Carlton Watkins and Bryon McCorkle had 8 tackles apiece with McCorkle also getting a sack. Akeem Needum and Kyle Yoder had 7 tackles each, Antonio Etter had 6 tackles with a tackle for loss, Judes Amilcar had 5 tackles with a sack, and Stefan Willis had an interception.
