Football's season comes to an end in national semifinals

West Palm Beach, Fla. – Raven Football's season came to a heartbreaking end Saturday afternoon.

The (9) Ravens lost to the (1) Keiser University Seahawks, 42-38, in the NAIA Football Championship Series Semifinals. The Ravens held a 38-21 lead in the fourth quarter before a furious Seahawks comeback sent the defending national champions back to the championship game.

Xavier Ugorji's 54-yard touchdown run gave the Ravens a 17-point lead with 7:38 to play in the game and seemingly put the Ravens in the driver's seat. However, Keiser took less than 2 minutes to answer with a passing touchdown to cut the Ravens lead to 38-28.

The Ravens were forced to punt on their ensuing drive and again the Seahawks were able to score, this time on a quarterback run with 1:54 left on the clock.

The Ravens tried to eat as much clock as possible to protect their 3-point lead, but were forced to punt and the Seahawks took over at their own 25-yard line with 50 seconds to play. Keiser quickly moved into Ravens territory and then hit a 25-yard scoring strike to take a 42-38 lead with 20.7 seconds left.

The Ravens continued to fight as Jackson Dooley connected with JaShawn Todd for 21 yards, and then Todd again for a 45-yard gain to put the Ravens at the Keiser 14 yard line with time enough for one more play. However, Dooley's final pass fell to the turf in the end zone and the Seahawks escaped with the win.

Dooley finished the contest with 194 yards passing and a touchdown. Ugorji rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown and Todd closed out the game with three catches for 79 yards.

Defensively, the Ravens were led by Abram Phillips who had 11 tackles.

Momentum swings were the story of the first half. The Ravens had the first swing as the defense forced a Seahawks punt and the offense cashed in with a 46-yard Harry Balke field goal to take a 3-0 lead in the first quarter. With the kick, Balke became the Ravens career kicking scoring leader.

On the ensuing Seahawks drive, the Ravens stuffed a 4^th-and-1 attempt at the Keiser 28 yard line, giving the offense great starting field position. The opportunity resulted in another Balke field goal, this time from 34 yards, as the Ravens took a 6-0 lead into the second quarter.

Keiser found its footing in the second quarter, scoring on a 39-yard touchdown pass to move in front, 7-6.

After the Ravens were forced to punt, the Seahawks scored in less than 2 minutes on a short rush to increase their lead to 14-6.

The Ravens were forced to punt again late in the second quarter, but the Keiser returner muffed the punt and the ball was recovered by Kort Mattison in the end zone for a Ravens touchdown. The Ravens tied the game up with a 2-point conversion as Todd took a handoff from Dooley, then threw back to the quarterback for the conversion to level the score at 14-14.

The Seahawks needed just two plays to drive to the Ravens 7-yard line, but Isaiah Hasten plucked an interception to keep Keiser off the board and send the teams into the break tied at 14.