Daily News-Record

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- All season long, James Madison football coach Mickey Matthews explained his team's dependence on the running game.

"We're going to dance with the one that brought us," the sixth-year coach said repeatedly.

Friday night, the Dukes danced all the way to the NCAA Division I-AA national championship.

Sophomore tailback Maurice Fenner rushed for 164 yards and two touchdowns as Madison (13-2) beat Montana 31-21 to win the title in front of 16,771 fans at Finley Stadium.

"It's a dream come true to win a championship on any level," quarterback Justin Rascati said. "It's something I always dreamed about throwing the ball in the back yard growing up. It's just a great feeling right now. I can't even describe it."

The Dukes piled up 308 yards on the ground, with sophomore Alvin Banks adding 88.

Rascati, the Dukes' transfer quarterback from Louisville, threw for 132 yards and ran for 57 more, including two touchdowns. His second score, a 6-yard scramble, helped JMU win its first-ever NCAA championship in a men's sport.

"We thought we could run it on them," Matthews said. "I'll say that now; I wouldn't say it before the game. We just thought we could exploit them. We thought we were better than them."

JMU won despite never slowing down Montana quarterback Craig Ochs. The Colorado transfer threw for 371 yards and three scores but the Dukes' defense, as it has all year, shut down Montana's running game and made key stops late in the game.

"It was two great quarterbacks," Matthews said. "I thought the difference was we could run it and they couldn't."

The victory was spurred by a gutsy fourth-down decision by Matthews. With 21 seconds to go in the first half, trailing 7-3, and his team looking at fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard-line, Matthews passed on kicking a short field goal and instead decided to go for it.

Afterward, Matthews admitted that it was offensive coordinator Jeff Durden and Rascati who talked him into the call.

"Me and Coach Durden were in his ear about going for it," Rascati said.

"We're offensive guys and we want to score. I told him we have a great offensive line. Let's put it in their hands."

Fenner, running behind fullback Chris Iorio, burst right through the middle of the line for the score, causing the 4,000 JMU fans behind the team's sideline to erupt into cheers, purple and gold streamers flying into the air.

"It was motivation for me," Fenner said. "I was like, 'Let's go for it.' It felt real good to get that touchdown. We carried the momentum the rest of the game."

For Madison, the NCAA championship was just its second in school history.

The field hockey team captured the 1994 crown.

Both teams were hurt by ragged, torn-up turf at Finley Stadium, which had $17,000 of resodding done to it in the past month.

Montana's Dan Carpenter missed a pair of field goals, including a 31-yarder that he kicked out of a ripped-up patch of dirt. The kick would have tied the game at 24-24 with five seconds left in the third quarter.

Instead, Carpenter pushed it wide right and JMU took over in the fourth.

The game started the way most of Montana's postseason matches have, with the Grizzlies taking an early lead. Montana had outscored opponents 137-37 this postseason entering the game.

But these Dukes, an experienced, veteran team that took its share of lumps the past three seasons, just don't rattle easily. Not even after Montana drove down the field against JMU's vaunted defense on the opening drive, becoming the first team to score a first-quarter touchdown against the Dukes all season when Ochs hit Jefferson Heidelberger with a 3-yard scoring pass less than five minutes into the game.

As they have all season, the Dukes answered the challenge.

The Dukes, who mustered all of 2 total yards in the first quarter, got on the board with 8:54 to go in the second when David Rabil kicked a 28-yard field that clanked off the right upright but bounced through to pull JMU within 7-3.

The Dukes were hoping for more, but on third down, running back Antoinne Bolton slipped and fell after taking a deep handoff from Rascati on a night when both teams struggled with footing on the Finley Stadium grass surface.

JMU survived a big Montana surge in the third quarter. Ochs hit Levander Segars for a 17-yard score with 8:51 to go in the quarter. The Dukes turned it over on their next possession when Banks couldn't handle Rascati's low pitch. Just 24 seconds later, Ochs hit tight end Willie Walden for an 8-yard score to put Montana back on top, 21-17.

But that would be as close as the Grizz got.

In the end, with the JMU fans screaming wildly, Ochs' fourth- down pass with 6:14 to go in the game was picked off by Clint Kent.

From there, Madison just ran out the clock to finish off the greatest season in team history. When the final seconds ticked off the clock, JMU fans spilled onto the field as fireworks exploded over the Finley Stadium scoreboard.

NOTE: JMU is expected to land at Weyers Cave Airport at 11 a.m. and be back on campus around 11:30 a.m. today.
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Record Number: 109E3B1582796580