Albany State rallies past Fort Valley State to advance to SIAC championship game
Albany State made Fort Valley State pay dearly for its lone turnover.
The Ramns drove for the winning score after the FVS fumble, winning 21-17 on Saturday in the annual Fountain City Classic at A.J. McClung Memorial Stadium.
With the victory, Albany State won the SIAC East Division. The Rams will play Miles in the SIAC championship game in Montgomery, Ala., on Nov. 14.
Fort Valley State took its first lead of the game 17-14 with 14:08 remaining in the fourth quarter when Travis Richmond caught a Malcolm Eady pass from 4 yards out.
Albany State drove from its 17 to the Wildcat 21, where Zachary Gayden-Holley attempted a 38-yard field goal that missed wide right with 6:58 remaining.
On the next offensive play for the Wildcats, Seth Hill fumbled the ball back to the Rams.
There were also two penalties after the fumble on Fort Valley State setting Albany state up with 1st-and-goal from the Wildcat 7.
"We turned the ball over at a costly time," Fort Valley coach Donald Pittman said. "That's the story."
It took one play for Jarvis Small to get into the end zone and give the Rams the lead back 21-17 with 6:43 left in the game.
"Any time we get a turnover like that we've got to get the ball to Jarvis (Small) to get us started again," Albany State coach Dan Land said.
Fort Valley was held to a three-and-out, punting back to Albany State with 6:14 remaining.
On third-and-11 near midfield, Caleb Edmonds found Devonta Osborne for 14 yards and a first down, forcing the Wildcats to use its final time out.
Smalls later picked up a first down with a 1-yard run on a fourth-and-1. That allowed Edmonds to take a knee killing the final time off the clock.
"You have to give (Albany State) all the credit," Pittman said. "They wanted the first down and they played harder than we did down the stretch."
Albany State opened the scoring on a 12-yard pass from Caleb Edmonds to Jessie Atkins that capped a 13-play, 89-yard drive and put the Rams up 7-0.
Albany State drove across midfield in the middle of the second quarter before Tracey White picked off an Edmonds pass and returned it 65 yards to tie the score with 7:33 remaining in the half.
With Fort Valley State driving into the red zone late in the first half, Ryan Selby stepped in front of a Malcolm Eady pass and returned it 90 yards for an apparent score. However, an illegal participation penalty due to a helmet coming off negated the score.
The Rams scored anyway, driving 74 yards in only four plays and went up 14-7 with 45 seconds left in the half when Edmonds found Devonta Osborne across the middle. Osborne took it 51 yards for the score.
Edmonds threw for 275 yards on 22-of-36 passing with 2 touchdowns and two interceptions.
Osborne had 137 yards receiving on eight catches.
Brandon Thomas returned the ensuing kick 44 yards setting up a 50-yard field goal from Jaun Serna to pull Fort Valley State to within 14-10 as time expired in the first half.
"My guys have been going through a lot of hard work," Land said. "We've been going through a lot of heartache and pain and it pays off. We've got one more step. We need to continue the things we've been doing."
This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Albany State rallies past Fort Valley State to advance to SIAC championship game ."