Cougars poised to take title

A little more than a month ago, the images of the grass-stained gold jerseys showed the beating that Tunde Ogun and Christopher Newport laid on Averett. It was deflating for a team that was on a three-game winning streak, and the first USA South Conference loss of the young season stung pretty hard.

Averett coach Mike Dunlevy was still adamant that his team would bounce back and be in contention for a conference title, especially with the way he thought his defense would respond from adversity.

Averett enters Saturday’s regular season finale on a four-game winning streak and with an opportunity to capture the Cougars’ second co-USA South Conference championship with a victory over N.C. Wesleyan in Danville. The victory would also give Averett the tiebreaker and automatic bid into the NCAA Division III playoffs — which would be the first appearance in school history.

“The big thing I was trying to tell them after the CNU game was that this is not the end of your season and I tried to express that to them before the game,” Dunlevy said. “That’s what I wanted them to understand — in the eight years that I’ve been in the conference, only once or twice has anybody won this conference outright. Somebody has always had a loss to win this conference. We were still a good football team and that’s really pushed them to see that there was light at the end of the tunnel and we still had N.C. Wesleyan coming at the end (of the season).”

A huge reason for Averett’s

success has been the defense’s ability to get the ball back to the offense. Averett (7-2, 5-1 USA South) is tied for second in Division III in turnover margin per game (plus-2). The Cougars’ plus-18 turnover margin on the season is also tied for second in the nation behind Westfield State’s plus-20 margin.

The top team in turnover margin per game is Linfield, which is the No.6-ranked team in the AFCA Division III coaches’ poll.

In the Cougars’ four-game winning streak following the loss to CNU, the Averett defense has been responsible for a whopping 19 turnovers — five each against Maryville, Methodist and Ferrum, and four against Shenandoah.  Conversely, the offense has given the ball back to the opposing team six times.

“I think that’s the reason we’re 7-2 right now,” Dunlevy said. “We are winning the turnover battle, we’re able to secure the football on offense — we’re not making mistakes there. Sure, we’re not the most explosive offense right now, but we’re protecting the football and getting the turnovers on defense that we need to give our offense the opportunity to score when they need to score — and that’s really what it’s about.”

The Cougars are also the top-ranked team in the USA South in pass defense and pass efficiency defense, which will be tested against Wesleyan’s top-flight passing attack. Averett is 2-3 all-time against N.C. Wesleyan (7-2, 6-0 USA South), losing the past two contests by a combined score of 98-31.

Senior Zane Cooper is a huge reason for Averett’s stingy pass defense, as he leads the team with four of the Cougars’ interceptions from the linebacker position.

“Having 11 people to the football all the time, you’re bound to start causing some turnovers,” Cooper said. “It’s really important as a defense and it’s nice to have that stat and it’s nice for people to be able to notice us and the job that we’re doing. It’s important for us to get the ball back to the offense — that’s the biggest thing, giving our team the chance to win.”

Averett has lost a mere three fumbles this season — the same amount senior linebacker and former Tunstall standout Mario Huffman recovered in a single game in Greensboro, N.C. against Guilford College on Sept. 19.

Overall the Cougars have forced 30 turnovers this season.

“As many times as we can get the ball back to them, it’s always going to be a plus,” Huffman said, “and you’re going to see that stuff correlates if you can get a team that turns the ball over on a frequent basis or forces opponents to turn it over, they’re going to win games, especially the close ones. That’s the difference, the turnover margin.”

A victory in Saturday’s matchup would give the Cougars the most wins in a season in school history. The seven wins this season match the number of victories in 2005 and ’06.

“Ever since the CNU game, we’ve treated every game like it’s a playoff game, like it’s our last game,” senior wide receiver Anthony Squillini said. “That’s the momentum and that’s the outset that we have to have coming into this game – it’s the biggest game because it’s for the conference championship, but it’s the next game and we have to win this game in order to go to the playoffs.”