GOLDEN, Colo. – John Matocha completed 28-of-34 passes for 317 yards and five touchdowns to lead #10/7 Colorado School of Mines (13-2) to a 44-13 win over #11/9 Shepherd (13-2) in semifinal action of the 2022 NCAA II Football Championship at Colorado School of Mines on Saturday.
The Orediggers took a 3-0 lead on a 25-yard field goal by Jacob Click with 6:53 left in the first quarter.
Shepherd tied the game on a 30-yard field goal by redshirt-sophomore kicker Jacob Haynie (Fairfax, Va./Robinson) with 9:13 left in the second quarter.
Mines answered back with a 53-yard touchdown pass from Matocha to Max McLeod with 7:31 left in the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead.
The Orediggers added a score when Bagent was strip-sacked by Noland Reeve and the fumble was returned by Logan Rayburn for a score with 1:02 left in the half to take a 17-3 advantage into the break.
Matocha added a pair of third quarter scoring passes to McLeod and another to Josh Johnston to up the Orediggers lead to 38-3.
Haynie added a career-long 44-yard field goal with 14:01 left in the fourth quarter.
Matocha added his fifth touchdown pass of the day when he tossed a 14-yard scoring pass to Mason Karp.
Junior running back Ronnie Brown (Baltimore, Md./Dundalk) raced 75 yards for a score with 11:12 left in the game.
Shepherd had 299 yards of total offense while Colorado School of Mines totaled 469 yards.
Senior quarterback Tyson Bagent (Martinsburg, W.Va./Martinsburg) completed 19-of-34 passes for 165 yards.
Brown had 17 carries for 173 yards to pace the Rams. Today's effort was the 10th game of the year that he has rushed for 100 yards or more.
Senior tight end Brian Walker (Clarksburg, Md./Clarksburg) led the Shepherd receivers with five catches for 37 yards. Brown added four catches for 35 yards. McLeod had 12 catches for 214 yards for Mines.
Freshman linebacker JT Kouame-Yao (Centreville, Va./Westfield) recorded 10 tackles (five solos) to lead the Rams. Nolan Reeve had five tackles and three of the team's eight sacks to lead the Orediggers.
Colorado School of Mines advances to next week's national championship game against Ferris State.
Notes: Bagent had 19 completions to give him 1,400 for his career … he eclipses the old NCAA II mark of 1,397 previously held by Bo Cordell of Tusculum (2009-13) … Shepherd's 13 wins this season tie the single-season mark shared by the 2015, 2016, and 2021 teams.
