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Not Cal’s day: Vulcans lose Coal Bowl to IUP

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INDIANA – It was a frustrating Saturday for the California University football team’s offense. The defense, too.

The 16th-ranked Vulcans failed on multiple scoring chances in the first half and trailed No. 4 IUP by just two points at the break.

Cal went scoreless the rest of the way and dropped a 26-10 decision in the ninth annual Coal Bowl at IUP’s Miller Stadium.

Indiana remains unbeaten heading into next weekend’s game at No. 12 Slippery Rock.

IUP outgained Cal in total yards, 445-283.

“It didn’t seem like we ever got into a rhythm,” Cal coach Gary Dunn said following the Vulcans’ second consecutive loss for the first time since 2015.

Lenny Williams passed for 268 yards and three touchdowns for IUP (3-0, 6-0) to earn the latest Coal Bowl MVP. Williams, a redshirt junior from Sto-Rox and a transfer from Temple, added 29 yards rushing.

He threw touchdown passes of 16 yards to Malik Anderson in the first quarter and 7 yards to Kolbe Hughes and 37 yards to Swahneek Brown in the third quarter.

“It’s a good feeling,” Williams said. “We lost to them two times last year. It’s good to get that first win.”

Paul Tortorella, a longtime IUP assistant who is in his first year as head coach of the Crimson Hawks, perhaps said it best.

“Going into the game, we talked about if you want to be the champion, you have to knock off the champion,” Tortorella said. “Until you do that, you don’t have any rights to anything. To get to where we want to go, we had to beat them.”

Cal (1-2, 4-2), which dominated Kutztown in the 2016 PSAC championship, defeated IUP twice last season, including a 44-23 victory in the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

Cal was coming off a grueling 47-44 overtime loss at Slippery Rock.

“I don’t have any doubt in my team,” Dunn said. “They’re all competitive kids. We had a great week in practice.”

IUP took a 12-0 lead in the first quarter on Williams’ 16-yard scoring pass to Anderson and Duane Brown’s 1-yard run. Both extra points were blocked.

Cal cut the margin to 12-7 after Lamont McPhatter recovered an IUP fumble at the Crimson Hawks’ 10, setting up Michael Keir’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Tom Greene, who had 10 catches for 109 yards.

Cal got within 12-10 when Will Brazill kicked a 26-yard field goal with 11 seconds left in the first half after marching 74 yards to the IUP 9 before facing fourth down.

“We let them go into halftime thinking they could still win because of our not executing, basically,” Tortorella said. “The thing that was great about it was we pushed it all aside. We came out and wanted to play a great second half half. Our players and coaches did a great job with that.”

Cal took the first possession in the second half, but its offense sputtered as it did much of the day under heavy pressure from IUP’s defensive front.

When IUP took over following a punt, the Crimson Hawks drove 71 yards and added to their lead on Williams’ 7-yard scoring pass to Hughes that made it 19-10.

On its next possession, IUP scored its final touchdown on Williams’ 37-yard pass to Brown.

A fourth-quarter drive by IUP that produced no points consumed nearly nine minutes and sealed the victory.

“Things just didn’t go our way,” Dunn said. “Give IUP credit. They were better today than us. You know, it just wasn’t our day.”

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