End Game for WSSU Rams

WINSTON SALEM, North Carolina -- Third-ranked Winston-Salem State's historic season ended Saturday with a 21-14 loss to upstart Wayne State in the semifinals of the Division II football playoffs.

The Warriors turned up their defensive pressure and capitalized on key Rams mistakes to win their fourth straight road game in the playoffs. They will play for the national championship next Saturday in Florence, Ala., against Pittsburg State.

After setting the school record for victories with a swashbuckling offense that seemed to score at will, the Rams found things more difficult this time in front of nearly 9,000 at Bowman Gray Stadium.

"We had too many mistakes offensively," coach Connell Maynor of the Rams said. "We were dropping balls, and the turnover on the goal line hurt us, and we were missing tackles.

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GALLERY: WSSU vs. Wayne State, December 10, 2011 

Little things make a big difference in loss to Wayne State

WINTON SALEM, North Carolina - They don’t grow teams like Wayne State in the CIAA. That was the general consensus after watching a team that had a big offensive line that was even bigger than Winston-Salem State's line.

During the season the Rams usually dwarfed their CIAA opponents but that wasn’t the case on Saturday as Wayne State won 21-14 to end the Rams’ unbeaten season. The Rams (13-1) lost in the semifinals of the Division II playoffs and it was the line of scrimmage where they got beat.

Running back Josh Renel isn’t very big, but he’s fast and darted inside his big linemen to gain valuable yardage when it mattered most.

“Those linemen were big but they only had 130 yards rushing on 39 carries,” coach Connell Maynor said. “That’s not good and only about 3.9 yards a carry. We missed tackles and we don’t normally miss tackles and they got the extra yards from those missed tackles.”

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