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Postseason college football game between the UMass Minutemen and the Georgia Southern Eagles
This article is about the Division I-AA (now FCS) championship game. For the Division I-A (now FBS) championship game, see
1998 Orange Bowl .
College football game
The 1998 NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Game was a postseason
college football game between the
Georgia Southern Eagles and the
UMass Minutemen . The game was played on December 19, 1998, at
Finley Stadium , home field of the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga . The culminating game of the
1998 NCAA Division I-AA football season , it was won by UMass, 55–43.
[3]
Teams
The participants of the Championship Game were the finalists of the
1998 I-AA Playoffs , which began with a 16-team
bracket .
[4]
UMass Minutemen
UMass finished their regular season with an 8–3 record (6–2 in conference); two of their losses had been to
rival
Connecticut ,
[5] with one considered a non-conference game. Seeded 11th in the playoffs, the Minutemen defeated sixth-seed
McNeese State , 14-seed
Lehigh , and second-seed
Northwestern State to reach the final. This was the second appearance for UMass in a Division I-AA championship game, having lost to
Florida A&M in the 1978 inaugural title game.
Georgia Southern Eagles
Georgia Southern finished their regular season with an 11–0 record (8–0 in conference).
[6] The Eagles, seeded first, defeated 16-seed
Colgate , eighth-seed
Connecticut , and fourth-seed
Western Illinois to reach the final. This was the sixth appearance for Georgia Southern in a Division I-AA championship game, having four prior wins (1985, 1986, 1989, 1990) and one prior loss (1988).
Game summary
Scoring summary
Scoring summary
Quarter
Time
Drive
Team
Scoring information
Score
Plays
Yards
TOP
GSU
UM
1
12:56
7
67
2:04
UM
Marcel Shipp 25-yard touchdown run, Jason Cherry kick good
0
7
1
8:29
UM
Fumble recovery returned 9 yards for touchdown by
Kole Ayi , Cherry kick good
0
14
1
7:25
2
48
1:08
GSU
Greg Hill 40-yard touchdown run, Chris Chambers kick good
7
14
1
5:04
1
7
0:07
UM
Adrian Zullo 7-yard touchdown reception from Jamie Holston, Cherry kick good
7
21
2
14:46
11
63
3:34
UM
22-yard field goal by Cherry
7
24
2
10:54
6
36
2:11
GSU
Corey Joyner 6-yard touchdown reception from Greg Hill, Chambers kick good
14
24
2
7:17
11
64
3:37
UM
Todd Bankhead 1-yard touchdown run, Cherry kick good
14
31
2
4:09
5
26
1:35
UM
Shipp 4-yard touchdown run, Cherry kick good
14
38
2
2:01
6
55
2:08
GSU
Adrian Peterson 1-yard touchdown run, Chambers kick good
21
38
3
8:54
13
78
6:06
GSU
Peterson 5-yard touchdown run, Chambers kick no good
27
38
3
0:41
14
98
6:07
GSU
Hill 2-yard touchdown run, 2-point run failed
33
38
4
13:42
5
72
1:59
UM
Kevin Quinlan 2-yard touchdown run, Cherry kick good
33
45
4
11:51
5
42
1:35
UM
Shipp 2-yard touchdown run, Cherry kick good
33
52
4
8:39
12
58
3:12
GSU
38-yard field goal by Chambers
36
52
4
2:21
7
13
3:04
UM
25-yard field goal by Cherry
36
55
4
1:04
8
60
1:17
GSU
J. R. Revere 29-yard touchdown run, Chambers kick good
43
55
"TOP" =
time of possession . For other American football terms, see
Glossary of American football .
43
55
[2]
Game statistics
1
2
3
4
Total
No. 1 Eagles
7
14
12
10
43
No. 11 Minutemen
21
17
0
17
55
Georgia Southern running back
Adrian Peterson
Statistics
GSU
UM
First downs
26
23
Plays–yards
86–595
77–462
Rushes–yards
65–457
51–303
Passing yards
138
159
Passing: comp–att–int
10–21–1
18–26–0
Time of possession
30:48
29:12
Team
Category
Player
Statistics
Georgia Southern
Passing
Greg Hill
8–16, 111 yds, 1 TD, 1 INT
Rushing
Greg Hill
29 car, 228 yds, 2 TD
Receiving
Corey Joyner
6 rec, 94 yds, 1 TD
UMass
Passing
Todd Bankhead
17–25, 152 yds
Rushing
Marcel Shipp
35 car, 244 yds, 3 TD
Receiving
Jimmy Moore
6 rec, 63 yds
[7]
[2]
References
^
"1998 NCAA Division I-AA Championship Game" (PDF) . December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019 – via amazonaws.com.
^
a
b
c
"NCAA I-AA Championship" . GATAdb . December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
^
"UMass Wins I-AA Championship" .
CBS News . December 19, 1998. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
^
"Division I-AA playoffs" .
Missoulian .
Missoula, Montana . November 23, 1998. p. D5. Retrieved February 8, 2019 – via newspapers.com.
^
"UMass Minutemen 1998 Schedule" . cfbinfo.com . Archived from
the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
^
"Georgia Southern Eagles 1998 Schedule" . cfbinfo.com . Archived from
the original on February 21, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
^
"NCAA box score" . umasshoops.com . Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
Further reading
External links
Games through 2009 were played in December. Subsequent games have been played in January (*) or May (†).
Venues Bowls & rivalries Culture & lore People
Seasons National championship seasons in bold
Venues Bowls & rivalries Culture & lore People
Seasons National championship seasons in bold
1998–99 NCAA Division I championships
† Not an officially sanctioned NCAA championship