GREENSBURG, Pa. — In a typical mid-November football game in western Pennsylvania, both defenses and the raw weather owned the season-closing afternoon for winning Shepherd University and homestanding Seton Hill University. The smallish crowd sat huddled on the mostly cloudy day, as the Rams saw its defense blank the Griffins in the second half, to finally get a 13-10 conference win that completed the season for both teams. Shepherd finished its season with a 6-5 mark and Seton Hill finished at 3-8.

The Griffins managed the first 10 points, but couldn’t dent the Rams’ defense in the second half. Shepherd brought its small deficit back to more manageable terms by halftime, when Barry Hill took a three-yard scoring pass. It was 10-7 with the Griffins holding the slender lead as the teams broke for halftime.

Points became rare during the second half.

Keith Baker kicked field goals of 28 and 25 yards in the last half. Seton Hill struggled mightily against the Ram defense, which would have Brodie Carroll with nine stops, Geo Di-Tolbert, Miles Greer and JT Kouame -Yao with eight, Harold O’Neal with seven and Jack Brutus with two sacks and two stops for lost yardage. The Rams brought in quarterback Ezra Bagent for all of the second half. It was only the second appearance of the 2024 season for the redshirt who completed five of his seven passes for 54 yards.

Both offenses had only sporadic effectiveness with Rams finishing with a total offense of 278 yards and the Griffins totaling 249 yards. Since field goals became all-important, it was noticeable that neither kicking specialist ever missed.

Seton Hill was further damaged by its nine penalties for 85 yards — 30 of those yards coming on one play, where it had a defender called for targeting and then unsportsmanlike conduct.

The Rams did manage 158 rushing yards with Malakai Brown getting 86 yards (19 carries) and Jordan Barnett showing 79 yards (12 carries). Brown also had six receptions for 82 yards.

The Griffins loosed Ky’Ron Craggette for a 40-yard TD run that was the bulk of his 85 yards on 17 carries. The Griffin defense was led by D’Kairi Boone’s 11 stops and 10 more from Drew Zimmerman.

Shepherd misses the NCAA Division II playoffs for the first time in years and will be watching from home as fellow PSAC opponents Kutztown, California, East Stroudsburg and Slippery Rock move into the seven-team Super Region One postseason. The other three teams vying for additional laurels in the playoffs are Charleston (W.Va.), Ashland (Ohio) and New Haven.