Those defenders delivered in huge spots when called upon, but it was South Carolina State linebacker Michael Lunz II who led the team to earn Defensive Most Valuable Player honors.
Lunz had 1.5 sacks and two tackles, but his presence went beyond the stat sheet. He nearly single-handedly destroyed a drive early in the outing. He forced a couple of panicked rebounds and it was Lunz who made a goal-line tackle on the first down before Vassell was intercepted.
“We’re resilient,” Lunz told NFL Network’s Sherree Burruss after the game about the defense’s effort. “We’re not going to give up. We’re going to fight for 60 minutes, and that’s it. We weren’t going to lose. We were going to fight the whole time. And that’s what we did and we came away with a win.”
As for what he hopes fans take away from his individual performances, it’s pretty simple.
“That I can play football,” Lunz said. “That’s it.”
Offensively, Winston-Salem State quarterback JaQuan Kelly stood head and shoulders above the rest as the game’s offensive MVP.
The only player to find the end zone twice, Kelly rushed for 76 yards on 10 carries. His first touchdown was also Team Gaither’s first 22-yard run as he sprinted to the outside untouched and beat everyone else to pay dirt. His second saw him punt following Harris’ near-interception return for a TD, giving Team Gaither what would eventually stand as the game-winning field goal.
“What I took away from it here was opportunity,” Kelly told Burruss of his take from the week as a whole. “I knew I wasn’t like the top dude on their charts and all that, but now I am. I’m coming.”