Big second half by Richmond spoils NCCU's playoff debut 49-27

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVD) -- Kyle Wickersham threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, Savon Smith accounted for three scores and Richmond rallied to beat North Carolina Central 49-27 in an opening-round FCS playoff game on Saturday.

Richmond (9-3) which has won seven consecutive games since a 2-3 start, advances to play Saturday at fifth-seeded Albany (9-3), which shared the Coastal Athletic Association with the Spiders and automatic qualifier Villanova (9-2), the eighth seed. Only the top eight teams in the 24-team FCS playoffs are seeded.

The Spiders' 49 points were the most in postseason play for the program since the 1968 Tangerine Bowl.

The loss spoiled the Eagles' playoff debut.

Smith's 14-yard scoring run with 10:07 left in the third quarter put Richmond up 21-20, and with the game in the balance, his 65-yard punt return for a touchdown to close out the quarter served as the catalyst to send Richmond to what became a comfortable win.

Wickersham threw a 71-yard score to Jerry Garcia Jr. to make it 35-20, but NCCU quarterback Davius Richard helped engineer a six-play, 75-yard drive and the Eagles reduced the deficit to 35-27 when he ran it from the 2 with 9:54 remaining. Richmond responded when Garcia ran it in from 7 yards out at the end of a seven-play, 60-yard drive.

Richmond got on the board first when Wickersham threw a 35-yard score to Nick DeGennaro three plays in.

The Eagles rallied when Richard sandwiched scoring runs of 1 and 18 yards around a 91-yard scoring throw to Devin Smith to close the first quarter with a 20-7 lead. Richard threw for 262 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He ran for 79 yards on 18 carries and scored three touchdowns.

The 91-yard strike ranks as the fourth-longest passing TD in NCCU program history, and was the longest of Richard's career, besting his 86-yard mark that he set on a completion to Quentin McCall against Winston-Salem State earlier this year.

Richmond's Smith got his third touchdown, ending the scoring with his 24-yard run with 3:33 left.

North Carolina Central, which moved from Division II to Division I in 2011, made its first appearance in the FCS playoffs after finishing second in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.

Richard finished his career with 11,017 total yards. Defensively, Jayden Flaker notched a game-high 11 tackles to lead the Eagles, and Quantez Mansfield had 1.5 tackles for loss with 0.5 sacks and a blocked field goal in the first half.