Those defenders delivered in massive spots when called upon, but it was defense end Michael Lunz II of South Carolina State who led the unit throughout to earn defensive most valuable player.
Lunz had 1.5 sacks and two tackles, but his presence went beyond the stat sheet. He ruined a drive nearly singlehandedly early on in the outing. He forced several panicked throwaways, and it was Lunz who made a goal-line tackle on first down preceding Vassell’s end-zone interception.
“We’re tenacious,” Lunz told NFL Network’s Sherree Burruss postgame of the defense’s effort. “We don’t give up. We’re gonna fight for 60 minutes, and that’s just it. We wasn’t gonna lose. We was gonna fight the whole time. And that’s what we did, and we came out with a win.”
As for what he hopes fans take away from his individual performance, it’s pretty simple.
“That I can play football,” Lunz said. “That’s it.”
Offensively, Winston-Salem State running back 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 Team Gaither’s first, as well, a 22-yard scamper in which he sprinted untouched to the outside and beat everyone else to pay dirt. His second saw him punch it in following Harris’ near interception return for a TD, providing Team Gaither with what would eventually stand as the winning score.
“What I took from this right here was opportunity,” Kelly told Burruss of his takeaways from the week as a whole. “I knew I wasn’t like the top dude in their lists and all that, but now I am. I’m coming.”