By Duane Cochran for FightingFalcons.com

There's an old Irving Berlin song which goes "Anything you can do I can do better."
 
That was pretty much the rhetoric Saturday afternoon at Urbana University Stadium between Fairmont State University's Iweh twins Jeff and Jerry. The identical twin brothers from Baltimore, Md. both came up with huge plays to help FSU wipe out a late 24-17 deficit to the Blue Knights and record a 27-24 victory.
 
Jerry Iweh, a 6-3, 220-pound outside linebacker, battled sickness all week, but Saturday afternoon his play showed no ill effects as he turned in a stellar performance to help key a crucial Fairmont State win in its Mountain East Conference opener. Iweh recorded a game-high nine solo tackles, intercepted a first-quarter pass and returned it 61 yards for FSU's first touchdown and forced and recovered an Urbana fumble late in the second quarter near midfield.
 
"The play before the interception they had targeted No. 4 (Trevon Saunders) and I had a feeling they were going to go back to him," Iweh said. "I told (FSU mike linebacker) Marcus (Porter) to watch for the inside slant. I knew he had the inside, so I stayed outside and the quarterback just threw it right to me. I just took it from there. My teammates made some great blocks for me and I got it in. That was my first career touchdown on defense at any level and it felt amazing.
 
"You know we didn't play very well as a team, but the Good Lord was looking out for us. All week we talked about facing adversity and overcoming it and pushing through it and making plays. Right before the game coach Woody (Jason Woodman) said someone is going to have to step up for us and make a play for us to win this game and we had a lot of guys do that for us at crucial times."
 
On the sidelines after Jerry Iweh's interception return for a touchdown no one was more excited than his brother Jeff, a 6-4, 200-pound junior receiver.
 
"Man I was so excited for him," Jeff Iweh said. "We worked this summer on him getting interceptions and then running after the catch and he did it to perfection today.
 
"The really funny thing about that is after he got that touchdown I promised him and the entire defense that I was going to get a touchdown too and I got one."
 
Jeff Iweh, who battled nagging injuries all fall camp and was limited in his play in the Falcons' opener with East Stroudsburg, finally got on the field for significant action in the second half Saturday and responded in a big way. He finished with three receptions for a team-high 108 yards and one touchdown. None, however, was bigger than his last catch – a 60-yarder for a TD with just 1:29 to play which allowed FSU to tie the score at 24.

On the play Iweh, an outside receiver, faked an out route and quickly turned it into a post pattern. Urbana's safety got sucked up inside and Iweh found himself all alone around the Blue Knights' 25-yard line where FSU quarterback JuJuan Young-Battle found him with a perfect pass. He caught it and raced to the end zone for the tying score with absolutely no one around him.
 
"At halftime in the locker room Jeff came up to me and said 'I'm going to respond. I'm going to match you in the second half. Just watch.' And he did," Jerry Iweh said. "That play was huge for us. I was watching and I couldn't believe he got so open. When he caught the ball and ran in for the score which tied it I just looked up to the sky and said to myself 'He did it.' It was amazing and as a result we went on and won the game. It was a wonderful thing."
 
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To win Saturday's contest Fairmont's defense and special teams both had to make big plays in the game's final 1:29 and they did. First, with Urbana facing a second-and-10 play from its own 25 the Blue Knights' threw a shovel pass to running back Maurice Warren. FSU junior safety Stephen Turner laid a big hit on Warren causing a fumble which Falcon sophomore defensive end Abu Kai Kai recovered at the Urbana 24.
 
Two running plays netted just one yard and with 7.3 seconds left FSU kicker Sam Keil trotted onto the field for a potential game-winning 40-yard field goal attempt. Before he could try it, however, Fairmont was whistled for a false start making the kick a 45-yarder. Keil, whose career-long field goal at FSU prior to Saturday was from 39 yards, had missed earlier in the fourth quarter on a 47-yard attempt which was short. However, with the game on the line he calmly drilled the 45-yarder directly through the uprights with room to spare with 1.6 seconds left to give his team the victory.
 
"After that miss earlier in the quarter from 47 I knew I needed to make this one," Keil said. "I kept telling myself 'I'm not going to miss two in a game. I'm not going to do it.' When we recovered that fumble I knew it was going to come down to a kick and I knew I had to make it.
 
"Honestly I wasn't feeling anything. My head was clear. All I wanted to do was kick the ball. As soon as the ball left my foot I really didn't even have time to appreciate the kick because my holder, Jeff Iweh, was tackling me. It was a great feeling."
 
Jeff Iweh said he felt confident Keil could make the game-winner.
 
"Sam Keil is my guy," Iweh said. "I love him. In practice if he misses a kick I'm the first guy in his ear telling him it's okay, you can do this. I have a lot of confidence in him as a kicker. I always tell him 'You know what you can do. You know you can make it. Just focus and follow through.'
 
"Saturday I looked at him before that game-winning kick and said 'It's practice. You got this.' It went right down the middle and I was the first guy to jump right on his back. That was a big kick and he got it done. I'm proud of him."
 
Keil also kicked a 33-yard field goal in Saturday's win and was a perfect 3-of-3 on extra point attempts.
 
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Fairmont State's defense came up with four turnovers, two sacks and held Urbana to just 277 total yards on 75 offensive plays – an average of just 3.7 yards per play.
 
Fairmont State's defensive front, which played without defending MEC Defensive Player of the Year Quincy Redmon, a senior defensive end who was out with an injury, turned in arguably the most consistent performance Saturday against Urbana as a unit.
 
Junior defensive tackle Josh Ballard finished with eight tackles and combined with sophomore defensive end D.J. Adediwura on one sack. Adediwura and redshirt freshman defensive end Derian Green both finished with five tackles, while sophomore defensive end Abu Kai Kai ended up with four stops. Green also had a fumble recovery, while Kai Kai had a sack and a fumble recovery as well which led to Sam Keil's game-winning 45-yard field goal.
 
"We trust our techniques and what we've been coached to do," Kai Kai said. "We preach to each other relentless effort, four-to-six and A-to-B. We all run to the ball and try to make plays.
 
"This whole week in practice we knew Q (Redmon) was going to be out, but we didn't feel like our level of play should drop and today I don't think it did. We feel like we've got a lot of talent on our D line. We all came to this school to play football and we all can play so even though we didn't have one of our best defensive players we didn't want to have any drop off. We had some young guys today get opportunities and I felt like they stepped up and made the most of those."
 
FSU head coach Jason Woodman agrees.
 
"We know the D line is one of our most talented units as a group on this team and today they stepped up with Quincy out and played pretty well for us," Woodman said. "We expect that out of them each and every week. I think last week they weren't too happy with their performance as a whole and today I think they were determined to bounce back and make a statement and I believe they did."
 
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Consistency on offense and in punting have hampered Fairmont State in its first two games. FSU finished with 341 yards of total offense on 62 plays and averaged 5.5 yards per play, but 60 of those yards came on the touchdown pass to Jeff Iweh in the game's final 1:29.
 
Fairmont was also a very disappointing 0-of-11 in the game on third down conversions and is a dismal 3-of-23 on third downs (13 percent) for the season.
"I'm very disappointed with our consistency on offense," Woodman said. "We absolutely have to get better. I think some of our youth and inexperience on offense is showing. To go 0-of-11 on third down is unacceptable. We've got too much talent on offense to be playing like this. Right now our defense is carrying us.
 
"We've got a lot of things to get corrected and we've got a short time to do it."
In the first half alone Fairmont suffered what is believed to be a school record three punt blocks in the win over Urbana. As a result, FSU netted just 16.3 yards on seven punt attempts.
 
"That's another area we've got to address and improve in quickly," Woodman said. "To have three punts blocked is embarrassing and again unacceptable. We have to get that fixed this week."
 
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Fairmont State will have a short week as the Falcons host MEC-leading West Virginia Wesleyan Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Duvall-Rosier Field.
 
The Bobcats, who are 2-0 both overall and in the league, are tied with Virginia-Wise (2-0) for first place in the Mountain East Conference standings. Wesleyan has recorded wins over Concord (23-18) and West Liberty (34-0).
 
The Bobcats enter Thursday's game first in the MEC in total defense (235.5 yards allowed per game), first in rushing defense (89.0), first in passing defense (146.5) and first in points allowed (9.0 per game).
 
Offensively, Wesleyan is third in the MEC in rushing (211.0), fifth in scoring (28.5), seventh in total offense (371.5) and ninth in passing (160.5).
 
FSU has won its last two meeting with the Bobcats, including a 31-17 victory last year in Buckhannon in which the Falcons scored two touchdowns in the game's final 13:29 to break a 17-17 tie and record the victory.