When Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy), David Onyemem (Dracut, Mass./Central Catholic) and the rest of the members of the University of New Haven football team who saw their collegiate careers come to an end on a Saturday afternoon in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, there was a chance to reflect on a remarkable journey even as they made the painful walk off the football field.

The Chargers were the last team to earn a spot in the Super Region 1 field in the NCAA Division II football playoffs, but they gave second-seeded Shepherd everything it could handle before falling 16-13.

"I love playing with these guys and I am very grateful for the opportunity to come to New Haven," said Onyemem, a senior linebacker who had five tackles in Saturday's loss. "For this to be over is tough, a lot of guys put a lot of effort into this so it is tough."

New Haven limited the damage from Tyson Bagent for most of the game.

However, with New Haven needing a stop to have a chance to complete the comeback, last year's Division II player of the year hit a deep pass to Rodney Dorsey to keep the Chargers from getting one last possession.

A sack by Jack Quander (Gainsville, Va./Patriot) and a fourth-down tackle by Onyemem kept the Rams from adding to what was a 10-point lead.

Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) drew a pass interference call and that led to Degenhardt hooking up with Dante DeLorenzo (Kennebunk, Maine/Kennebunk) for a 2-yard touchdown. Both of DeLorenzo's catches this season resulted in touchdowns.

With three timeouts remaining, New Haven opted to kick the ball deep and hope to get the ball back. That ended with Bagent's final completion of the game.

"There are a lot of thoughts going through my mind," said Degenhardt, who was 22 of 41 for 207 yards. "It was fun to think about all the great times I've had being a Charger. A lot of it hit me looking at the scoreboard after the game. We left it all out there, we fought hard.

"The defense played one hell of a game, the offense, we just didn't quite get it done. We weren't able to put the ball in the end zone enough times and that falls on me. I wish I did some more so we would be playing next Saturday."

It looked good early on.

New Haven got the ball first and drove down the field thanks to an early connection from Degenhardt to Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) followed by key completions to Zhyaire Fernandes (Stratford, Conn./Bunnell) and Terrell Ford (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore West). It took three tries, but Degenhardt scored from a yard out to give New Haven the 6-0 lead with 9:26 left in the first quarter.

Shepherd answered back on Ronnie Brown's 61-yard scoring run and the successful PAT gave the Rams the one-point lead.

Shepherd appeared ready to add to the lead. However, back-to-back plays in the end zone by Giye Jenkins (West Orange, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) and Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) led to the Rams trying a short field goal that was no good.

The New Haven defense also got a stop on fourth down with David Onyemen and Khyon Fitzpatrick (Union, N.J./Paramus Catholic) stuffing Brown as the Chargers overcame a deflected punt that led to the Rams starting one of their drives on the UNH 32.

New Haven had the ball for nearly 18 of the 30 minutes in the first half. However, the Chargers only had six points to show for it.

Degenhardt's deep pass for an open Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) fell incomplete and in the second quarter, a promising drive was short circuited by a couple of costly penalties.

"I wish we could take a couple of those penalties back that kind of knocked us back in the second quarter," New Haven coach Chris Pincince said. "It is a different game if we are able to move the football there, we were across the 50-yard line and we had a chance to go in and score again.

"We took a deep shot [to Holmes] and just missed. I want to argue that it was pass interference, but the officials let everybody play today, us too we were banging people around. They were putting the flags away for the most part which was fine. We just didn't make that play. We had a shot to go up two scores which obviously would have been big."

Shepherd (11-1) used some big runs from Brown to score on its first two drives of the second half. Jacob Haynie connected on a 33-yard field goal and Brown got free for a 47-yard scoring run. Brown finished with 223 yards and 19 more on five receptions.

The Rams went after sophomore defensive backs Giye Jenkins (West Orange, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) and Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) throughout the game and they did more than just hold their own.

"They have two, three or four of the best skill guys in the country at the wide receiver/tight end position," Pincince said. "Our younger kids stepped up, our older players who played in their last game did a great job."

Safety Devonte Myles (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) led the Chargers with 11 tackles, Joe Vitale (North Haven, Conn./North Haven) added eight stops while Khyon Fitzpatrick (Union, N.J./Paramus Catholic) had seven tackles, including one of New Haven's four tackles for loss. Kyle Smith led Shepherd with two sacks and he was close to a couple of others.

New Haven stopped Shepherd on both of its fourth-down plays. Three trips into the red zone resulted in just three points for Shepherd.

"We just trusted each other, we had each other's back and just played one play at a time and trusted that Coach [Matt] Scott [New Haven's defensive coordinator] and the defensive coaching staff is going to put us in position to make plays. We knew it was going to be a game when they were going to get plays and we were going to make plays so we had to minimize the points and that is what we did."

The defense gave New Haven a chance to pull off the first-round upset.

"Our defense has been doing it all year," Pincince said. "Our defense is one of the best units in the entire country. We did not do our job on offense enough, but defensively we did a wonderful job trying to take away some of the things that they do. They are so explosive, we made some of the plays and missed a couple down the football field. I would have liked to have stopped the run a little bit better, but you have to give something up to their explosiveness. I think the toughness of our team and how hard they play is something I hope people remember."

Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) finished with 77 rushing yards for New Haven (8-3).

Terrell Ford (Tonawanda, N.Y./Kenmore West) had seven catches for 74 yards while Holmes finished with

60 yards on five receptions.

Now the Chargers return home after another trip to the postseason and a season that ended a little earlier than they were hoping for.

"I think honestly, this is the best collection in the entire country because of what they have to go through," Pincince said. "Our place is a great place, but half of these guys didn't even know each other when we rolled it out on August 7.

"We continue to do it with transfers and graduate school kids. They not only come in and learn our system from a football standpoint, they learn our culture, they learn the name of the person on the sideline, they learn the tradition of the University of New Haven. As we have gone through the season, we played better football as the year went on. It is a testament to these kids and their character that they can meld together and play so hard for the people who are on the other side of them were these kids that didn't know each other six months ago."

Onyemem is one of those new arrivals. Sure, he will have memories of game-changing plays he was responsible for. However, that won't be all that he takes out of his final game for the Chargers.

"Just being with the guys, the car rides, the lifts, the locker room talks, the pizza nights on Friday and just hanging out with the guys,"

Onyemem said about what he will remember the most about the 2022 season.