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Mounties Drop 27-24 Overtime Heartbreaker at Franklin Pierce
ASBURNHAM,MA – If football games were won on heart alone, the Mountaineer football team would have been the victor at Franklin Pierce Saturday night.
Instead the Mounties suffered their second heartbreaking loss in their last three games.
An injury-depleted Mansfield University football team displayed remarkable courage and tenacity, rallying to tie the game in the final minute of regulation and then taking the lead in overtime, only to have its hopes dashed and its heart broken in one of the most remarkable games in the university's sprint football history.
Franklin Pierce scored on a 37-yard pass in overtime to edge Mansfield 27-24 in a CSFL contest Saturday night.
Mansfield trailed 21-14 before scoring in the final minute of regulation on a 4-yard pass from
Mike Maniscalco to Joe Busek to tie the game at 21-21. The Mountaineers then took a 24-21 lead when
Kirk Haskill kicked 20-yard field goal after Mansfield got the ball first in overtime.
On its overtime possession, Franklin Pierce was called for a 15-yard penalty on a 2nd and 7 and faced a 2nd and 22 from the Mansfield 37 yard line when quarterback Ryan O'Kelly found on open Mike Holdridge who went 37-yards for the winning score.
Maniscalco had engineered a remarkable 13-play 75-yard scoring drive after Franklin Pierce had taken advantage of a Mansfield turnover to forge a 21-14 lead with just over eight minutes in the game.
The junior quarterback was making his first start of the year in place on the injured
Ben Pepper and was magnificent in the game-tying drive. Maniscalco came up with three key third down completions to keep the drive alive, hitting Bucek for a 10-yard gain early in the drive then completing a 15-yard pass to
Kurt Logan on a third-and four from the Mansfield 47. He found Logan again on another third-and-four and then hit
Levi Eck for a 20-yard gain to the five yard line as time was winding down.
The game was close throughout.
Mansfield scored on its first possession of the game when Maniscalco found Bucek over the middle and the sophomore tight end took it 41-yards for the touchdown. Haskill kicked the extra point to give Mansfield a 7-0 lead at the 9:03 mark of the first quarter.
Franklin Pierce responded on its next possession grounding out an 11-play 43-yard scoring drive capped off by a 2-yard scoring run by DJ MacDonald.
The Mountaineers retook the lead with a drive after
Spencer Underdown intercepted a pass from Franklin Pierce's Ryan Kelly.
In the ensuing drive Mansfield, facing a fourth-and four at the Franklin Pierce 29, ran an end-around to Logan who picked up 16-yards and the first down giving the Mountaineers a first-and-ten from the Franklin Pierce 13 yard line after a 15-yard penalty.
Two plays later, Maniscalco hit Bucek again, this time for a 13-yard score and 14-7 Mountaineer lead.
But Franklin Pierce came right back, capping off a 9-play, 47-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge by MacDonald to tie the game at 14-14 with less than a minute remaining in the first half.
After a scoreless third quarter featuring key turnover by both teams, Franklin Piece got a break when Mansfield's fumbled after picking up what would have been a key first down at their own 45. Franklin Pierce used its running game to grind out a drive cumulating with a 1-yard touchdown run by O'Kelly for a 21-14 lead.
Maniscalco completed 13-of-20 passes for 169 yards including three touchdown passes to
Joe Bucek who had six catches for 98 yards on the night. Maniscalco also rushed for a team-best 46 yards.
Logan had two receptions for 22 yards with fellow freshman
Eddie Larcom pulling down two passes fore 17 yards.
Jeremy Estremera rushed for 37 yards and caught two passes for 12 yards.
Jason Winters had a game-high 13 tackles with
Evan Ruggles recording 12 stops.
Jonathan Keller and
Anthony Mazzone each had 10 tackles.
Mansfield wraps up the 2013 season by hosting Cornell in Senior Day this coming Saturday starting at 3 p.m. at Karl Van Norman Field.
