Box Score
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Jared Passmore threw a 51-yard touchdown pass off a fake punt and the Swarthmore defense stopped Gettysburg at the Garnet Tide 5 in the final minute to defeat the Bullets 15-10 in Centennial Conference (CC) football action on Saturday.
With Gettysburg facing fourth-and-3 at the Swarthmore 7, Tony Hillery and Kevin Perry stopped Gettysburg's Jay Toscano (Seaville, NJ/Ocean City) one yard shy of a first down to ice the victory with 34 seconds remaining. The win snapped the Garnet Tide's 31-game losing streak in conference play, dating back to a 19-18 decision over Dickinson on October 21, 1995.
Blake Atkins set career highs with nine catches for 81 yards and fellow wideout Rich Andres hauled in four passes for 99 yards, including the decisive touchdown from Passmore late in the second quarter. Rich Castelucci kicked three field goals for Swarthmore and also intercepted a pair of passes. The Garnet Tide recovered four Gettysburg fumbles on the afternoon and converted 12 points off of Bullet turnovers.
Dennis Flaherty (Oreland, PA/Bishop McDevitt) completed 15 of 26 passes for 163 yards and one touchdown in the loss. Zack Smith (Randolph, NJ/Randolph) carried 17 times for 91 yards, but left the game late in the first half due to injury and did not return. Toscano caught a team-high five passes and also carried 10 times for 42 yards in place of Smith.
Trailing 10-6 late in the second quarter and facing fourth-and-8 from its own 49, Swarthmore reached into its bag of tricks to go ahead for good.
Passmore, a backup quarterback as well as the team's punter, lofted a pass that Andres hauled in under the Bullet punt coverage and carried the distance for a 51-yard touchdown and a 12-10 Garnet Tide lead.
Swarthmore added the game's only second-half points on its first drive of the third quarter. Behind six carries from Ken Clark and five consecutive completions by Scott Murray, the Garnet Tide marched 72 yards on 14 plays before Castellucci capped the seven-minute, 53-second drive with a 25-yard field goal, his third of the game.
Gettysburg failed to score on its next three possessions before taking over at its own 24 with 5:32 remaining in the game. Flaherty completed his next five completions, including three to Toscano and two to Mike Irvine (Thurmont, MD/Catoctin) as the the Bullets drove to the Swarthmore 10 with one minute left.
On second-and-6, Byrnes and Perry teamed up to sack Flaherty at the Bullet 12. Following Gettysburg's final timeout two plays later, Flaherty found Toscano in the left flat, but Perry and Hillary stopped the Bullet fullback one yard shy of the first down to wrap up the win.
Gettysburg gave the Homecoming crowd something to cheer about early in the afternoon, scoring all 10 points on its first two possessions of the game.
Dan Evanko (Trenton, NJ/Ewing) booted a 22-yard field goal to give the Bullets a 3-0 lead following an interception by Kevin Golden (Mullica Hill, NJ/Gloucester Catholic) on Swarthmore's first possession of the day.
Gettysburg drove 54 yards on six plays capped by a 10-yard touchdown pass from Flaherty to Bryan Pojanowski (Rockaway Twp., NJ/Morris Knolls) for 10-0 lead with 5:48 left in the first quarter.
The touchdown catch was Pojanowski's team-leading third of the season.
From there, thanks in part to six Gettysburg turnovers, Swarthmore held the Bullets in check the rest of the way. Castellucci connected on field goals of 29 and 33 yards in the first half to pull the Garnet Tide within 10-6.
Clark carried 23 times for 94 yards to lead the Swarthmore ground game while Murray finished with 17 completions on 31 attempts for 150 yards.
Irvine finished with four catches for a career-best 44 receiving yards. Ryan Moore (Glenolden, PA/Interboro) led all the Bullets with 14 tackles while Keith Adams (Hanover, PA/New Oxford) and Cliff Mason (Greenville, PA/Greenville) each made 10 stop on the day.
Gettysburg returns to action on Friday, September 29 at Johns Hopkins University. Game time is 7 p.m.
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