ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Gettysburg rallied from a 14-point deficit to take the lead with less than six minutes left, but host Muhlenberg College answered with a late touchdown on a fake field goal and the Mules came away with a 35-31 victory in a thrilling Centennial Conference football game Saturday afternoon at Scotty Wood Stadium.
The Bullets (5-1, 4-1 CC), who suffered their first loss of the season, also scored on a fake field goal earlier in the fourth quarter and had taken a 31-28 lead when freshman #
Robby Fay# kicked his first collegiate field goal – a 28-yarder with 5:43 left to play. But that's when Muhlenberg (4-2, 3-2 CC) came back with a go-ahead 10-play, 70-yard march that ended on a 15-yard touchdown pass from holder Joe Carlucci to Ian Gimbar with 2:32 remaining.
Gettysburg threatened on its last drive, but senior #
Kody Smith# had a deep pass intercepted by Darnell Davis at the Mulenberg-7 with 40 seconds left and the Mules ran out the rest of the clock.
With the loss, Gettysburg falls into a tie with Franklin & Marshall College for second place in the conference standings. F&M defeated McDaniel College 35-10 on Saturday while Johns Hopkins University took over sole possession of first place with a 49-0 victory over Dickinson College.
Sophomore tailback #
Eddie Hutchins# rushed for a career-high 130 yards while Smith finished the day with four touchdowns. He threw for 211 yards and three touchdowns – with two going to senior tight end #
Matt Brophy# – on 19-of-31 passing while rushing for an additional 66 yards and a TD. He also became just the fourth player in school history to pass for over 3,000 career yards and is now fourth at 3,042.
Senior linebacker #
Larry DelViscio# piled up a career-high 19 tackles for Gettysburg, the most by a Bullet since Grant Acker '05 posted 20 at Rochester University in 2004. DelViscio also moved into 10th on the school's career tackles list with 267. Freshman linebacker #
Kodie McNamara# added a season-high 11 tackles for the Bullets.
Senior tailback Terrence Dandridge rushed for 145 yards and three touchdowns to lead Muhlenberg. Dan Deighan passed for 161 yards and a touchdown for the Mules while Jeremey Thomas had 3.5 tackles for loss.
The Mules led for the nearly the entire game after scoring on its first possession. The hosts recovered a fumble at the Muhlenberg-49 before Dandridge scored on a 4-yard run with 8:59 left in the first quarter to make it 7-0.
Gettysburg pulled even on a 16-yard TD pass over the middle from Smith to Brophy with 10:27 left in the opening half. But the Mules scored the final two touchdowns of the half to assume a 21-7 advantage at the intermission. Dandridge scored on a 1-yard run with 5:30 to go, then again from 5 yards out with 39 ticks showing. The Bullets pushed the ball to the Muhlenberg-35 inside the final minute of the half, but the drive ended when the Mules forced a fumble.
In the second half, the Bullet defense induced three straight punts to climb back into it. In the meantime, Smith rushed for a 1-yard touchdown with 11:07 left in the third quarter, then found junior receiver #
Aden Twer# for a 9-yard TD pass five minutes later as Gettysburg tied it a 21-all.
The two sides traded touchdowns early in the fourth quarter to set up a nail-biting finish. Deighan put the Mules up 28-21 with 13:31 left when he connected with Isaiah Vaughn for a 19-yard touchdown pass, but Gettysburg answered on the ensuing drive. Smith engineered a 13-play, 65-yard march that was capped by his 11-yard pass to Brophy on a fake field goal – the team's second of the season – that with 9:29 left tied the game (28-28) for the third time.
Sophomore linebacker #
Gordon Prince# came up with a big interception on Muhlenberg's following drive, giving the Bullets the ball at the Mule-47. Eight plays later, Fay's field goal made it 31-28, but that's when Muhlenberg answered with its go-ahead drive.
On its final possession, Gettysburg received the ball at the Bullet-26 with 2:24 to go, and Smith put the Bullets in excellent field position when he broke off a 34-yard run to the Mule-34 on a fourth-and-4. But a sack and intentional grounding pushed Gettysburg to the Muhlenberg-48, and Smith's final pass on third-and-11 was intercepted.
The Bullets return to action on Friday, when they visit Johns Hopkins at 7 p.m.
