THE FACTS
Ursinus (6-3, 2-3 CC) 48, Gettysburg (2-7, 1-4 CC) 35
What: Centennial Conference (CC) football game
When: Saturday, Nov. 4
Where: Gettysburg, Pa.
THE SKINNY STORY
Ursinus scored 28 straight points in the second quarter before holding off a furious second-half rally by Gettysburg to finish off a 48-35 win.
THE LEADERS
•
Rocco Abdinoor (Edgewater, Md./St. Mary's Annapolis) led the Bullets with a career-high 316 yards passing, completing 24 of 34 passes with two touchdowns. He also ran 13 times for 27 yards and a score.
•
Ryan McAndrew (Denville, N.J./Morris Catholic) registered his third straight 100-yard receiving game, catching seven balls for 130 yards. He caught one touchdown.
•
Walle Harwigsson Lundblad (Malmo, Sweden/Rabun Gap Nacoochee School) added 116 yards on 10 grabs with a score.
•
Matt Mikulka (Lititz, Pa./Manheim Twp.) led the defense with a career-best 11 tackles and added a 25-yard interception return for a touchdown.
FOR THE FOES
• Jalen Bradford also had a 300-yard passing day for the Bears, completing 18 of 30 passes for 312 yards and four touchdowns.
• Tony Holden ran the ball 22 times for 184 yards and two scores.
• Justin Collier caught seven passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
THE REST OF THE STORY
• The first quarter featured two Gettysburg punts and two Ursinus turnovers before the Bears blocked a 31-yard field-goal attempt with 4:16 to play to keep it a scoreless game. The Bears offense, taking over at their own 28, needed just four plays to take the lead. Jalen Bradford hit Justin Collier for a 31-yard gain and then Cameron Dennis on the next play for a 17-yard touchdown on a ball that was tipped by no fewer than four players on the two teams before Dennis came down with it for a 7-0 lead with 2:24 on the clock.
• On the first play of the second quarter – and fifth play of the ensuing drive –
Rocco Abdinoor connected with
Ryan McAndrew on a short cross route that the senior took untouched 64 yards for the game-tying score. The Bears then proceeded to score touchdowns on their next four drives to take a 35-7 lead into the locker room. Bradford hit Collier from 13 yards out with 11:45 to play. The duo connected again from 15 yards out just over six minutes later for a 21-7 lead. After a fumbled exchange at the Ursinus 23, Tony Holden broke down the right side for a 77-yard touchdown with 2:42 showing before a three-play, 64-yard drive finished with a Bradford 26-yard scramble right and to the pylon with 50 ticks remaining.
• The Bears opened the second half with possession but
Peter Corcoran (Havertown, Pa./Haverford) knocked the ball away on the second play and
Alex Estes (Ashburn, Va./Broad Run) came out of the pile with it to set up the offense at the Ursinus 34. Five plays later, Abdinoor found Walle Harwigsson for a 15-yard touchdown with 11:58 remaining. The Bears faced second-and-11 on their next drive when
Matt Mikulka intercepted the ball and took it down the near sideline 25 yards for a pick-six but the PAT doinked off the upright to keep it a 35-20 game with 11:08 showing. The defense forced a punt on the next Ursinus possession and Abdinoor needed just five plays to engineer a 75-yard scoring drive.
Peter Schelling (Chatham, N.J./Chatham) zipped down the far sideline for the final 39 yards. Abdinoor then hit McAndrew for the two-point conversion to make it a seven-point game with 6:30 to play in the third quarter.
• Bradford responded with a nine-play, 79-yard drive that Holden finished off with a 16-yard touchdown run to break up the run of 21 straight Bullet points with 2:27 showing. Bradford tacked on another 15-yard scoring connection with Dennis to push the lead to 20 with 3:17 to play. Abdinoor and the offense had one final answer, however, taking the next drive 75 yards in seven plays and just 1 minute, 45 seconds. Harwigsson had the big catches on the drive, hauling in a 34-yard on the second play and a 30-yard reception that set up the Abdinoor two-yard scoring run with 1:29 on the clock. The onside attempt bounced out of bounds, giving Ursinus the ball and allowing the visitors to run out the clock.
THE INSIDE STORY
•
Rocco Abdinoor's 316 yards passing were the most by a Bullet signalcaller since Danny Thompson threw for 317 against Moravian on Oct. 29, 2016.
•
Ryan McAndrew and Walle Harwigsson became the first Gettysburg teammates to record 100 yards receiving in the same game since Aden Twer and Tommy LeNoir turned the trick on Sept. 28, 2013 against Susquehanna.
• The 35 points scored by the Bullets were the most against a team other than Juniata since 2016.
• The defense forced a season-high four turnovers.
• The game featured 1,045 yards of total offense with Ursinus finishing with a 607-438 advantage.
NEXT UP
Gettysburg concludes the season at Franklin & Marshall on Saturday. Game time is 1 p.m.
