Millersville, Pa. - With 4:54 remaining, Millersville was in position to play the role of spoiler for West Chester's PSAC Eastern Division championship hopes. The Marauders held a four-point lead with the visiting Golden Rams backed up on their own 10. But West Chester QB Pat Dooley led a seven-play, 90-yard drive, capped by a Mike Class 1-yard TD run with 1:18 remaining, giving the Golden Rams a 27-24, come-from-behind victory over the upset-minded Marauders.

Millersville (4-6, 3-4 PSAC East) went blow-for-blow with a West Chester (8-2, 6-1 PSAC East) team headed to the conference championship game against No. 1 Indiana (Pa.) next week. West Chester entered the game as the top-ranked scoring offense in the league, and Millersville kept pace, holding the Golden Rams 11 points under their scoring average and nearly matching them in yards (404 to 394).

Tony Staffieri played brilliantly under center for the Marauders, completing 23 of 33 passes for a career-high 352 yards and two touchdowns while also rushing for for a score, giving him eight touchdowns accounted for in his last two games. Staffieri's only two blemishes were a pair of interceptions. The first came on the first drive of the third quarter on what the Marauders thought was a free play. Staffieri lofted a pass to the end zone, which was intercepted by Shaquille Jones in front of Phil Overton. No flag for West Chester offsides was thrown and the interception stood. Then, facing a third and 17 on the final drive, Staffieri's deep pass was intercepted by Rashee Davis, clinching the win. 

Evan Morrill, a wrestler who walked on to the team as a long snapper last spring, caught a career-high six passes for 94 yards. Kevin Wiggins totaled 117 yards on five catches, including a 61-yard catch and run over triple coverage mid-way through the third quarter.

The score stood tied three times, Millersville answered a game-tying score three times, and West Chester did the same twice. West Chester, however, outscored Millersville 10-0 in the fourth quarter.

Millersville received a career-long 45-yard field goal from Joey Farley to start the scoring, and Staffieri hit Nii Kotei Nikoi on a three-yard slant for a 10-3 lead with 10:41 left in the second quarter. Dooley and West Chester tied the game at 10-10 with 30-yard completion to Dan Neuhaus with five minutes remaining in the half, and the score remained tied until the Staffieri-Wiggins connection made the score 17-10 with 7:50 left in the third.

Jarel Elder, however, was a difference maker for the Golden Rams. While Millersville largely held the running back in check, he single-handedly kept the Golden Rams in the game, answering Wiggins' big play with two of his own. Elder returned the ensuing kickoff 34 yards to the Millersville 41, and on the first play of the drive, he took a handoff, bounced outside and raced down the West Chester sideline for a touchdown, tying the game at 17-17. That one carry accounted for nearly half of his yards, as the Marauders limited him to 44 yards on his other 16 carries (2.8 yards per carry).

The Marauders started their next drive on the 17, and Staffieri completed six passes on the drive, including three for 20 or more yards, connecting with Gibson (23), Morrill (20) and Wiggins (30). Millersville converted a pair of third downs and pushed to the West Chester 1 on a completion to Tyler Zilen. Then, on fourth-and-goal, Staffieri called his own number on a quick snap and put Millersville back in front, 24-17.

Both teams started the fourth quarter with three-and-out drives. West Chester drove to the Millersville 3 before a bad snap pushed it back to the 17. The drive stalled on the seven when Tanner Dean pressured Dooley into a throw away. Andrew Chegia converted a 24-yard field goal with 7:25 left on the clock.

Millersville took 2:24 off the clock, pushing to the West Chester 47, but a third-and-two pass to Zilen fell incomplete, forcing the Marauders to punt. Tyler Reiman's punt landed at the West Chester 10 with 4:54 left. West Chester overcame two holding calls on its go-ahead scoring drive--once with a 22-yard completion to Elder and the second on a 29-yard scramble by Dooley. Dooley found Neuhaus caught three passes in the game; one was for a touchdown and the other two set up scores. His 25-yard grab put West Chester at the Millersville 3, and two plays later, Class put West Chester on top.

The loss was Millersville's third by eight or fewer points this season, continuing to show marked improvement. Last season, the Marauders lost 52-0 to the same West Chester program, and Saturday marked the first time in 11 tries that Millersville held West Chester under 41 points.

Wiggins' 24th career touchdown catch moves him into a tie with Jamal Smith for third all-time at Millersville. He stands just seven catches shy of becoming the third Marauder with 200 career catches, and he enters his final game with 2,458 yards, which ranks third all-time.

The Marauders close their 2017 season at home on Nov. 11 against Gannon. Gannon owns a 4-6 record and features the NCAA's leading rusher, Marc Jones, who went into week 10 with over 1,800 yards.