EDINBORO, Pa. - Trent McDowell drilled a game-winning, 26-yard field goal as time expired, lifting Millersville to a 23-21 road win over Edinboro in Saturday's season finale.
Millersville quarterback
Ryan Zeltt threw three touchdown passes, and with the Marauders trailing 21-20, he led a 16-play, 63-yard drive that consumed every last second of the 4:19 that was on the clock when the offense took possession. The final drive was a white-knuckle ride for both teams. The Marauders converted a third-and-14 from their own 24 and overcame two holding calls. Edinboro aided the Marauders with penalties for pass interference, face mask and defensive holding, but Millersville executed when it mattered most.
Jaheim Morris' five-yard run pushed the Marauders to the Edinboro 8. Zeltt centered the ball with a QB keeper, and McDowell capped the come-back win.
"They were composed, and that was something we've been talking about all season," said Millersville head coach
J.C. Morgan. "On the last drive of the season, we needed points, and we had lots of different guys making big plays in big moments."
The drive came in response to an epic rally that saw the Fighting Scots erase Millersville's 20-0 lead in a little more than 10 minutes. Edinboro scored on a 31-yard TD pass from Isaac Bernard to Jaret Frantz with 31 seconds left in the third quarter. The two connected again with 8:17 to go, and Thomas Zidane rushed in from 25 yards out to give the Fighting Scots their first lead of the game with 4:26 to play. Before Millersville's final drive, Edinboro had out-gained the Marauders 108-18 in the fourth quarter, and Millersville had gone three consecutive drives without a first down.
"The team stayed composed on the sideline the whole time," said Morgan. "We've come a long way in the last couple of years when it comes to stuff like this, even when the result doesn't go our way. There was no panic, and it showed on that last drive."
Millersville built its three-score lead on touchdown passes to
Kam Taylor,
Isaac Sines and
Brady Russell. The 19-yard strike to Sines was on a third-and-19. The lead extended to three scores on Russell's 33-yard catch and run on the first offensive drive of the second half. It also immediately followed one of two fourth-down stands by the Millersville defense. Before the Zeltt-to-Russell connection,
Eloge Kalubi and company dropped Jerry Dinkins for a loss of one on fourth-and-one from the Edinboro 34. The first stop came in a goal-to-go situation and denied Edinboro a retaliation touchdown in the first quarter.
The Marauders stuff Bo Swartz on three consecutive runs from inside the 1, with Kalubi credited with a role in all three plays.
"We had to fight on those three straight plays from the 1," said Morgan. "That takes a lot of guts. We've been in those situations and haven't come out on the good side of that. It speaks to the way (the players) fought all year. Week after week we had disappointments, but they kept coming to practice, kept coming to meetings, fighting through it with their backs against the wall. It was symbolic of the mentality we tried to carry over the last few weeks. Coach (Matt) Sutjak had a great plan for what they wanted to do, and we executed it."
That stop was game-changing, as was the offense immediately flipping field position with a lengthy drive to the Edinboro 12.
"We went into the locker room up 13-0, and you get to that point by making stops and converting big plays on offense," said Morgan. "Coming out after halftime making the fourth-down stop and then scoring, that's stacking possessions, and we've talked about that all year.
Seniors rose to the occasion in the season's final game.
Judah Rock led the Marauders with nine tackles.
Conner Snyder recorded his first sack of the season.
Jaheim Morris rushed for 79 yards on 19 carries, moving him up to fourth at Millersville in career carries (511) and ninth in yards (2,200).
Jaiden Abrams rushed for 24 yards and finished the season with a team-high 547 yards.
Jose Lopez caught five passes for 42 yards, and it was his catch-and-run on third down that kept Millersville's final drive alive.
Hakim Melvin also caught five passes for 60 yards.
Zelt completed 26 of 41 passes for a career-high 336 yards. It was the second consecutive week that he threw three TD passes and his fourth consecutive full game in which he completed better than 63% of his passes.
