Sunday Morning News
From the Carroll County Times:
Mistakes catch up to McDaniel football in loss
By Josh Land, Times Staff Writer
The McDaniel defense had been stifling. The offense had been threatening. And then everything changed once the third quarter began.
Turnovers, bad decisions and a defense that could no longer hold on against the league’s best offense turned a promising homecoming game into a 38-9 Gettysburg rout on Saturday at Scott S. Bair Stadium.
The Green Terror (2-7, 1-6 Centennial Conference) were outscored 21-3 and outgained 124-44 in the third quarter alone after trailing just 10-6 at halftime. McDaniel committed three turnovers in the decisive quarter and the Bullets (4-5, 4-3) scored 14 points off the giveaways to send the home team to its fifth loss in a row.
“The harder and harder we fought, the more and more we sunk,” McDaniel linebacker Mike Weick said. “It comes down to the fact that one thing happens and we just hit a landslide. Good teams don’t let that happen.”
A few players said the loss was reminiscent of a game two weeks earlier when the Terror led entering the fourth quarter but blew it with a series of miscues.
“It was Ursinus all over again,” cornerback Travis Wenrich said. “It was just bad things — fumble, interception, punt blocked.”
Not just one of those things occurred. Not just two. But all did during Saturday’s third quarter.
Junior Aaron Slaughter fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half when he took an awkward leap to receive the kick, but ended up batting it forward. It was recovered by Gettysburg on the Terror 26-yard line and Bullets tailback Nick McConnell scored five plays later on a 1-yard touchdown run.
McDaniel went three and out on its second possession of the quarter and punted. Wenrich intercepted his fourth pass of the year to end the subsequent Bullets drive.
But Terror quarterback Tom Massucci threw the first of his three interceptions on the very next play when his pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and picked off by defensive tackle Anthony Pastore.
Gettysburg started the ensuing possession on the McDaniel 42 and scored three plays later on a Ricky Manigat 33-yard run down the visiting sideline.
The Terror went three and out again the next drive. On fourth down, Wenrich had his punt blocked, it traveled just three yards and Gettysburg again started in McDaniel territory — at the 37.
Quarterback Matt Flynn made it 31-6 on the third play of the possession, a broken play he turned into a 21-yard touchdown pass following several moments of scrambling sideline to sideline.
The Terror turned it over one last time on a Massucci interception the next possession. But they got the ball back on downs and followed with their final points of the day on a Jay Leonard 32-yard field goal set up by a 49-yard pass to Pat McCarrick.
Before that scoring drive, McDaniel’s first five possessions of the quarter ended in lost fumble, punt, interception, blocked punt and interception.
With those mistakes burying the Terror, junior receiver and captain Matt Cahill said the emotions on the sideline began sinking as if some players reacted, “Oh no, not again.”
“I try to keep people up because I know as soon as you go down, especially early in the second half, that you’re done,” Cahill said. “For the most part, guys stayed up. We just weren’t making plays on offense to help out the ‘D.’”
To coach Tim Keating, the loss boiled down to a poor start to the second half.
“We can’t fumble. We can’t throw an interception. We can’t get a kick blocked,” he said. “That just stunk.”
Mistakes catch up to McDaniel football in loss
By Josh Land, Times Staff Writer
The McDaniel defense had been stifling. The offense had been threatening. And then everything changed once the third quarter began.
Turnovers, bad decisions and a defense that could no longer hold on against the league’s best offense turned a promising homecoming game into a 38-9 Gettysburg rout on Saturday at Scott S. Bair Stadium.
The Green Terror (2-7, 1-6 Centennial Conference) were outscored 21-3 and outgained 124-44 in the third quarter alone after trailing just 10-6 at halftime. McDaniel committed three turnovers in the decisive quarter and the Bullets (4-5, 4-3) scored 14 points off the giveaways to send the home team to its fifth loss in a row.
“The harder and harder we fought, the more and more we sunk,” McDaniel linebacker Mike Weick said. “It comes down to the fact that one thing happens and we just hit a landslide. Good teams don’t let that happen.”
A few players said the loss was reminiscent of a game two weeks earlier when the Terror led entering the fourth quarter but blew it with a series of miscues.
“It was Ursinus all over again,” cornerback Travis Wenrich said. “It was just bad things — fumble, interception, punt blocked.”
Not just one of those things occurred. Not just two. But all did during Saturday’s third quarter.
Junior Aaron Slaughter fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half when he took an awkward leap to receive the kick, but ended up batting it forward. It was recovered by Gettysburg on the Terror 26-yard line and Bullets tailback Nick McConnell scored five plays later on a 1-yard touchdown run.
McDaniel went three and out on its second possession of the quarter and punted. Wenrich intercepted his fourth pass of the year to end the subsequent Bullets drive.
But Terror quarterback Tom Massucci threw the first of his three interceptions on the very next play when his pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage and picked off by defensive tackle Anthony Pastore.
Gettysburg started the ensuing possession on the McDaniel 42 and scored three plays later on a Ricky Manigat 33-yard run down the visiting sideline.
The Terror went three and out again the next drive. On fourth down, Wenrich had his punt blocked, it traveled just three yards and Gettysburg again started in McDaniel territory — at the 37.
Quarterback Matt Flynn made it 31-6 on the third play of the possession, a broken play he turned into a 21-yard touchdown pass following several moments of scrambling sideline to sideline.
The Terror turned it over one last time on a Massucci interception the next possession. But they got the ball back on downs and followed with their final points of the day on a Jay Leonard 32-yard field goal set up by a 49-yard pass to Pat McCarrick.
Before that scoring drive, McDaniel’s first five possessions of the quarter ended in lost fumble, punt, interception, blocked punt and interception.
With those mistakes burying the Terror, junior receiver and captain Matt Cahill said the emotions on the sideline began sinking as if some players reacted, “Oh no, not again.”
“I try to keep people up because I know as soon as you go down, especially early in the second half, that you’re done,” Cahill said. “For the most part, guys stayed up. We just weren’t making plays on offense to help out the ‘D.’”
To coach Tim Keating, the loss boiled down to a poor start to the second half.
“We can’t fumble. We can’t throw an interception. We can’t get a kick blocked,” he said. “That just stunk.”
posted by Pat McConnell | 5:58 AM
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