Media Center
Unstoppable.
For better than half the game the Wilkes offense, paced by senior quarterback Rob Johnson, was unstoppable.
When it counted, with the game on the line, Franklin & Marshall's offense, as it has been for most of the year, was unstoppable.
Senior fullback Ryan Murray cradled a 2-yard touchdown pass from John Harrison with eight seconds left in the game, carrying the Diplomats past Wilkes 29-24 in the ECAC South Atlantic Bowl Saturday at Sponaugle-Williamson Field.
The winning score capped a fourth-quarter comeback that saw the Diplomats (9-2) rally from a 24-10 deficit with three unanswered scores.
As his team gathered under the championship trophy, held high in celebration, head coach John Troxell observed, "I wish we could play another week."
For many on this young Diplomat squad, there will be many more weeks.
But for eight seniors, it was their final moment in the sun.
Given the weather this fall, it was nearly their first sunny moment. Saturday was a perfect, sun-splashed day for football.
And given the way his junior and senior seasons have unfolded, fighting through serious ankle injuries each year, it was the perfect ending for Murray.
"Everything he's done for the program. It was just fitting that it was him," Troxell said of his co-captain.
"It's been a struggle," Troxell noted. "Hobbled, [today he] could barely walk and he's like, 'Don't worry about it. Just keep calling 'em.' "
Down 24-23 with 4:34 left, F&M got the ball on its 21. Two plays later the Dips were at the Colonels' 26 after senior wide receiver George Eager came down with a 44-yard throw from fellow wideout Jarrell Diggs, passing from the Wildcat formation.
It was just the sort of ticking bomb, pun intended, that Colonel coach Frank Sheptock feared.
"We knew the offense was dangerous," he said. "We were trying to make them earn it with no big plays."
It was only the second time this year the Diplomats ran this big play.
"We ran that ... against Muhlenberg," Eager said. Unsuccessfully, it should be pointed out.
"It was there," he said. "We just didn't hook up."
Troxell was going to leave nothing in reserve this day, and he sent the play in on a second-and-1 call.
"I knew we could get a one-on-one matchup with George, and Jarrell can throw it a country mile," Troxell said.
Diggs threw it as Eager got space down the right sideline, looking back into the southern sky for the ball.
"The sun was bad from that angle," Eager said. "I didn't really see the ball until the last second."
In business at the 26, game MVP John Kaschak ran three times for 13 yards, caught a 6-yard screen pass and ran twice more for 5 yards.
Suddenly, there were 13 seconds left.
F&M took its final timeout to talk it over.
"We didn't want to risk running it, getting stuffed, everybody gets up slow and the game ends," Troxell said.
On the other hand, Wilkes would be expecting the pass.
F&M lined up in a power formation. Harrison faked the dive to Kaschak as Murray released into the left flat.
"I saw Murray get behind [the defensive back]," Harrison said. "I had to drop it over his head and [he] made a great catch."
"John Harrison put it on me," Murray said. "I made the catch. We won the game."
If it was only that simple.
Wilkes (6-5) took the opening drive — the first time this year the Colonels had the ball to start — and got on the board on Chris Horn's 37-yard field goal.
F&M responded late in the quarter as Harrison (28-for-37, 225 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs) rewrote the record books once more.
His 7-yard completion to Eager made him the first quarterback in Centennial Conference history to complete 250 passes in a season.
Two plays later, his 16-yard connection with tight end Michael Deutch, who shed a tackler at the 5 and dove to the left pylon, made Harrison the first in CC history to throw 30 TDs in a season.
Wilkes regained the lead as wide receiver Shawn Gregson turned Johnson's fourth-and-4 bubble screen into a 26-yard TD.
F&M tied the score on Mike Shinn's 20-yard field goal, capping a 14-play drive that took 7:43 off the clock.
But Wilkes could play the ball- control game, too, and Zach Tivad (14-49) finished off a 12-play, 61-yard drive — with Wilkes converting a fourth-and-2 at midfield — outracing Barry Lovett to the pylon from 7 yards out.
On the second play after intermission, Johnson (14-for-22, 243 yards) hit Gennaro Zangardi (4-126) streaking down the right sideline for an 81-yard TD pass and a 24-10 lead.
"I'm not going to lie," Eager would later recall. "I said to myself, 'This doesn't look good.' "
A minority opinion, to be sure.
"Never. Never," Murray affirmed. "There's never any doubt on this team."
"We've been down before," shrugged Kaschak, who finished with 137 yards on 22 carries, his second consecutive 100-yard game, and caught seven passes for another 54 yards.
"Our offense, all year, has been able to get it going. Almost on cue," defensive end C. T. Marsh said. "We just had to hold out and set them up for opportunities."
And, almost on cue, the defense did just that, holding Wilkes to a three-and-out after Harrison threw an interception in the end zone.
"We were putting ourselves in bad spots with short [yardage]," Marsh said. "Once we started getting them in third-and-long, we could take advantage."
From the long scoring play to Zangardi, Wilkes — averaging 8.2 yards per play till then — ran 13 offensive plays for 45 yards with the game still in doubt.
Doubt that began to fade when F&M, despite Harrison getting sacked twice — for a net loss of 19 yards — used 7:30 and 15 plays to drive 69 yards to the end zone.
Key to the drive, in fact key to the entire comeback, was a personal-foul penalty on Wilkes defensive back Tim Lombreglia at the tail end of a 6-yard catch by Kaschak.
Instead of facing fourth-and-6 at its 35, F&M had new life at midfield.
"We had the chance to get off the field," Sheptock lamented. "That gave them momentum."
Kaschak took that momentum and rode it, pulling down a pass deflected by defensive back Seth Fetterolf in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard score.
Taking over at its 14, a healthy dose of Kaschak, a 9-yard run by Murray and a 45-yard catch by Eager (10-126), and F&M had first-and-goal at the 5.
Running an "iso" over left guard Zach Robinson, Kaschak stretched over the goal line.
"I'm supposed to ... find the soft spot in the defense," he said. "I just found a lane to cut up into."
F&M lined up for a two-point PAT try and, after timeouts by Wilkes and F&M, Murray was dropped for a 2-yard loss trying to set up a fullback option pass.
Going for 2? With 7:04 left?
"It's what we do," Troxell smiled. "I figured, if we miss it, we're good enough to stop them. Good enough to get the ball back."
Marsh sacked Johnson for a 4-yard loss on first down, leading to a three-and-out.
The rest was history.
"We found a way to win," Troxell said. "That's what we've done all year."
Contact Dave Byrne , Sunday News Sports Writer, at dbyrne@lnpnews.com.
