The Saint Vincent football team fought back from a 21-point deficit but fell to Westminster College on Homecoming at Chuck Noll Field, 28-21.
Westminster opened the game with an 11-play, 68-yard drive, but SVC held the Titans on a third-and-goal, forcing a 24-yard field goal attempt that was partially blocked by Darius Brown. After the teams exchanged punts on the next two possessions, Westminster appeared poised to take the lead after an SVC fumble inside its own red zone, but the SVC defense held once again, this time on a fourth-and-goal pass by Dak Britt that fell incomplete.
However, late in the first quarter, a Matt Deakins pass was intercepted at the SVC 25, and four plays later Britt connected with David Wright for an 11-yard touchdown pass, giving the visitors a 7-0 lead.
Just past the midway point of the second quarter, SVC’s Nick Revis stripped the ball from running back Tyler Banks, and Renny LaRue-Holloman recovered at the Westminster 20. Five plays later, Deakins hit Matt Duffey for a touchdown pass. Steven Scherer’s extra point tied the game, 7-7.
On the first play of the next drive, Britt hit Toby Bonitz for a 66-yard pass that went to the SVC five-yard-line, and Britt completed the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run three plays later. A fake extra point attempt was then run into the end zone for a 2-point conversion, making it 15-7 in favor of the Titans.
With just 24 seconds left in the half, Deakins was intercepted by Corey Neill near midfield, and Britt then threw a 44-yard pass to Collin Wallace, setting up a Justin Dahl 31-yard field goal as time expired in the half, giving Westminster an 18-7 advantage.
Dahl added a 30-yard field goal with 2:18 left in the third, giving the Titans a 21-7 lead.
With 7:21 to go in the fourth, Banks broke free for a 22-yard scoring run that increased the lead to 28-7, but the Bearcats refused to give up. Greg Hendershot came into the game at quarterback and engineered a 10-play, 65-yard drive that culminated in a 20-yard touchdown pass to Chace Ginyard. Scherer’s PAT made it a 28-14 game with 4:29 left on the clock.
The SVC defense held the Titans and forced a punt, but SVC was unable to move the ball on its next possession, turning it over on downs.
With 43 seconds left, LaRue-Holloman stripped Banks of the ball at the SVC 5, then lateralled the ball to Dan Wirkowski, who ran the remaining 95 yards for the Bearcat touchdown, cutting the gap to just seven, 28-21.
However, Westminster recovered the onside kickoff and ran out the clock to seal the win.
On the day, the Titans had 454 yards of offense, while SVC was held to 239. Westminter had 18 first downs compared to 15 for the Bearcats.
Ryan Crawford led the Bearcats on the ground iwth 10 carries for 37 yards, while Banks had 95 yards on 30 carries for the Titans.
Britt led all passers on the day, completing 19 of 31 for 328 yards. Hendershot was 9-19 for SVC for 112 yards, while Deakins completed 15 of 40 for 96 yards and was intercepted three times.
Ginyard topped all SVC receivers with 7 receptions for 74 yards, while Dustin Lowman had six catches for 36 yards and Matt Duffey caught 5 passes for 34 yards. Wallace led the Titans with 8 receptions, good for 165 yards while Bonitz had 6 catches for 102 yards.
Defensively, Larue-Holloman had 10 tackles for SVC, while Matt Jenkins and Dwayne Brown had 8 each. Nate Moot recorded 8 tackles for Westminster.
Morgan Porter played well on special teams for Saint Vincent, punting 7 times for a 34.7 yard average, but the stat sheet doesn’t reflect a clutch play in the first quarter, where the snap went over his head into the SVC end zone. Porter chased the ball down, eluded a Titan player and got off what went into the books as a 30-yard punt.
SVC is now 0-3 on the year 0-2 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. Westminster is now 1-2 overall, 1-1 in the PAC.
The Bearcats will host Carnegie Mellon University next Saturday at 1PM at Chuck Noll Field.
