WESTMINSTER, Md. – McDaniel 27, Ursinus 27. Just 4.8 seconds showing on the clock of Saturday's Centennial Conference (CC) football contest. Spencer Wiersberg (Salisbury, Md./J.M. Bennett) lines up for his longest collegiate field-goal attempt.
Luke Lynes (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern) receives the snap from Drew Scott (Brick, N.J./Brick Twp.) and puts ball down just inside the left hash of the 33-yard line.
Wiersburg's kick sails through the air for the game-winning 43-yard field goal, sending the Green Terror (1-3, 1-2 CC) to a 30-27 victory and snapping a 22-game losing streak.
The field goal was the longest for McDaniel since 2006 when Jay Leonard booted a 46-yarder the same direction to defeat Gettysburg, 17-14.
The offense put up 430 yards of offense behind a career-best 314-yard passing day by Will Koester (Purcellville, Va./Woodgrove), who went 29-for-48 in the victory. Andre Henry Jr. (Frederick, Md./Urbana) caught six passes for a career-best 93 yards. Bamasa Bailor (Carlisle, Pa./Carlisle Area) also hauled in six passes for 76 yards while Breon Herbert (Silver Spring, Md./Blake) also grabbed six balls for 69 yards. He also caught two touchdown passes.
Perry Stefanelli (Rockville, Md./Good Counsel) rushed for 96 of the Green Terror's 116 yards on the ground. He finished with a career-best 198 all-purpose yards.
Salvatore Bello paced the Bears (0-4, 0-3 CC) with 235 yard passing on 23 of 36.
After a scoreless first quarter, John Chamberlin (Williamstown, N.J./Williamstown) capped off a 17-play, 79-yard drive that covered more than eight minutes with a one-yard touchdown run on fourth down just 42 seconds into the second period.
A Wiersberg 26-yard field goal at the end of a 13-play drive stretched the lead to 10-0 with 4:00 to play in the opening half.
Jonathan Gerhartz took the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.
Koester led McDaniel right back down the field, however, eventually finding Herbert from 24 yards out to reestablish the 10-point lead with 1:22 to play.
A Bello-to-Carmen Fortino five-yard touchdown pass in the final four seconds made it a 17-14 game at the break.
Ursinus added a Nicholas Ford 44-yard field on its first possession of the second half before Stacey Gardner caught a 19-yard pass from Bello out of the backfield on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the visitors a 24-17 lead.
Wiersberg converted from 25 yards out to make it a 24-20 game with 10:20 to play before Ford answered from 23 yards to push the lead back to seven with just 4:05 to play.
Koester went 6-for-8 on the ensuing drive, finding Herbert in the corner of the end zone on the 10th play of the march. The Wiersberg extra point drew the hosts even with 60 seconds to play.
Ursinus bobbled the ensuing kickoff before taking over at its own 18. After a 13-yard completion to Shawn Hackett on second down, Ray Doh (Silver Spring, Md./Blake) tipped up a pass that Claude Richardson (Silver Spring, Md./Montgomery Blair) intercepted, giving the Green Terror the balla the Bear 39 with 33.9 seconds remaining and all three timeouts.
Facing fourth-and-12 with 13.4 ticks on the clock, Koester hit Bailor for a 15-yard gain over the middle for a first down with 9.1 seconds to play.
A run play to Stefanelli attempted to center the ball to set up Wiersburg but the back slipped before falling ahead to the 25-yard line just inside the hash.
Richardson led the defense with 12 tackles to go with the interceptions while Ben Kahn (Sparrows Point, Md./Dundalk) added eight.
McDaniel returns to action at Gettysburg on Saturday. Game time is 1 p.m.
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