Monarchs pull out dramatic win over FDU
WILKES-BARRE TWP. — Many places in the area had a strong rain shower on Saturday afternoon that could have affected the play of football games with a slippery ball.
At McCarthy Stadium, a very brief drizzle occurred during the King’s homecoming game against FDU-Florham. Still, both teams had trouble hanging onto the ball as they combined to drop the ball on the turf nine times.
So it seemed fitting that the contest ended that way as the Monarchs pulled out a 35-28 victory over the Devils in overtime.
King’s started the overtime needing six plays to find the end zone and take the lead at 35-28 when quarterback Tom Hehre snuck in for a 1-yard TD.
FDU’s first play in the extra session was fumbled and King’s linebacker Bobby Russell was there to fall on the loose ball and give his team the win and extend the Devils’ MAC losing streak to 20.
“It was the last play of the game, overtime, I had to make a play,” Russell said. “We had a play called and they’ve been running the read the whole time so I knew they were going to run it again so I just jumped on it.”
The defensive play might not have been expected by the Monarchs because on the Devils’ last full drive of regulation, they drove 75 yards on a whopping 19 plays to eat up 8 minutes, 18 seconds to take a 28-21 lead with just 1:08 remaining in the fourth quarter; 15 of those plays were runs going right at the Monarchs defense.
“They had a long drive which they shouldn’t have in the first place,” Russell said. “Our defense wasn’t communicating too well, we made a few mistakes, but we knew we had to make some plays.”
There was still enough time for Hehre to lead a game-tying drive, and that’s what he did. Needing to go 65 yards in a little over a minute, the senior completed four passes on the eight-play drive, and handed off to receiver Matt DeMarco on a reverse for the 5-yard score that tied the game at 28-28 with :14 remaining in regulation.
That scoring drive wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for Hehre’s poise at the position. He was at the helm for all four Monarchs turnovers, including three deep in their own territory. The Devils tied the game at 21-21 at the end of the third quarter when Hehre was hit with a pick-six as Chris Fitzgerald caught the errant pass at the King’s 31 and scored.
In the first quarter, Hehre completed a pass to DeMarco and the ball was jarred loose as FDU recovered on the Monarchs 20 and scored a touchdown as FDU cut King’s lead to 7-6. In the second quarter, Hehre was intercepted on the King’s 18. Two plays later, the Devils found the end zone again, this time giving the team a 13-7 advantage.
“Guys can hang their heads and give in to that pressure. The easy thing is to quit, the hard thing is to put your helmet back on and look the coach in the eye and say ‘hey I messed it up, but I’m not gonna mess it up again. You can count on me to come through,’” King’s coach Jeff Knarr said about his signal-caller. “And that’s Tommy, and who he is and that’s why he’s our quarterback.”
All four King’s turnovers gave FDU decent field position, but the unit didn’t fold. In fact, the King’s defense only gave up 252 total yards, forced six fumbles and recovered three of them. All that, and they held star wide receiver Malik Pressley — who went for 15 receptions, 309 yards and four touchdowns a week ago — to just four receptions for 34 yards and a touchdown.
“That was our job to take him out of the game and make the other guys make the plays,” Knarr said about Pressley. “The x-factor was that they had 21 points directly off of three turnovers. That’s the thing we have to clean up offensively because you’re putting your defense in a bad deal (but) we really only gave them that one drive. The defense responded to adversity free at will.”
King’s 35, FDU-Florham 28, OT
FDU-Florham`6`7`8`7`0`—`28
King’s`7`7`7`7`7`—`35
First quarter
KING’S — Brown 14 run (Kniaziewicz kick) 8:02
FDU — Mobley 31 pass from Maurer (kick failed) 4:55
Second quarter
FDU — Pressley 11 pass from LaVecchia (Marciano kick) 2:33
KING’S —Palmer 23 pass from Whitehead (Tumminello kick) 2:12
Third quarter
KING’S — Hehre 1 run (Tumminello kick) 6:45
FDU —Fitzgerald 31 interception return (Mobley pass from LaVecchia) :07
Fourth quarter
FDU — Ognibene 4 run (Marciano kick) 1:08
KING’S — DeMarco 5 run (Tumminello kick) :14
KING’S — Hehre 1 run (Tumminello kick)
Team statistics`FDU`KING’S
First downs`18`18
Rushes-yards`40-104`39-151
Passing yards`148`152
Total yards`252`303
Passing`19-30-0`18-33-2
Sacks by-yards`1-13`1-2
Punts-avg.`5-36.4`5-35.2
Fumbles-lost`6-3`3-2
Penalties-yards`4-31`8-83
— FDU, Ognibene 18-55, LaVecchia 7-27, Sutton 5-14, Torres 3-14, Maurer 3-0, Mobley 3-(minus-3), TEAM 1-(minus-3). KING’S, Brown 19-81, Hehre 11-40, Funk 8-25, DeMarco 1-5.
— FDU, LaVecchia 11-16-0-76, Maurer 8-13-0-72, McCain 0-1-0-0. KING’S, Hehre 17-32-2-129, Whitehead 1-1-0-23.
— FDU, Adams 7-43, Mobley 5-59, Pressley 4-34, Lara 1-9, Sutton 1-7, Ognibene 1-(minus-4). KING’S, Palmer 5-74, DeMarco 5-28, Marroni 3-23, Miller 2-10, Singley 1-8, Thomas 1-7, Brown 1-2.
— FDU, Fitzgerald, Tyson
MISSED FGs — None.
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