Heartbreaking loss for team that played its best game of the season
By Chris Ferrick-Manley
For the third straight year, the homecoming football game was decided on the final play; however, unlike in 2005 and 2006, it did not involve the kicking game.
The Terror faced the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats, and the score was deadlocked at 17 heading into overtime. F&M received the ball first and scored a touchdown and converted the extra point. McDaniel was able to move the ball on its own overtime possession, but a fumble inside the 10-yard line was recovered by F&M, ending the game.
This heartbreaking loss, played in front of 30 members of Western Maryland College’s undefeated team in 1997, came on the heels of two blowout losses. Following their bye week, the Terror were shut out 43-0 at Muhlenberg. In the Muhlenberg game, senior quarterback Tom Wenrich left the game with a concussion and did not play the following week at home against Ursinus.
The Terror are 1-7 on the season and have been outscored 272 to 115.
Ursinus advanced to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in the Centennial Conference, good for second place.
McDaniel played three different quarterbacks against Ursinus: sophomores Zach Swope and Joe Lapkowicz and freshman Coleman Flory. Together they combined for as many completed passes, four, as interceptions in a 42-10 loss.
Sophomore Pat Floyd, starting right tackle for the Terror, believes this team is just enduring a rough stretch this year and should be significantly better in the following couple of years. He points out that the team is only graduating eight seniors.
“With time I’d have faith in all three of the quarterbacks that played against Ursinus,” said Floyd, referring to the team’s relative youth and its potential to get better.
Floyd also commented on the Terror’s frequently criticized kicker, Jay Leonard. According to Floyd, Leonard is able to make them in practice from 42-yards out.
“During practice he puts them through the uprights,” said Floyd, “I have faith he’ll make it.”
Leonard played a key role in the previous two homecoming games. In 2005, with the Terror trailing 17-14 in overtime with a fourth-and-one from the F&M 2-yard line, Head Coach Tim Keating elected to kick the field goal, but it was blocked. In 2006, Leonard drilled a 46-yard field goal to beat the Gettysburg Bullets with three seconds on the clock.
The Terror’s final two games are at Gettysburg and home against Johns Hopkins. Game time for both is 1 p.m.