ANNVILLE, Pa. – Junior Dan Kelly threw for a career-high 367 yards and three touchdowns and sophomore receiver Adam Brossman caught seven passes for a career-high 191 yards and three touchdowns, but Widener edged Lebanon Valley 41-38 in an offensively-dominated Middle Atlantic Conference football game Saturday afternoon at Arnold Field.
Senior Mike Lomas threw for 387 yards and four touchdowns for Widener (2-1, 2-1 MAC) while classmate Jeff Chick had 12 receptions for 145 yards.
The two teams combined for 1,065 total yards, with Lebanon Valley (1-3, 1-2 MAC) holding a slight 539-526 edge.
The lead changed hands seven times in the game and five times in the second half.
Widener trailed 16-7 at halftime but exploded for 34 second-half points. The Pioneers racked up 378 total yards over the final two quarters.
Doubling as the team's kicker for the first time in his career, Kelly made three of four extra point attempts and booted a 22-yard field goal. Brossman, who finished eight yards short of Bob Schwenk's '94 single-game school record (199) for receiving yards, also had a two-point conversion reception to finish the game with 20 points scored. In addition, he had a 68-yard punt, just two yards shy of the school record.
Trailing 31-28, the Pioneers took the lead for good when Lomas found Chick for an 11-yard touchdown reception with 7:25 left in the game.
Widener pushed its lead to 10, the largest of the afternoon for either team, when freshman tailback Khalee Prothro ran for an 11-yard touchdown run. But the extra point was no good, making it 41-31 with 3:27 remaining.
Lebanon Valley answered with a six-play, 81-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 3-yard touchdown pass from Kelly to Brossman with 2:34 to go. Kelly put the Dutchmen at the Widener-3 after a 41-yard run down the left side of the field. His third extra point pulled theDutchmen to within a field goal at 41-38.
Lebanon Valley attempted an onside kick, but Widener recovered at the Dutchman-46. An LVC offsides penalty on the kickoff moved the ball to the 41, and after Lomas ran for a first down on third-and-two from the Dutchman-32, the Pioneers were able to run out the clock.
Sophomore tailback Ryan Brennan gave Lebanon Valley an early 6-0 lead when he rumbled in for a 14-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter. After a missed extra point, a 1-yard touchdown run from Bob Warden gave the Pioneers a 7-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Kelly came on for his first collegiate field goal attempt. His high-arching kick from 22 yards out just cleared the crossbar, putting LVC on top 9-7.
Midway through the period, Kelly aired out a bomb down the middle of the field to Brossman, who caught it in stride and raced 87 yards into the end zone. It was LVC's longest passing play since Zach Buffington and Dave McCullough '05 tied a school record when Buffington hit McCullogh with a 98-yard touchdown pass against Wilkes in 2003. Kelly's first career extra point made it 16-7, and that's how the scoreboard read at halftime.
Lomas rallied Widener with a 4- and 5-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, giving the Pioneers a 21-16 advantage heading into the final 15 minutes, setting up a wild finish.
With the Dutchmen facing a fourth-and-two from the Widener-35 early in the final period, Kelly threw a deep pass down the left sideline to Brossman, who leaped to make the catch, spun around his defender, and ran into the end zone for his second touchdown of the game. Kelly's extra point put the Valley on top 24-21.
Three plays later, Widener answered with a big passing play of its own, as Lomas found Warden for a 64-yard touchdown pass as the Pioneers went ahead 28-24.
Not to be denied, the Dutchmen came back with a six-play, 63-yard scoring march. Freshman tailback Andre Payton got things started with a 41-yard reception on the first play of the drive, and Brennan capped it with a 2-yard touchdown run. It marked the first time a Lebanon Valley player rushed for two touchdowns in the same game since Pete Henning '04 did it in 2001 against Delaware Valley. Kelly's third extra point gave the Valley a 31-28 lead.
Prothro finished with 97 yards rushing on 16 carries while Brennan had 85 yards on 18 rushes. Senior receiver Luke Rendine had nine receptions for 88 yards for Lebanon Valley.
Sophomore safety Zach Santiago led all players with 13 tackles for Widener. Sophomore linebacker Terry Kaufman made nine hits for Lebanon Valley.
The Dutchmen return to action next Saturday when they visit Delaware Valley in another MAC contest. Game-time is set for 1 p.m.
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