Football
Lebanon Valley 21, King's 19
Box Score
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -
Ben Guiles ran for 262 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the final three minutes of the game, as Lebanon Valley came back late and then held off King's in a wild finish to win, 21-19.
The Dutchmen (3-4, 2-2 MAC) kept the Monarchs (0-7, 0-4 MAC) winless despite a late kick-off returned for a touchdown that gave King's a glimmer of hope. LVC had scored twice quickly to turn a 12-9 deficit into a 21-12 lead late in the fourth quarter.
Guiles finished with the second-best rushing performance in LVC history, just five yards shy of
Charlie Parker '10's school record of 267 yards. He scored all three of LVC's touchdowns, and
Brittany Ryan tacked on a 24-yard field goal.
The LVC defense did not allow King's an offensive touchdown, with the Monarchs getting four field goals from Ryan Cain and an 86-yard kick-off return by Jay Torres with 2:07 left in the game. Quarterback Corey Lavin threw for 270 yards (21-of-37).
Jason Gigous led the defense with 13 tackles, and
Alex Gilchrist tacked on 11 (four for a loss) with a sack.
Cain put King's up with a 26-yarder to start the game, but Guiles punched in from a yard out later in the first quarter before Ryan's PAT was blocked. Cain then tied it at 6-6 to end the first with a 19-yard chip.
Cain tacked his third on from 38 yards in the second half to give King's a 9-6 halftime lead. LVC left potential all over the field, with a Guiles fumble and interceptions by
Caleb Fick and
Colt Zarilla costing LVC; the Dutchmen had second down on King's 9, but Fick was picked off in the end zone by Andrew Yablonsky to end the half.
Ryan converted her first field goal of the year from 24 yards to tie at 9-9 and start the third quarter before Cain made it four from 30 yards midway through the quarter.
The score would stand at 12-9 until deep into the fourth quarter, and the two teams combined for three touchdowns over a 1:26 span late in the game. After an LVC drive sputtered at the King's four, the Monarchs were forced to punt, but Cain's punt was shanked for just nine yards, setting LVC up on the 14-yard line.
That was all Guiles needed, and he ran it in from there on first down to retake the lead at 15-12. King's took over and ate virtually no time off the clock with a series of incompletions, and Lavin was sacked on back-to-back plays by
Zach Bleiler and
Alex Gilchrist to give LVC the ball back on the King's 16 with 2:31 to go.
Two plays later, Guiles was dancing into the end zone again, this time from 15 yards out, to seemingly secure the game with a 21-12 lead. Torres, however, took the kickoff 86 yards to the house, giving the Monarchs a glimmer of hope for their first win, but Cain's onside kick was recovered by LVC, and Guiles ran out the remaining 2:06.
Game Notes
Guiles' game was only the fourth 200+ rushing game in LVC history ... He has seven rushing touchdowns in his last two games ... His 262 yards, done on 36 carries, surpasses his career high of 187 yards, set at Wilkes last year ... He moved from fifth to third on the all-time rushing list with 2,318 yards, surpassing Pete Henning '04 (2,203 yards) and Ken Wilson (2,305 yards) ... His 23 career touchdowns is also now tied for second all-time ... LVC had 411 yards of offense in all to King's 297 ... Colt Zarilla returned to punting duties for the first time since week 1, kicking two for a 21.5 yard average ... Fick finished 6-for-18 with 72 yards ... Pete Panichi (49 yards), Alex Kirchner (15 yds), and Conrad Heisey (5 yds) shared the rushing load with Guiles with Blair Ransom out of the line-up ... Brendan Kozub made his first career start at left guard ... Tyler Veverka moved to right guard to start for an injured Andrew Scott ... LVC did not make a PAT in the game; Ryan's first try was blocked, and the other two were missed ... LVC possessed the ball for just 10:34 in the first half ... They trailed 33:15 to 26:45 overall.
