Box Score Football
#24 Widener 35, Lebanon Valley 28
Photo Gallery
CHESTER, Pa. - A fourth-quarter comeback was not in the cards as Lebanon Valley fell at #24 Widener, 35-28, in the Middle Atlantic Conference opener.
The Dutchmen (1-1) couldn't find an answer for the Pride's (1-1) quick-strike offense as Seth Klein threw for 392 yards on 40 completions.
Darryl Sweeper and
Joey Miller had receiving touchdowns for the Dutchmen, while quarterbacks
Brian Murphy and
Jeremy Franck each ran for scores.
Widener ran a frantic first-half pace, getting off 50 plays before the break as they jumped out to a 24-7 halftime lead. The Pride linked together four scoring drives - two in each half - sandwiched around Sweeper's first career touchdown catch for LVC's only score.
"Early in the game, they had a tempo that really had us on our heels defensively," said head coach
Jim Monos. "At halftime they had run 50 plays and their quarterback was 25-for-29. I'd have a hard time doing that against air. I feel like in the second half we at least forced them into a couple things and got ourselves back in the game."
LVC's defense adjusted in the third quarter, holding the Pride scoreless as Murphy scrambled out for a five-yard score to cap a 50-yard drive late in the quarter. Ryan O'Hara made his second field goal of the game to start the fourth quarter, a 42-yarder, but Murphy hit
Joey Miller on a 70-yard touchdown on the very next play to cut the lead to 27-21.
"I said to the team, I felt the way we played in the second half, we played with more aggressiveness than we did in the first half," Monos said. "We put ourselves in a position to have a chance to win the game, but playing from behind we had to make a couple more plays and we didn't do that."
Widener answered back with a long drive capped by Richard Brown's one-yard dive, but LVC marched back within a touchdown when
Jeremy Franck - replacing an injured Murphy - converted a critical fourth-down pass to Sweeper before scoring on a sneak with 1:30 left.
LVC's defense got them the ball back, but there wasn't enough time as the Dutchmen were backed up against their own end zone with less than 30 seconds left.
The Valley returns home to host King's next Saturday.
Game Notes
Widener compiled 518 yards of offense overall to LVC's 395 ... Neither team had much ground success, with Widener running for 126 yards to LVC's 104 ... Brendan Irving was LVC's top runner at 34 yards, and Murphy had 26 ... Miller caught a touchdown in each of his last three games against Widener ... Frank Gaffney got his first start at linebacker and was one of three Dutchmen with nine tackles, and he added a sack ... Bryan Kasper also had nine stops and forced and recovered a fumble ... Ryan Melley also stopped nine ... Andrew Burkholder had LVC's other sack ... Widener racked up five sacks, led by Stacey Sunnerville's 2.5 hits ... Anthony Davis led the Pride with 120 yards receiving ... Jake Zeigler had a team-high seven catches for 68 yards, and Sweeper had three catches for 65 yards.
