The Washington University football team squeaked out a narrow victory over the Simpson College Storm of Indianola, Iowa on Saturday. The Bears beat Simpson 16-14 on an 18-yard Ben Lambert field goal with 46 seconds left on the “clock.”
Adding to the mayhem of the moment was a dysfunctional scoreboard clock that displayed 0:00 time remaining the entire night. Fans were left in the dark as the precious final seconds of the game ticked away. Coaches and announcers were in constant communication with the referees on the field – the only people who really knew how much time officially remained in the game.
Despite the broken scoreboard, clock management was a key for the Bears in the fourth quarter. WU took over on its own one-yard-line with about 10:44 remaining in the game, facing a 13-14 deficit. It was a game that had been, up to that point, characterized by dominant defenses and a plethora of punts – 18 in all. The prospects of an orchestrated, 99-yard drive under freshman quarterback Nathan Szep, who took over the reigns in the third quarter after a disappointing debut from junior Matt Alley, were bleak at best and unfathomable at worst.
But these Bears are all about beating the odds.
What proceeded was a 22 play, 98 yard drive that chewed all but a precious few seconds off the clock. The drive featured timely runs by sophomore tailback Kevin McCarthy and smart, conservative passing by Szep. It looked like a sure thing that WU would put 6 points on the board, but Simpson got tough on their own one-yard-line and stuffed McCarthy on three consecutive runs to force the Bears into a field goal.
Despite a few last ditch attempts to go deep, Simpson quarterback Jim Donnenwerth could not move the Storm into field goal position in the final seconds. In a fitting punctuation mark to the defensive contest, sophomore Ryan Allerman sacked Donnenwerth for a 13 yard loss to end the game, the Bears’ second sack on the day.
The win marked the twelfth consecutive victory for the Bears in season-opening games.
Head coach Larry Kindbom said, “We played very, very well for our first game. I think it showed a lot of character for us to go from our one-yard line to kicking a field goal for the win. Simpson didn’t give up a single big play [during that drive], so we had to play a perfect football game to get there.”
The only scoring in the first quarter consisted of Lambert’s two field goals, both from nearly 40 yards out. Two minutes into the second quarter, WU had Simpson on the ropes at 13-0 after a 56-yard touchdown pass from Alley to freshman wide receiver Brad Duesing. Despite some dropped balls and miscommunications, Duesing actually led the team in receiving with 90 yards gained.
By the end of the same quarter, the complexion of the game had taken an about face. Simpson scored two consecutive touchdowns on a 1-yard Donnenwerth run and a 12-yard Donnenwerth pass. From that point on, the scoreboard did not see any action until the last minute of the fourth quarter.
“It was tougher than we expected,” said senior football captain, David Wiener. “Simpson played hard and gave us a great game. We had some luck at the end to pull it off, but overall it was a good game.”
The offense did show some bright spots, as the Bears gained nearly twice as many yards as Simpson in passing plays and gained 145 yards rushing to only 14 yards for Simpson. But as always, there’s still work to be done.
“As a whole we didn’t play our best. We need to step it up to play MacMurray in the upcoming game. They have a really good running game and strong punt returns,” said Duesing.
McCarthy emerged from a group of talented runners as the obvious choice to be the team’s featured back this season. He racked up 120 yards, averaging over four yards a carry, but more importantly, he seemed to always come through on the third-and-shorts, the second-and-longs – the times when the rushing game had to make up for an impotent air attack.
Field position was second to none in importance against Simpson, and rookie punter, sophomore Richard Worth, dazzled the Francis Field crowd with a dizzying array of high-arching kicks, favorable bounces and balls that dropped dead inside the opponent’s ten-yard line. For the day, he averaged 42.5 yards net over eight punts.
Kindbom said of the WU special teams, “Our punting game was awesome and it really made the difference. We turned the ball over too many times, but the team really came through at the end. It ultimately came down to us stopping them.”
The defense showed great discipline and tackling skills all day. The linebacking corps, led by senior Brandon Roberts, snuffed out the Simpson run all day, and junior defensive lineman Mel Bartoul registered six tackles and a quarterback hurry in his first career start on route to being named UAA defensive football player of the week. Senior defensive back Reggie Crume had to be carried off the field after suffering an injury in the second half, but overall, the depleted secondary did an adequate job in containing the Storm’s offense.
A W is a W, but the team is not ready to rest on its laurels. Only time will tell if the last-second miracle ride will continue on into this weeks game against MacMurray College.