PLYMOUTH – On Saturday, September 30, 2,130 fans packed a picturesque Currier field to witness a nail-biter as Plymouth State University edged the Western New England Golden Bears with a 19-18 victory.
Senior quarterback Tye Seastedt led a strong running game, setting the offensive tone for the Panthers.
The scoring started after a fumble by the Panthers deep in their own zone gave Western New England great field position inside the ten. Junior quarterback Pat Murphy then took the ball in for the Golden Bears off of a broken play. A blocked point by the Panther’s Johnny Lewis proved to hurt Western New England later, though.
A long pass play to junior wide out Bobby Carney set up a 34-yard field goal by Western New England’s James Farrell to increase the lead to 9-0, after one quarter of play. Murphy would finish 12 for 23 for 156 yards and a touchdown
The Panthers got on the board two minutes into the second quarter, however, as a bruising four-yard run by John DeMarco culminated in a touchdown and cut the Golden Bears’ advantage to 9-7. The fumbling fiasco continued into the second quarter for both teams, but the tempo settled down and both put together lengthy drives to finish the half.
A 19-play, 86-yard march by Western New England that took up over nine minutes led to another field goal by James Farrell and increased the Golden Bears’ lead to 12-7.
PSU answered right back with a clock-killing, 11-play, 66-yard drive that ended with John DeMarco’s second touchdown of the day and gave the Panthers the 13-12 halftime lead.
The Panthers were solid in all three phases of the game in the second half, despite not scoring in the third quarter. In the third, WNEC took the lead back after a 57-yard pass was hauled in by sophomore running back Jordan Capitanio with four minutes left in the third quarter. Capitanio would finish with 16 carries for 30 yards and that one reception for 57 yards and a touchdown. The two-point attempt failed for WNEC and the lead held at 18-13.
The seesaw battle took to the fourth when PSU’s junior tailback Jeff Mack scampered for a three-yard go-ahead score with 13 minutes left and the PAT put the Panthers up 19-18. Some big defensive plays by a fired up Panthers’ defense preserved the one point lead throughout the fourth quarter until WNEC decided to make it interesting. Two do-or-die fourth down conversions down the stretch had WNEC on a drive in the closing seconds until PSU sacked quarterback Pat Murphy to preserve the win and send their fans home with smiles.
Seastedt finished six for eight for 53 yards and led the team in rushing yards with 72, DeMarco had 57 yards and two touchdowns and Mack contributed one touchdown to help the Panther’s offensive assault. Tim Butler lead the Panthers defensively by recording nine tackles and sophomore Mike Lannon pitched in six tackles, a forced fumble, and two pass break-ups. Western New England’s Jim Kantany and Brent Dube were both in on 11 tackles and no one was able to get to Seastedt all day.
Even though WNEC outran Plymouth 305 to 231 for total yardage, it made no difference as the partners improved to 2-2 for the season and 20 in the NEL Boyd division while WNEC falls to 2-2 and 0-2 in the conference.
Plymouth will travel to Endicott on Saturday, October 7 for a 5:30 game.