It was a hard day’s night for the Montclair State University Red Hawks football team but they prevailed with a 27-26 victory over Gettysburg College in their first game of the season.
Montclair State received the ball on the opening kickoff and their first play was a 30-yard run by senior running back Henry Lewis. The Red Hawks would end up attempting a field goal from 30 yards out on this opening drive and that attempt fell short off the leg of Greg Casimir. When Gettysburg got the ball, they were almost forced to a three-and-out but a penalty for running into the kicker taken by Montclair State gave the Bullets a 4th and 1 instead of a 4th and 4. They would make the Red Hawks pay for that costly penalty, scoring a touchdown on a one-yard pass from Rocco Abdinoor to Walle Harwigsson.
But the struggles continued for Montclair State, when kick returner Dan Ramos fumbled the next kickoff and gave the ball back to the Bullets. The Bullets went quickly to work on offense, spearheaded by Peter Schelling breaking off a 19-yard run to the Montclair eight-yard line. On 2nd down and 8, Schelling rushed the ball for another four yards bringing the Bullets to the Montclair four-yard line. The Red Hawks pushed the Bullets to a 4th down but again the visitors were able to come away with the touchdown. A four-yard touchdown pass to Benjamin Mapp did the trick and the visitors held a 13-0 lead one minute inside the second quarter.
Fast forward to just over six minutes left in the first half, and Montclair State received good field position at the 50-yard line. Off a no-huddle, Montclair State quarterback Aidan McLaughlin completed a pass to Anthony Roige for eight yards. The Red Hawks would gain a first down on a rush by Lewis which placed them at the Gettysburg 38. A rush by Lewis, a pass to Vincent Pinto later and the Red Hawks were knocking on the red zone’s door at the 23-yard line. A rush by McLaughlin put them inside the red zone.
On 3rd down and 5, McLaughlin then served up a pass to Roige for 16 yards which placed them at the Gettysburg’s two-yard line. McLaughlin rushed the ball for one yard and then Lewis pounded the ball in from the one-yard line to cut Montclair State’s deficit down to seven points. Montclair State’s extra point attempt failed so the Red Hawks now trailed 13-6.
On the next Gettysburg drive, Abdinoor threw a pass that was intercepted by Red Hawks defensive back Ryan Visalli with 40 seconds remaining in the half. Visalli carried the ball 29 yards to the Gettysburg 28. Despite wasting a few drives in the first half, the Red Hawks wouldn’t let this opportunity go to waste.
On the first play of this drive, McLaughlin found senior wide receiver Jamie Hamilton with a pass over the middle for 25 yards. On top of this, the Bullets committed a penalty for roughing the passer which penalized them half the distance to the goal and gave the Red Hawks the ball on their one-yard line. However, the Red Hawks were then flagged for a false start which put the ball back at the six. On the next play though, Lewis ran the ball left on a pitch and scored the touchdown and the Red Hawks had climbed all the way back into the game. The extra point was no good and the Red Hawks still trailed however, 13-12 going into halftime.
The second half didn’t start off well for the Red Hawks. On their first drive, the Red Hawks drove 37 yards from their own 19 to Gettysburg’s 44. Then, McLaughlin threw an interception that was returned 66 yards for a Gettysburg touchdown. The Red Hawks now trailed 20-12.
Montclair State got the ball back and drove minimally before having to punt. Gettysburg got the ball at their own 47 and drove the ball 42 yards to the MSU 11. On 3rd down, the Red Hawks got a clutch tackle for a loss by Jalil Terrell which forced the Bullets to attempt a field goal. And the field goal attempt was blocked by junior defensive back Julius Barriteau, picked up by Visalli and returned 77 yards for the touchdown to bring the Red Hawks to within two points. The Red Hawks opted to go for the two-point-conversion and on the first attempt the Bullets took a face mask penalty, moving the ball up to the one-yard line. On the second attempt, the Red Hawks were denied but now the lead was 20-18 in favor of the visitors as the third quarter ended.
The next Gettysburg drive resulted in a turnover on downs at the Montclair State 16-yard line. Montclair State then drove the ball 84 yards for the score. Montclair State scored a touchdown when McLaughlin aired it out down the left sideline to Hamilton who jumped up and caught the deep ball, smashing into the pylon as he fell to the ground with the ball in his hands to give Montclair State their first lead of the game 24-20. Montclair State went for two on the next play and a passing play was nixed by the Bullets.
Gettysburg got the ball at their own 17 with 3:55 remaining in the game and ended up driving 83 yards for the touchdown. Gettysburg scored the touchdown on a deep, 32-yard pass from Abdinoor to Harwigsson. The Bullet wide receiver was wide open and danced into the endzone to give the lead right back to the Bullets 26-24. The visitors went for two and failed on the next play, which meant that a field goal would win the game.
The Red Hawks had one job to do and that was to drive to inside field goal range. And it would start well thanks to a 23-yard kick return from Keyshawn McCurdy that placed Montclair State at their own 45. After taking a holding penalty on the next play, McLaughlin was able to find junior wide receiver Ahmirr Robinson on a 46-yard pass over the middle. From the Gettysburg 19-yard line, McLaughlin then found Roige on an eight-yard scoop before completing a pass on the next play to Robinson for five yards which took the ball to the six-yard line. Chris Arnold ran the ball up the gut to the Gettysburg one yard line, then McLaughlin attempted to rush the ball into the end zone himself on third down but was denied.
Montclair State head coach Mike Palazzo sent out the kicking team and Greg Casimir, the kicker who had missed one field goal and three extra points in the game so far. But this time, Casimir was equal to the challenge, striking the ball through the uprights and as the clock ticked zero, the crowd jumped up in glee. Montclair State won the game 27-26 in feel-good fashion in their season opening game.
After the game, Montclair State football head coach Mike Palazzo discussed how his team was able to respond after going down 13-0 in the first quarter and come all the way back to win.
“One of our core values is to respond not react and throughout that whole game, there was a lot of adversity that hit and you gotta respond to it. Hopefully if you looked at the sideline during any of those moments, our guys weren’t throwing helmets, our guys weren’t getting upset, our guys weren’t getting too flustered it was just ‘hey we gotta respond.’ And it went right down to the very last minute. You know, defense gives up a touchdown with a minute to go and our offense was like, ‘hey we got this, we got your back.’ And that’s what being a team’s all about.”
– Montclair State football head coach Mike Palazzo
Henry Lewis led all rushers in this game with 89 yards on 13 attempts and two rushing touchdowns. However, he encountered some adversity late in the game and Coach Palazzo touched on that.
“He started cramping up unfortunately, I mean he’s our captain, he’s our leader out there, so it’s unfortunate he didn’t get to finish the game but he’s our guy. Our offense runs through him, he’s a special player and a special kid, I mean really, really outstanding human being so it’s no surprise that he had a good day today and I expect even bigger days moving forward.”
On kicker Greg Casimir kicking the game-winning field goal after missing one earlier in the game, Coach Palazzo offered these words.
“Again, being resilient. You know he missed one early, and Greg and I, we liked to butt heads, I get on him because he’s a young sophomore and he wants to go, go, go all the time. But the thing about him is you got to have a short memory to play that position and that’s what he had and a huge spot, huge moment for him and he swung the leg and put it in and that’s what we needed.”
Red Hawks junior wide receiver Ahmirr Robinson ended up leading the team in receiving yards with 54 on three receptions. Robinson came up especially clutch making a 46-yard reception on the Red Hawks final drive and after the game, he discussed how he and his teammates were able to accomplish this come-from-behind victory.
“Coach Palazzo definitely emphasized us staying focused, you know we all had a job to do and sometimes teams get ahead of themselves when they try to make plays instead of making the plays that come to them and just doing their job. I did my job today and I was able to help my teammates so I’m very excited.”
– Montclair State football wide receiver, Ahmirr Robinson
The Red Hawks next game is Saturday Sept. 21 against Franklin and Marshall. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Anthony Paradiso 