Hickory stuns SR in final second
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock was riding comfortably until the Hickory Hornets stung with one second left to shock the Rockets.
Coming into the game, the Rockets were sitting at 4-0, 2-0 and were set to stay perfect in the division with a win over the reigning division champions.
Hours before the game kicked off however, head coach Larry Wendereusz was put into quarantine due to COVID-19 protocols, and as a result, defensive coordinator, Eli Christy, stepped up to lead the team.
On the first drive of the game, Slippery Rock chewed about four minutes of game play off of the clock on nine plays. The Hornets gave them a free 15 yards on the second play of the game after being called for pass interference. They held up though, and a big stop on fourth-and-two on Hickory's 47-yard line set them up nicely.
The Hornets used trickery on their first play and got the ball to Keenan Scullin, who took it 38 yards on a double reverse. It only took them four more plays before they hit paydirt behind Sean Kennedy's two-yard touchdown run.The Rockets did nothing to answer and after three plays, the ball was given back to the Hornets offense that was still buzzing from the opening score. Once again, Hickory drove the length of the field, going 77 yards in eight plays. The drive was capped off when Logan Woods found Ty Holland sitting wide open in the back corner of the end zone to put themselves up two scores.For the next two quarters, it was all Slippery Rock. Hickory's mistakes didn't help them. The Hornets turned the ball over three times in the game and dug themselves a deep hole. One that it would take until the closing moments of the game to climb out of.“We knew coming in, Slippery Rock was for real,” Hickory coach Bill Dungee said.In the second quarter, William Mokel cut the lead to 13-6 after a touchdown pass to Brett Galick. The teams' first two scores seemed to mirror each other, and after a Hickory three-and-out, the Rockets got the ball back. In five plays, the game was knotted at 13 on a 1-yard touchdown run by Ryan Montgomery.The score stayed that way until the end of the third quarter. Mokel finally broke the deadlock with a 5-yard run, putting the Rockets up 20-13.Slippery Rock held a 23-13 lead with 8:35 to go in the game after a Nick Kingerski field goal.From that point, it was all Hornets.With four minutes to go, the Hornets pulled off a the comeback. The deficit was cut to three after a Woods rushing score. And after getting the ball back, Woods led Hickory 43 yards and threw the game-winning touchdown to Pryts with only one tick left on the clock.“I told [the team] that's on me, that's on us as coaches,” Christy said. “We got a lot of season left, we've got another game next week, so we'll flush it and move on to the next week.”Hickory 13 0 0 14 — 27Slippery Rock 0 13 7 3 — 23First QuarterH — Sean Kennedy 5 run (Lukas Jones kick), 6:15H — Ty Holland 5 pass from Logan Woods (kick failed), :04Second QuarterSR — Brett Galcik 2 pass from William Mokel (kick blocked), 8:30SR — Ryan Montgomery 1 run (Nick Kingerski kick), 6:08Third QuarterSR — Mokel 5 run (Kingerski kick), 2:31Fourth QuarterSR — Kingerski 18 field goal, 8:35H — Logan Woods 3 run (Jones kick), 3:55H — Jackson Pryts 1 pass from Woods (Jones kick), :01.Individual StatisticsRushing: Hickory, Nakeem Sholtz-Jones 6-58, Keenan Scullin 3-51, Sean Kennedy 11-50, Logan Woods 5-14, Jackson Pryts 1-10, Ty GHolland 1-2, Ramarion Whitehead 1-(-2), TEAM 3-(-27). Slippery Rock, William Mokel 7-24, Ryan Montgomery 6-21, Brett Galcik 12-13, Sal; Mineo 1-(-2), TEAM 1-(-26).Passing: Hickory, Logan Woods 15-32-159-1. Slippery Rock, William Mokel 8-16-121-1, Eli Anderson 0-1-0-0.Receiving: Hickory, Jackson Prys 7-98, Keenan Scullin 4-49, Sean Kennedy 1-11, Ramarion Whitehead 1-4, Ty Holland 2-(-3). Slippery Rock, John Sabo 3-47, Colton Glass 3-37, Brandan Earl 1-35, Brett Galcik 1-2.
