ALTOONA — With the game on the line, Somerset placekicker Josh Walters delivered – twice.
With four seconds left in regulation, Walters calmly lined up and kicked a 38-yard field goal to tie Bishop Guilfoyle at 23 and force the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference game into overtime.
Then, after the Golden Eagles had held the Marauders without a score on Bishop Guilfoyle’s first possession of overtime, Walters calmly booted a 23-yard field goal to give Somerset its sixth consecutive win, 26-23, in a battle at Mansion Park.
“Mentally, we made mistakes all night long,” Somerset coach Steve Costea said about the win. “We did not play well. But, the bottom line is we faced a good team, and we found a way to win. We are finding ways to win now.”
The game was a story of two halves. In the first half, the Golden Eagles dominated Bishop Guilfoyle, rushing for 220 yards and passing for another 25 to lead the Marauders 245-44 in total offense as they built a 20-7 lead.
However, turnovers were a problem for the Eagles. They fumbled the ball six times in the game, giving away four of them.
In the second half, the Marauders turned the momentum in their favor. Bishop Guilfoyle caught Somerset quarterback Jordan Kaufman for a safety with 7:56 left in the third quarter to narrow the lead to 20-9.
The Marauders took advantage of good field position because of a return on the subsequent kick to score on a 35-yard pass from Chris Brown to Logan McDannell on a fourth-and-25 with 4:53 left. The two-point conversion was stopped by the Eagles, but some costly penalties allowed Bishop Guilfoyle tailback Luke McConnell to scoot in for the 2-point conversion that he had missed earlier, narrowing the lead to 20-17.
McConnell then scored on a 1-yard run to allow the Marauders to go ahead for the first time, 23-20, with 11:19 left in the game.
The kick for the PAT was blocked by the Eagles, an important fact later in the game.
That led to Walters’ heroics.
“He’s a West-Penn soccer player,” Costea said. “And he is a football player. I know that he has a strong leg, and I know that he can kick the ball.”
McConnell rushed for 123 yards to lead Bishop Guilfoyle, while Kaufman had 95 yards on the ground, and Chase Dykstra, 94, to lead Somerset.
The Marauders fall to 4-5, while the Eagles are now 7-2 going into next week’s game at Central Cambria.
High School Sports
Somerset boots Guilfoyle in OT
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UPDATED Bedford advances in PIAA wrestling in odd way
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Bedford goes to Class AA quarterfinals by thumping first-time participant Western Wayne
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High School Basketball in Brief
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High school basketball in brief
A closer look at Tuesday's boys and girls high school basketball games:
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High school basketball in brief
A closer look at Monday's boys and girls high school basketball games:
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