2008 Woodie Awards
Gorillas win 59-57 over Hornets in 4OT thriller
Jamie Arthur, Collegio Sports Editor
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Sports
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| Germaine Race didn't have a lot left to give, but it turned out to be just enough. That same feeling of exhaustion was felt throughout Emporia's Welch Stadium late Saturday afternoon following a Pittsburg State touchdown that tied the score, 57-57, in the fourth overtime period against Emporia State. "(Bryan) Pray said it best when we were in the huddle, he was like 'It's time to go home, man,'" Race said. "So we buckled up and I knew I had to get in there." And he did. From the 3-yard line, the Pittsburg State tailback took a handoff from quarterback Mark Smith and somersaulted over the goal line, giving the Gorillas a 59-57 victory over the Hornets. "I think it was everything in me," Race said. After three hours and 36 minutes, it was almost everything left in the Gorillas. "We could go (another overtime), but we didn't want to," Meredith said. "We still had gas and everybody was still fighting." The Gorillas (4-1, 2-1 MIAA) and the Hornets (3-2, 2-1) both overcame double-digit deficits in regulation before ending the fourth quarter in a 31-31 deadlock. Both teams then scored on each overtime possession. Emporia received the ball to start the final overtime period, putting the Pittsburg State defense in a tough position. "I was thinking we've got to get a stop, we've got to do something to make a play because we can't keep doing this," Meredith said. From the 24-yard line, on 3rd-and-9, Hornets' quarterback Justin Whitworth hit Sean Partridge in the right side of the end zone. Partridge caught the ball over the Gorillas' cornerback, Brian McMurtrey, for the touchdown. The score put Emporia in the lead, 57-51. Then, with Ben Purkeypile in at quarterback, the Hornets lined up to attempt the 2-point conversion. After two overtimes, NCAA rules mandate that teams must go for the conversion rather than attempt the point after. Purkeypile dropped back and fired a pass toward the right side of the end zone, but Meredith swatted the ball away from any would-be receivers. "I was thinking we just broke serve," coach Chuck Broyles said. "Of course, how can you feel good when he knocks down a 2-point pass and you've still got to go score or you're beat. But that's the way it is in overtime." In just two plays the Gorillas tied the game with 7-yard touchdown run up the middle by Race, setting up the game-winning conversion. "That's all coach (Tim) Beck, he put it in my hands," Race said. "You dream of stuff like that. All the pressure's on you and you know you've got to get it done and your team's depending on you." It was Smith who made the call to give the ball to Race on the final play. The 5-11, 180-pound quarterback said after getting "stuffed" on the previous conversion attempt, it wasn't a tough decision. "At the timeout they wanted to give me the ball, I told them no, let's give it to the Harlon Hill candidate," Smith said. "He got us there in the overtime ... He ran hard and wasn't getting stopped. I told him in the huddle, 'Don't get stopped.'" After turning the ball over twice in regulation, Race scored all four of the Gorillas' touchdowns in overtime. With the final play, Race ended the game with 144 yards on 32 carries, scoring only in overtime. Race reached the end zone on runs of 8, 2 and 6 yards for his first three touchdowns, with the third making him the MIAA career scoring leader. His 26 points gave him 556 for his career, 12 more than the former record-holder, Emporia State's Brian Shay. Smith ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns and hit 10 of 14 passes for 167 yards and one touchdown. Pray pulled in five passes for 98 yards and tight end Brian Barta finished with two receptions for 22 yards, including an 8-yard touchdown in the third quarter. Trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter and then 14-7 late in the first half, the Gorillas built their first lead on two crucial plays. With less than a minute left in the first half, McMurtrey picked off a Purkeypile pass at the 35 and ran untouched 65 yards for the score, tying the game at 14. Pray returned the second-half kickoff 82 yards to the 2, but after three failed attempts to rush the ball in for the score the Gorillas settled for a 19-yard Nathan Alleman field goal. The kick gave the Gorillas their first lead and moved Alleman into the league's top-10 scoring leaders. Pittsburg State scored on its next possession with the scoring strike to Barta, for a 24-14 lead with 5:51 left in the third quarter, but Emporia countered with a 30-yard field goal and 12-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Hulings to tie the game, 24-24. A 23-yard TD run from Smith midway through the fourth quarter gave the Gorillas a 7-point advantage, but once again the Hornets hit Hulings, this time with a three-yard pass, for the final score in regulation. After riding out what Broyles called an "emotional roller coaster," the Gorillas know they can learn a lot from the too-close-for-comfort victory. "There are a lot of things you can build on from this game," Broyles said. "Of course, there's a lot of mistakes you can go back and correct, cause gosh knows we made a lot of them." "It's a win that showed a lot of heart and character," Race said. "We made a lot of mistakes and we're going to have to fix those if we want to go deep in the playoffs and run the tables. But this showed how much heart we had and how much fight we've got in us ... it showed our character." |
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