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Scoreboard

Derek Anderson vs. Shepherd 12/4/21
Desiree DeHaven
30
Winner Shepherd SHEP 13-1
28
Kutztown KUTZ 11-2
Winner
Shepherd SHEP
13-1
30
Final
28
Kutztown KUTZ
11-2
Score By Quarters
Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th F
SHEP Shepherd 7 14 0 9 30
KUTZ Kutztown 0 7 7 14 28

Game Recap: Football | | Matt Heffelfinger, Sports Information Director

Hail Mary from No. 8 Shepherd ends No. 12 Kutztown's season in NCAA DII quarterfinals

The Golden Bears and Rams swapped the lead twice in the final 39 seconds, bringing Kutztown's accomplished and historic 2021 season to a heartbreaking close.

KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Kutztown's storybook season came to an abrupt and agonizing close in the NCAA Division II Super Region One Championship game at Andre Reed Stadium Saturday afternoon when Tyson Bagent's Hail Mary found Alex Wetzel for a 42-yard touchdown as time expired to send No. 8 Shepherd into the national semifinals, 30-28, over the No. 12 Golden Bears.
 
The play concluded a wild 39-second sequence in which Kutztown took its only lead of the day on a 24-yard scoring pass from Donny Blaine (Jefferson Township, Pa./North Pocono) to Derek Anderson (Oakland, N.J./Indian Hills), only to see the Rams answer with a 35-yard kick return and 4-play, 57-yard drive to steal the victory back along with the Bears' championship dreams.
 
There will be days, months and years ahead that every individual associated with the 2021 Golden Bear football team will be able to reflect on how special a season it was in northeastern Berks County from another record-tying 11-win season, to the program's second PSAC championship and a first-ever trip to the NCAA quarterfinals.
 
But Saturday was all about the heart and determination showed by players and coaches as a collective unit after falling into a 21-0 hole against arguably Division II's most dangerous offense.
 
The outlook was bleak when Klayton Batten intercepted Blaine's first pass attempt and took it 32 yards to pay dirt for a three-score lead with 3:43 remaining in the first half, adding to a half full of self-inflicted miscues by the Maroon and Gold.
 
Blaine, on in relief of a banged up Eric Nickel (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan), bounced right back with the moxie of a seasoned veteran, leading Kutztown (11-2) 67 yards in 12 plays and capping the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Jake Novak (Manheim, Pa./Manheim Central) that made it 21-7.
   
Kutztown's vaunted defense, which entered the game sixth in the country in rushing (75.2 yards allowed per game), eighth in scoring (13.3 ppg) and 10th in total yards allowed (258.2 ypg), earned its keep in the second half. The Golden Bears shut down Shepherd's run game to the tune of 26 yards on 14 carries and yielded just 110 yards of offense in the third and fourth quarters prior to the final play of the game.
 
The defense's work enabled the KU offense to knock off 21 unanswered points, with Blaine scoring on a 12-yard keeper late in the third and a 1-yard sneak that tied the game with 10:30 to play.
   
Hayden August-Scriven calmly knocked a 40-yard field goal through the uprights with 2:56 to go that put Super Region One's second-seeded Rams (12-1) back on top 24-21. It was no small feat, either, as August-Scriven had a 44-yarder blocked at the end of the first half along with having a blocked kick returned for a touchdown by the Bears during the regular season meeting, which KU went on to win 37-29, in Shepherdstown, W.Va.
 
Needing a scoring drive to keep its season alive, Kutztown instead found itself going in the wrong direction. The Bears faced 2nd-and-25 from their own 10 following back-to-back penalties. Blaine found Anderson along the KU sideline for 20 yards to make it a manageable 3rd-and-5, before the second craziest play of the day occurred.
 
Blaine's fourth-down pass for Jerome Kapp (Barto, Pa./Boyertown) was intercepted by Batten when Kapp got tripped up, but Jordan Davis (Franklin, N.J./Saint Joseph Metuchen) snuck in to strip the ball from Shepherd's safety just before his knee hit the ground. Batten was originally ruled down, but the play went upstairs to video review where it was overturned and the Bears had a new set of downs along with a second chance.
 
Time was of the essence for Blaine and the KU offense as the clock wound under one minute. On 3rd-and-3 from the Shepherd 24, Blaine, the North Pocono grad, dropped back and delivered a dart to Anderson in the back right corner of the end zone with 39 seconds to play, giving Kutztown's its first lead of the afternoon. Nick Coppolino's (Saginaw, Mich./Heritage) extra point made it 28-24, putting Shepherd in a touchdown or bust situation.
   
Unfortunately for the Golden Bears, 39 seconds was just enough time for the Rams' Harlon Hill Trophy hopeful Bagent and his crew to pull off their second straight last-second miracle.
 
Kutztown had done a tremendous job on this year's PSAC East and D2CCA Super Region One Offensive Player of the Year to that point. Though Bagent completed 30-of-42 passes, many were of the short-to-moderate yard nature.
 
On the final play, Bagent rolled right to avoid pressure from Togba Jallah-Porte II (Collingdale, Pa./Academy Park) and Kyle Sapp (Westampton, N.J./Rancocas Valley Regional). The elusive maneuver gave his receivers just enough time to get where they needed to be as he fired downfield on the run. With one-on-one matchups in the end zone, Wetzel, a 6-foot-2 tight end, elevated and made the winning catch at his highest point, giving the cardiac Rams their fourth Super Region One title.
 
In last week's second round game, Bagent found Josh Gontarek for a 23-yard score with one second remaining to eliminate Notre Dame College, 38-34.
 
Kutztown outgained the visiting Rams, 397-364, and held Bagent to his third-lowest passing total of the season (248 yards). Though the top-seeded Golden Bears eventually took the lead, they were fighting an uphill battle from the start.
 
Shepherd got a 43-yard touchdown run from Ronnie Brown on its opening possession and Juwan Addison forced a second-quarter fumble that Chrys Lane returned 48 yards to the Kutztown 20, eventually leading to a 1-yard sneak from Bagent on 4th-and-goal. The Rams lead jumped from 14-0 to 21-0 13 seconds later on Batten's pick six.
 
It took some time, but the Golden Bears eventually got their ground game going, finishing with 187 yards on 41 attempts. Davis ran 12 times for 72 yards and Darryl Davis-McNeil (Roslyn, Pa./Abington) eight for 48 to lead the way.
 
Anderson, whose 33-yard catch against New Haven last week set up KU's only touchdown in its second round win, had his best game in a Kutztown uniform with six catches for 109 yards –both career-highs.
 
Shawn Turber-Ortiz (Northumberland, Pa./Shikellamy) posted a season-high 10 tackles and an interception to pace the KU defense. In the process, the Northumberland, Pa., native jumped over Zack Delp (295), Tracey Wright (296), Jerry Lucas (298) and Larry Mertz (299) into fourth-place on the Golden Bears' career tackles list with 303. Linebacker Amani Justice (Salem, N.J./Salem) added nine tackles, giving him a team-high 106 on the season –14th most in a season all-time at KU and just the 17th 100-tackle season in program history.
 
Tyler Whary (Hereford, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) also had nine tackles, with Tom Griese (Dover, N.J./Morris Knolls), Domenico Italiani (Bethlehem, Pa./Bethlehem Catholic), Ryan Meyers (Hellertown, Pa./Saucon Valley) and Nigel Wilson (Bound Brook, N.J./Bound Brook) each contributing 0.5 sacks.

All-PSAC East and All-Super Region One punter Dean Krcic (Saylorsburg, Pa./Pleasant Valley) was only called upon twice, Saturday, but put his first attempt of the day down at the Shepherd 5-yard line, his 27th punt inside an opponent's 20 this season. Krcic also set new career-highs with 57 punts, 2,419 yards (fourth all-time at KU), a 42.44 net average (second all-time at KU).
 
Brown led all rushers with 85 yards on nine totes for Shepherd, while Ryan Beach was active all day with 10 catches for 65 yards, sharing the team lead in receiving yardage with Wetzel.
 
Shepherd advances out of an all-PSAC East regional final to next week's national semifinals against an opponent to be determined. No. 1 seeds Valdosta State (Super Region 2), Ferris State (Super Region 3) and Colorado School of Mines (Super Region 4) were each victorious in their respective quarterfinal games. The final four teams will be reseeded.
 
Kutztown equaled a program record for wins with 11 for the second consecutive season (2019) after having its 2020 campaign wiped out due to the pandemic. The Golden Bears will have to replace 19 outgoing seniors, each of whom had an impact on the program's sustained success and path to unchartered territory this season. While those student-athletes won't be easy to replace, they've laid the groundwork for Kutztown to be among the PSAC East powers in the years ahead.
 
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