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WEST CHESTER, Pa. - Red-shirt freshman quarterback Sean McCartney threw for 444 yards and five touchdowns in his first college start, and West Chester's Lucas Fickel blocked an extra point in double overtime to give the Golden Rams a wild 44-43 victory over Shippensburg before 3,569 fans inside John A. Farrell Stadium and a national audience watching on CBS College Sports Network Thursday night.
West Chester (2-4, 2-1 PSAC East) kept its slim postseason hopes alive while Shippensburg (1-5, 0-3) saw its playoff aspirations dashed.
Red-shirt freshman place-kicker Shawn Leo booted his third field goal of the game with 25 seconds left to force overtime for a record third time in 2010 and the second time in the last five days for the Golden Rams. West Chester converted a pair of fourth-down plays, including an 18-yard pass to Dan DePalma on 4th-and-15 down to the 25-yard line of Shippensburg, with under one minute to play. Leo’s field goal capped a 14-play drive.
In the first overtime, Shippensburg scored on a 3-yard run by Kevin Herod. However, West Chester answered with a 25-yard TD strike from McCartney to fullback Brian McDermott on the Golden Rams’ first play from scrimmage, which seemed eerily similar to the last time that West Chester started a freshman quarterback in a game.
In 2001, Bob Findora led West Chester to a 14-7 victory over Mansfield in his first college start. That game went overtime as well. Findora threw a touchdown pass to Bryan Bradley on the first play of the overtime period to give the Rams the win.
McCartney lofted a beautifully placed ball to the back corner of the end zone to DePalma on 3rd-and-goal from the 13-yard line to put WCU up, 44-37, in the second OT. Herod finished off that drive as well with a 1-yard plunge. However, senior Lucas Fickel got a good push on the extra point attempt and got his hand on the kick to give West Chester its first overtime win of the season.
The two teams each racked up 512 yards of total offense with just one point separating the two at the end of the contest. The difference came down to a pair of blocked kicks and a missed field goal in Shippensburg’s kicking game while West Chester was able to convert those two fourth-down opportunities during its game-tying field goal drive late in the fourth quarter.
McCartney, replacing the injured Mike Mattei in the starting lineup, showed poise and control of the Golden Rams’ offense in finishing 27 of 49 for 444 yards and five touchdowns against just one interception. His 444 passing yards ranks fourth all-time in a game in West Chester history. Two of his five TD passes were good for better than 60 yards.
Red-shirt freshman wide receiver Tim Keyser (4 catches, 127 yards) got behind the secondary of Shippensburg and hauled in a 29-yard TD pass from McCartney with 7:29 left in the opening quarter that gave the hosts an early 7-0 lead. A pair of field goals from Leo in the second quarter, extended that lead to 13-0 with 3:48 left.
Shippensburg retaliated with a 29-yard field goal just before halftime and a 2-yard run by Kevin Marshall late in the third quarter.
Keyser snuck in behind the Raiders’ safeties one more time for a 63-yard touchdown reception on West Chester’s next drive. However, Shippensburg answered right back with a 64-yard pass from Steven Adams to Mike Frenette with 14 ticks remaining in the third quarter to pull the visitors to within four, 20-16.
Pat Schuhl that converted a 4-yard run early in the fourth quarter to give Shippensburg its first lead of the night, 23-20.
West Chester’s LaRonn Lee then hauled in his first career touchdown reception from 68 yards out to put the Golden Rams back in front, 27-23. Similar to the second quarter, the Raiders answered with a 60-yard TD pass from Adams to Bryan Barley.
Each team posted a pair of scores from better than 60 yards away.
John O’Donnell led the Rams in tackles with 12 stops. He also intercepted a pass at the 3-yard line in the third quarter, thwarting one of Shippensburg’s seven scoring opportunities in the red zone. Mike Lonergan, making his first college start at outside linebacker, registered 10 tackles, including two tackles for a loss and a QB hurry.
Adams finished 16 of 27 for a career-high 298 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Kevin Marshall rung up 246 all-purpose yards. Frenette caught four passes for 109 yards and a score for the Raiders.
West Chester will have nine days to prepare for cross-town rival Cheyney on Oct. 16. The Golden Rams will look to pick up another conference win in their third straight home game at Farrell Stadium.
NOTES: West Chester’s 44-43 victory over Shippensburg upped the Golden Rams all-time record in the series to 22-9-1 … WCU has now won six of the last seven contests between the two institutions … West Chester has now played a school-record three overtime contests in 2010 … the Golden Rams have also gone into OT in each of their last two games … Thursday’s OT win ended a personal three-game losing streak in overtime affairs for West Chester … the Golden Rams are now 6-4 all-time in OT games and 1-1 against Shippensburg … McCartney’s 444 yards passing are the most by a freshman making their first college start … West Chester had four different wide receivers catch a touchdown pass … McCartney became the first freshman QB to make a start in a game for West Chester since Bob Findora almost nine years ago to the day (Oct. 6, 2001) … Findora also won his first college start in a game that also went overtime … Findora also threw a TD pass on the first play from scrimmage in the OT in that win … WR Tim Keyser’s 127 yards receiving and two touchdowns were both career highs … West Chester nearly had three 100-yard receivers … DePalma finished with 97 yards receiving while Lee finished with a career-high 95 yards receiving … DE Eric Edwers registered a career-best nine tackles.
