The Montclair State University Red Hawks football team outlasted the Union College Garnet Chargers by a score of 17-15 on a wet homecoming Saturday night.
It took all the way until seven minutes left in the second quarter for the Red Hawks to open the scoring. Junior quarterback Aidan McLaughlin chucked a pass deep down the sideline to freshman wide receiver Jaden Peart who hauled it in just inside the pylon for a 28-yard touchdown, which gave the Red Hawks a 6-0 lead. The extra point attempt succeeded and the Red Hawks led 7-0 halfway through the second quarter.
Union whittled Montclair State’s stout defense down on a drive right before halftime. With 52 seconds left in the second quarter, Union answered back when quarterback Patch Flanagan found running back Michael Fiore on a six-yard touchdown pass. The Garnet Chargers opted to go for a two point conversion which they succeeded on and that gave them an 8-7 lead.
However, in just 49 seconds, the Red Hawks managed to drive 55 yards on six plays to get within field goal position before halftime. The Red Hawks drive was made by two plays; a facemask penalty which moved the ball up from their 36 to Union’s 49-yard line and a catch by junior wide receiver Ahmirr Robinson for 27 yards moved Montclair State up to Union’s 22-yard line. Montclair State couldn’t move the chains forward any further and on third down opted to kick a field goal, which sophomore Greg Casimir did, giving the Red Hawks a 10-8 lead going into the halftime break.
On their first drive of the second half, the Red Hawks struggled to establish their offense. They received the opening kickoff and senior running back Dan Ramos returned it 36 yards. Despite this good field position, the Red Hawks gained just nine yards and turned the ball over on downs after going for it on fourth down. This gave Union great field position at the Montclair 38 yard line, but they also turned the ball over on downs after four plays.
Fast forward to 7:22 remaining in the third quarter, the Red Hawks started a drive at Union’s 41. The Red Hawks went to work, with McLaughlin completing a 10-yard pass on third down to sophomore running back Christopher Arnold. On a third and 12, McLaughlin stepped up and delivered a big 22-yard completion to senior wide receiver Reilly Nelson who kept his feet in bounds to haul the ball in at the Union 10. Then, Arnold ran the ball in from the outside for a nine-yard touchdown rush and the Red Hawks led 17-8 with 2:39 remaining.
Early in the fourth quarter, the Red Hawks missed a field goal attempt which turned the ball over on downs. Union could now start a drive at their own 30 yard line and they went to work driving 70 yards for the touchdown to pull to within two points of the Red Hawks now 17-15 lead.
After a Red Hawk punt, Union started a drive on the 36 yard line. Flanagan completed two passes for 19 and 13 yards to move the sticks up to Montclair State’s 32 yard line. Now, the visitors could smell the endzone and the Red Hawk defense needed to bear down. With a fresh set of downs, Flanagan took a shot downfield but the 30-yard pass attempt was incomplete. On third down, Red Hawks senior defensive back Jalil Terrell was able to break up the pass attempt to push the Garnet Chargers to a make-or-break fourth down, which they would go for and which would end up being an incomplete pass as well, turning the ball over on downs.
Taking over possession at their 37-yard line with 3:53 left to go in the game, the Red Hawks needed to whittle down the clock. They ran the ball four times and gained 18 yards before having to punt on fourth down with the 2:15 remaining in the game.
The visitors would take the ball over at their own 18 yard line needing only a field goal to win the game. It started well for Union College, when Flanagan completed a 13-yard pass to Robbie Tolbert. On the next play, Union were flagged for a five-yard penalty which moved them back from their 31 to their 26-yard line. Flanagan then rushed the ball for seven yards setting up a reasonable third down, however, the Red Hawks Jalil Terrell had other plans, breaking up Flanagan’s next attempted pass to push the Garnet Chargers to fourth down.
Union would go for it on fourth down and fail, which gave the Red Hawks the ball. The Red Hawks took a knee twice to run out the clock and ended up surviving a narrow victory on Homecoming Night as the home fans went wild.
During the postgame presser, Montclair State head football coach Mike Palazzo talked about never losing faith in his defense to shut down Union in the fourth quarter.
“The defense was playing well all night and bad plays are gonna happen, scores are gonna happen they got a couple penalties that extended that drive. I never lost faith in those guys and when it came down to it, we’ve been in big situations before and the defense was gonna rise to the occasion and I felt it all night.”
For the second year in a row, the Montclair State Red Hawks football team won on homecoming and senior linebacker Nicholas Burgess touched on how the Red Hawks were able to rise to the occasion.
“Like coach said, Like I said last year, we don’t lose on homecoming so its so important for us to sit here and bring that extra energy, obviously you want to bring energy to every single game but bring that extra energy, get the crowd going into it and it paid off for us really.”
Sophomore running back Christopher Arnold stepped up huge in the absence of senior running back Henry Lewis. He ended homecoming night with 79 yards on 24 attempts and the game-winning touchdown and he discussed what scoring that touchdown was like after the game.
“It was electric, raining, night game, fans out, teammates supporting you. It was loud. I saw the pylon and got there and it’s a blessing to be able to experience that on homecoming especially but shout out to the O-line its impossible to do it without them. We grinded it out and we needed a touchdown right there and I ended up being the one to get it.”
