2002 Warrior Football |
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Strenfel Hauls in Game-Winning Touchdown with Leaping Grab on Game's Last Play
By
Pete Nevins
For The Pocono Record
SHIPPENSBURG -Wide receiver Tim Strenfel leaped high in the air and
grabbed
a 30-yard pass from quarterback Jeremy Palm on the last play of
the game to
give East Stroudsburg University an incredible 23-21
football victory over
Shippensburg Saturday.
Palm heaved the ball deep into the right side of
the end zone on what
the Warriors call their "desperado" play and
Strenfel got up between
three defenders and pulled the ball down with his right
hand.
"Hey, if there is a second on the clock, we still have a chance,"
beamed
an ecstatic Denny Douds in talking to his team after the game.
"Way to
hang in there, guys. It was a great job."
The Warriors were apparently beaten when Palm's pass was intercepted by Shippensburg's Chris Minnerafter a tip by teammate Ryan Hoffman on the Red Raiders' 21-yard line with 49 seconds left.
ESU had three timeouts remaining, however, and stopped the action after three straight Shippensburg running plays gained only two yards. One less timeout and the game would have been over.
The Raiders' Denver Brydon punted
to the ESU 42-yard line where John
Jeffries made a fair catch with 25 seconds
left.
"When we got the ball back, I knew there was a shot," said
Palm
afterwards.
The senior quarterback immediately went to work, connecting
with
Strenfel on a 29-yard pass down the right sideline to the Shippensburg
30-yard
line.
Now with 16 seconds to go, Palm spiked the ball to stop the clock
on
first down and then threw incomplete into the left side of the end zone
on
second down.
There was time for only one more play with three seconds showing
on the
clock.
"We called desperado. We line three receivers on the right side and put Jeffries on the left side. The play was for one of the three to tip the ball and Jeffries to come across the field and get behind the defenders and catch it," explained Palm.
Palm rolled right and lofted his pass
into the end zone. Strenfel, a
6-1 freshman, didn't tip the ball because he
was able to catch it,
keeping his feet inbounds although his body fell out
of the end zone.
The official on the spot immediately signaled the touchdown
as the
Warrior bench erupted. Everyone was throwing helmets - the ESU players
in
the air in jubilation and the Shippensburg players on the ground in
disgust.
There was no need for the extra point.
The Warriors yelled "Let's get Strenfel" as his teammates first jumped on top of him and then lifted him on their shoulders in a boisterous celebration.
"I just got open and there was no one
else there," was Strenfel's only
explanation for the winning catch.
This
wasn't the first time that the Hanover Township High School
graduate caught
a deciding pass on the last play of a game. He grabbed
a touchdown pass to
give the East team a tie in the York County All-Star Game last year.
With the victory, the Warriors raised their record to 7-2 with one game remaining at home against Kutztown Saturday at 1 p.m.
Shippensburg is now 5-5 and will close its campaign at California also Saturday at 1.
The game was a battle between ESU's passing attack with Palm firing for 329 yards and Shippensburg's ground game with fullback John Kuhn rushing for 123 yards and setting a school single season rushing record.
Palm completed a 63-yard pass to Strenfel to set up the first touchdown which he scored himself on a four-yard run. He then combined with fullback Anthony Carfagno on a 55-yard TD pass.
The team's
other points came on Mark Brubaker's 27-yard field goal
which put the Warriors
ahead, 17-14, with 1:33 left in the third
quarter.
Earlier in the quarter,
Brubaker also had lined up for a 27-yard field
goal attempt, but Tony Johnson
raced in from the left side to block the
ball and teammate Antonio Williams
picked it up and ran 69 yards for a
touchdown.
The Raiders drove 87
yards in 12 plays in the fourth quarter for their
apparent winning score. Kuhn
bulled for 50 of the yards, including the
final yard to make it, 21-17, with
4:09 left.
ESU came back as Palm completed three straight passes, including
a
20-yard shovel pass play to tailback Greg Vaughn to bring the ball to
the
Raiders' 16-yard line. The interception stopped the drive, but the
Warriors
made the last minute count in breaking a six-game losing streak to Shippensburg.