RELEASE DATE: 10/2/04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mounties Suffer Heartbreaking Overtime Loss to Lock Haven – Ronnie Montgomery Sets School Record with 100-yard Kickoff Return

College Football

Lock Haven 33        Mansfield      30        OT

MANSFIELD – In a game that featured comebacks, runbacks and more twists than a country road, the Mansfield University football team came out on the downside in the third overtime game in school history.

Maurice Walker’s 12-yard touchdown run in overtime lifted Lock Haven to a 33-30 win over Mansfield in a PSAC interdivisional game Saturday afternoon before a Homecoming crowd of 3,601 at Karl Van Norman Field Saturday afternoon.

Walker’s touchdown capped a bizarre ending of a bizarre game.

Mansfield scored first in OT on a 34-yard field goal by Sean Hair. The Mountaineers had to settle for Hair’s field goal after an apparent two-yard touchdown pass to Joe Bennett was negated because of an illegal pick in the end zone.

The Mountaineer defense held Lock Haven on a third-and one at the 16-yard line in the Bald Eagles possession and looked to force a 33-yard field goal to tie the game. But Mansfield was flagged for calling a time out after already using its one timeout allowed in OT resulting in a  delay of game call giving Lock Haven a first down. Walker scored on the next play.

“I’ll take responsibility for the timeout,” said head coach Jim Shiffer after the game. “The way the timeouts were explained before overtime and the ruling on the field were different. It’s just a difficult loss for us, but I’m just very proud of the way our guys played.”

Lock Haven opened an early 10-0 lead with Adam Lawrence catching a 23-yard pass from quarterback Tim Storino in the first quarter and Danny Hagerman hitting on a 40-yard field goal early in the second quarter.

Mansfield would respond on the ensuing kickoff with Ronnie Montgomery taking the kick in the end zone and returning it for a school record of100-yards for the touchdown.

“I was in the end zone and just saw that our kickoff team opened a seam down the middle and decided to go for it,” said Montgomery of his record setting effort. "I hit the seam and cut back left down the sidelines and the blocks were there.”

That play turned the game around for the Mountaineers who had gained only 18-yards of total offense in the first quarter.

Mansfield took a 13-10 lead into halftime when sophomore quarterback Matt Hildebrand capped off a six play 73-yard with a 11-yard touchdown pass to Joe Bennett. The extra-point attempt failed when it hit the right upright.

Mansfield increased the lead to 20-10 on a one-yard plunge by Hildebrand to start the fourth quarter and looked to be on their way to recording their first win of the season with a 20-10 lead with just over 13 minutes to play.

But Lock Haven came right back scoring on their next two possessions when Storino hit Rafael Smith on TD passes of 16 and 18 yards to take a 24-20 lead.

With 2:27 remaining in the game, Joe Bennett caught a 51-yard touchdown pass from Hildebrand  to put Mansfield back on top 27-24.

Lock Haven then drove 69-yards to tie the score and force overtime on a 24-yard field goal by Danny Hagerman with 13 seconds in regulation.

Mansfield quarterback Matt Hildebrand completed 9-of-22 passes for 165-yards and two touchdowns. Poohbear McNeal rushed for 111-yards on 31 carries. Joe Bennett caught six passes for 93 yards and two touchdowns. Tight end Eddie Van Buren had two catches for 30 yards.

It marks the seventh time in his career that Bennett has multi-touchdown games. He now caught 29 touchdowns in 32 career games. Poohbear McNeal became the seventh player in school history to pass the 2,000 career yard mark. In 16 games, McNeal has rushed for 2,086 yards.

The defense was lead by sophomore linebacker Andre Turner with a game high 10 tackles. Will Clarke had nine tackles including one for a loss and intercepted a pass. Jason Twedt was credited with five stops, all of them solo and two for a loss. Jamie Laws, Rob Smiley and Brian DeCecco each had five tackles while senior Drew Grieshober had two sacks.

Mansfield is now 0-3 in overtime games.

Lock Haven improves to 2-4 overall while Mansfield falls to 0-5.

         Lock Haven vs Mansfield (Oct 02, 2004 at Mansfield University)

  Score by Quarters     1  2  3  4 OT   Score

  -----------------    -- -- -- -- --   -----

  Lock Haven..........  7  3  0 17  6  - 33       Record: (2-4,0-1)

  Mansfield...........  0 13  0 14  3  - 30       Record: (0-5,0-1)

  Scoring Summary:

  1st 06:59 LHU - Adam Lawrence 23 yd pass from Tim Storino (Danny Hagerman kick), 12-78 5:20, LHU 7 - MANS 0

  2nd 13:12 LHU - Danny Hagerman 40 yd field goal, 9-48 3:19, LHU 10 - MANS 0

      12:59 MANS - R. Montgomery 100 yd kickoff return (Sean Hair kick), , LHU 10 - MANS 7

      06:31 MANS - Joe Bennett 11 yd pass from Matt Hildebrand (Sean Hair kick failed), 6-73 2:38, LHU 10 - MANS 13

  4th 13:39 MANS - Matt Hildebrand 1 yd run (Sean Hair kick), 15-86 7:22, LHU 10 - MANS 20

      11:11 LHU - Rafael Smith 16 yd pass from Tim Storino (Danny Hagerman kick), 5-49 2:18, LHU 17 - MANS 20

      05:33 LHU - Rafael Smith 18 yd pass from Tim Storino (Danny Hagerman kick), 6-49 3:14, LHU 24 - MANS 20

      02:37 MANS - Joe Bennett 51 yd pass from Matt Hildebrand (Sean Hair kick), 1-51 0:09, LHU 24 - MANS 27

      00:13 LHU - Danny Hagerman 24 yd field goal, 13-69 2:17, LHU 27 - MANS 27

  OT  00:00 MANS - Sean Hair 34 yd field goal, 13-0 15:09, LHU 27 - MANS 30

      00:00 LHU - Maurice Walker 12 yd run, 13-0 15:09, LHU 33 - MANS 30

                                      LHU     MANS

  FIRST DOWNS...................       29       14

  RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............   42-167   37-121

  PASSING YDS (NET).............      318      165

  Passes Att-Comp-Int...........  48-19-1   22-9-1

  TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   90-485   59-286

  Fumble Returns-Yards..........      0-0      0-0

  Punt Returns-Yards............     4-10      3-6

  Kickoff Returns-Yards.........    5-111    6-219

  Interception Returns-Yards....     1-17      1-0

  Punts (Number-Avg)............   4-34.0   7-31.6

  Fumbles-Lost..................      1-0      1-1

  Penalties-Yards...............    10-71    6-102

  Possession Time...............    49:45    25:15

  Third-Down Conversions........  3 of 15  3 of 14

  Fourth-Down Conversions.......   1 of 3   2 of 2

  Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......      4-5      2-2

  Sacks By: Number-Yards........      0-0     2-18

  RUSHING: Lock Haven-Maurice Walker 35-149; Justin Marshall 3-23; Tim Storino

  4-minus 5. Mansfield-Poohbear McNeal 31-111; Matt Hildebrand 4-8; Paul

  Garofalo 2-2.

  PASSING: Lock Haven-Tim Storino 19-48-1-318. Mansfield-Matt Hildebrand

  9-22-1-165.

  RECEIVING: Lock Haven-Rafael Smith 6-94; Justin Marshall 5-69; Adam Lawrence

  3-61; Kellen Bush 2-52; Sean Sanderson 2-22; Jason Walther 1-20.

  Mansfield-Joe Bennett 6-93; Eddie Van Buren 2-30; Kody Crispell 1-42.

  INTERCEPTIONS: Lock Haven-Jon Nalewak 1-17. Mansfield-William Clarke 1-0.

  FUMBLES: Lock Haven-Rafael Smith 1-0. Mansfield-Ryan Geishauser 1-1.

  Stadium: Van Norman Field      Attendance: 3601

  Kickoff time: 1:00 PM   End of Game: 4:20 PM   Total elapsed time: 3:20

  Officials: Referee: William Coates; Umpire: James Puderbach;

  Linesman: Brian Hydier; Line judge: John Coady; Back judge: Joseph Yochim;

  Field judge: Brad Herneisey; Side judge: Rich Donofrio; Scorer: Pat Ross;