EWING – The College of New Jersey Lions were on the prowl in their local hunting grounds at Lions Stadium, but the predators ultimately became the prey when the Montclair Red Hawks came back from a 14-point deficit to defeat the Lions, 21-17.
After TCNJ let a 14-0 lead slip away, on the final play of the game, on 4th-and-19, Lions’ quarterback Trevor Osler tried to connect with Thomas Koenig in the endzone but the last-ditch heave was intercepted by the Hawks. The Hawks let the clock run out on the final drive, ending an intense game.
“We have to finish. We have to finish.” said TCNJ head coach Casey Goff. “We continue to be in a position to finish and we’ve gotta finish. We gotta finish football games. And a big part of that is honestly as coaches making sure that our guys have that competitive edge to finish.”
The Lions started the game strong, opening the game with a crucial interception to what would have been a touchdown on the Hawks first drive. Immediately the Lions’ starting quarterback Trevor Osler connected with wide receiver Thomas Koenig on an 80-yard dash to the Hawks’ end zone, scoring the first points of the game just after the three minute mark.
“Tommy Gunns has got some speed,” says Osler. “He’s a great player. We’ve been playing together for a long time. It feels like forever but it’s just been four years. He played a heck of a game. We should have had it.”
The Lions would put another seven points on the board in the first quarter with a red zone connection from Osler to Koenig, ending the first quarter with a 14-point lead.
The Hawks started their comeback on the first play of the second quarter when running back Willie Barr rushed 26 yards for a touchdown. The rest of the second quarter was a struggle for possession, although on their final drive of the quarter the Lions managed to regain some lost ground with a 40-yard field goal from Zachary Pharo.
The third quarter, the Lions ran into trouble. The ball was in their defensive half of the field for the majority of the quarter. Ultimately Hawks’ quarterback John Apicella would complete touchdown passes of seven and 40 yards to Brian Kowalczyk and Barr respectively to lead 21-17 going into the final stanza.
“It was intense, that’s the type of games we expect to be in in this conference.” said. “And we’re in those games
now, we’re involved in all four quarters of the football game on Saturday. [There were] a couple of plays we’d like to have back in that third quarter and we just gotta find a way to find a way finish and play four full quarters in all three ways.”
The fourth quarter saw the Lions fight hard to get the lead back while Montclair went heavy in the run game to try to control the clock.
“It was super exciting but that just makes it even more of a heartbreak.” says Koenig. “This one’s gonna sting for the next 24 hours, but then we’ll get over it, watch some film, and we just got to go into next week.”
With this loss, the Lions’ losing streak has stretched to five games to start this season. In a 10-game season, this means that the best record they can hope for is 5-5. But while the statistical outlook isn’t great, Goff is happy with how his team played the game.
“We felt good about our game today.” said Goff. “We felt good about the things that we could do against them. We felt good about what they would give us and take advantage of those things. But you can’t rest on that, you can’t rest on a ten point lead with a team like that. They’re too good. They’re too good defensively, and they’ve got too many playmakers on the offensive side. They’ve got big playability.”
Having said that, you could feel the emotion on the field when Goff walked onto the field with over thirty seconds left on the clock to shake the hand of the Hawks coach, Rick Giancola, knowing the game was lost. Improvements to their gameplay or not, a loss is a loss.
“It’s good that it was competitive,” said Osler. “But ultimately winning is the thing that matters.”
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