By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com
Despite a 64-29 deficit in fourth quarters this season, Randolph-Macon managed to hold on to beat Emory & Henry 36-23. This time the Yellow Jackets took a 23-0 lead into the final quarter but needed a late 69-yard interception return for a touchdown by senior linebacker D'Andre Murray to clinch it.
Emory & Henry's near comeback unfolded as follows: Quarterback Matt Olexy would hit David Miller for a gain of 59 yards taking the Wasps to the R-MC 9-yard line. After an Oliver Jordan four-yard plunge and a Matt Olexy bootleg, E&H would find themselves at the Yellow Jacket 1-yard line at the end of the third quarter.
Following a defensive stop for no gain on Jordan, Olexy would find Bryant Jones on a play action pass for the touchdown, then Miller for the two-point conversion.
Randolph-Macon went three-and-out, losing 12 yards after Ryan Harris and Nolan Jefferies combined on a sack. The Wasps got the ball back at midfield on a punt, then marched 50 yards on 10 plays capped by another Olexy-to-Miller touchdown and Olexy-to-Miller two-point conversion, trimming R-MC's lead to 23-16.
Michael Becker, however, would take the ensuing kickoff back for a 42-yard return into Emory & Henry territory. Four plays later, Partlow would find Sean Eaton for the third time on the afternoon on a 29-yard strike to give the Yellow Jackets a 30-16 lead.
The Wasps answered immediately with a four-play, 72-yard drive that used just 1:10 of clock. E&H's Oliver Jordan would break free of the Randolph-Macon defense for the first time and only time as the senior would scamper 43 yards to the end zone to reduce the R-MC margin to seven at 30-23. That set up Murray's interception, plus a last-minute pick by Scottie Brubeck, after the game was decided.
The loss means Emory & Henry is no longer in control of its own destiny, for even if they beat Catholic Oct. 30 to force a potential three-way tie, Randolph-Macon would win that tiebreaker on the "Rose Bowl Rule," which gives the automatic bid to the team that has been absent from the playoffs the longest. Randolph-Macon has not been to the playoffs since 1984, while Emory & Henry went in 1995 and Catholic last went in 1998.
Let's not go to the videotape
Much has been made of the alleged officiating mistakes in the Wilkes-Lycoming game last weekend. Now while I haven't seen too many games in which a score in each direction was missed (a field goal for Lycoming, a last-second touchdown for Wilkes), but games are played on the field, not on tape. Sometimes teams get the breaks, sometimes they don't. And sometimes, apparently, neither team gets the breaks.
I do hope this doesn't end up costing Wilkes a playoff spot, but I'm afraid it might. Hopefully the MAC will investigate the matter more closely.
The week ahead
Bridgewater at Johns Hopkins (Friday, 7:00)
Don't count the Eagles out of the ODAC race, as they also hold their destiny in their own hands. Coming off a winless 1998, Bridgewater stands at 3-3, 2-1 ODAC, with games remaining against Randolph-Macon and Catholic the last two weeks of the season. They could hand Macon their second loss and Catholic their first and would win the head-to-head against Catholic.
Wilkes at Ursinus (1:00)
Wilkes and the MAC as a whole have a chance to make a statement regarding which conference and team is more worthy of an at-large bid. Neither team might get one, but the winner of this game has a reason to expect it.