At the end of the day, nobody could declare victory. From D3sports.com/CFD archive

By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com

We all know that records are made to be broken, but in at least one case, there is a record that cannot be broken. That’s the case with the record for the highest-scoring tie game in Division III football history.

Since 1996, ties have been broken in overtime, but before then, other than very rare instances, games which were tied after 60 minutes were built to stay that way. When Catholic and Randolph-Macon met 25 years ago today, on Sept. 16, 1995, nobody knew those teams were about to set an unbreakable mark.

Nobody knew that two of the people at the game would later go on to create a website called D3football.com and write its national column a few short years later, either.

The teams entered Day Field at R-MC that afternoon, and neither emerged the victor. And 100 points later, this epic game ended up tied, 50-50.

A game with 14 touchdowns (and a field goal) has a large cast of characters and we talked to as many as we could, by phone, email and in one case, video. It begs to be told as an oral history, so multiple voices can tell the story.

Here’s the cast you’ll hear from on a regular basis in this piece, along with former Randolph-Macon safety Keith McMillan. Neither Keith nor I played in this game, but he had a great view of it from the R-MC sidelines as a sophomore and I was in the press box in my fourth season broadcasting Catholic U. football for WCUA radio.

• George Bland, R-MC starting quarterback that day, now a history teacher and head football coach at Douglas Freeman HS in Richmond, Virginia.
• Tom Clark, then Catholic head coach, now assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Division I FCS VMI
• Jeff Clay, then Catholic wide receiver, now a homicide detective with the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
• Marty Favret, then Catholic offensive coordinator, now head coach at Hampden-Sydney
• Mike Hurt, then Randolph-Macon running back, now creative services director, graphic design for the department of motor vehicles for the state of Virginia
• Evan Jones, then Randolph-Macon free safety, now a transportation terminal manager in Jacksonville, Florida
• Kevin Ricca, then Catholic starting quarterback, has since started a digital media company, 1st Amendment Sports, which covers high school sports in the Washington Collegiate Athletic Conference, including game broadcasts and a weekly podcast
• Francel Smith, then Randolph-Macon wide receiver, now math teacher and former head football coach at Glen Allen HS in Glen Allen, Virginia.

Catholic and Randolph-Macon are just 96 miles apart, by the NCAA’s reckoning, both just off of I-95, one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Ashland, Virginia. Until recently, the programs had a string of more than 20 years uninterrupted of meeting on the football field and it made for a quality early-season game.

Favret: We exchanged film with Macon in Fredericksburg -- I seem to remember it was at a Cracker Barrel or Bob Evans restaurant. That duty went to Billy Edwards on Sunday morning. We had just the one game tape and, of course, looked back at our close 1994 game vs. them.

Clark: We were fortunate to get started on looking at tape by late afternoon (on Sunday). We generally took a dinner break and worked until 2am Monday morning. So yes we had a good look at our opponents. My recollection is Randolph-Macon surprised us with the spread. We were expecting a more traditional two-back offense.

Hurt: You'd get a scouting report, which is a small booklet of stapled paper, with your opponents' numbers and circles, their tendencies, what they like to do and where their strengths and weaknesses are.

Ricca: Back in ’95 we were one of the first teams to run the spread and go no-huddle. I certainly watched game tape from our ’94 game and their opener, but it was not extensive. Running the spread allowed us to dictate to the defense, and we knew going no-huddle would cause matchup issues. Basically we worked on our own execution rather than the opposition in film.

Hurt: It's completely different than the guys have it now. I have nephews who play football, and have Hudl, all this technology where they can watch themselves, watch other people.

News-gathering in Division III was different in 1995 as well, but that didn’t keep the two programs from knowing a little bit about each other, including that Catholic came into the season ranked No. 17 in Sports Illustrated’s preseason ranking. This was before D3football.com or the coaches’ association had a Top 25.

Ricca: We were riding high after that amazing ’94 season and we were confident, but we were ready for a battle. Coach Clark had a huge respect for the Randolph-Macon program, and he reminded us about it all week.

Favret: We were supremely confident offensively in the early part of that season. We had added a new weapon -- Debraire Meekins and with Kevin and (running back) Matt Taylor and a slimmed down Jeff Clay, we had a ton of options. The opener against Muhlenberg I think we scored on every first-half drive.

Clay: I actually expected we would go undefeated THAT year. We were coming off an 8-2 season and lost two close games to pretty good teams. We had a lot of starters coming back off that team, with Matt Taylor coming back, with Kevin coming back.

Favret: Defensively, I remember Tommy’s plan was to pressure the QB and play a lot of man to man coverage. We underestimated the R-MC skilled players particularly Michael Hurt and George Bland had the game of his career – I still tease him about it.

Bland: I was well aware of that (ranking) and I remember that quarterback Ricca was incredible. I remember sitting in my room that morning when I woke up and I could barely move I was so nervous. I was quite honestly questioning myself and just hoping I could complete just one pass.

Clark: I do remember thinking we didn’t have enough defense for a mobile quarterback and their spread offense. I was proud of the defense because they never gave up and I wasn’t giving them answers.

Game day at Randolph-Macon started a bit auspiciously.

Jones: I had a pregame ritual where I would dress up -- it would give me a sense of being all business -- and I would eat the same thing. And I was walking to the cafeteria and looked across the field, and someone had put the flag up upside down. (Flying the U.S. flag upside down is a distress signal.)

I was very superstitious and I said, that's not good.

I came back out later on the walk back and the flag was fixed, but that was a sign of things to come, defensively.

It was also the first game in Ashland for most of the Cardinals, who were a pretty young squad with a lot of sophomores and freshmen. They were Clark’s first recruiting classes after he took over following Catholic’s 1-9 season in 1993.

Ricca: That was our first life experience with fraternity brothers. They were all over pregame giving us the business. It was ... interesting to say the least.

Hurt: There's always a lot of jawing that happened. We were right on the crowd -- it wasn't as pushed back as it is now. We had guys in fraternities that would crowd the sideline and they would just be there probably three to four sheets to the wind, having already had a good time before the game started.

Clay: They were pretty mouthy guys. Both times we went down there they were pretty mouthy.

Smith: There was one row of frats on that side so the atmosphere at Macon was always great. We always had great backing, not only from the kids on campus but from the community of Ashland. There were always kids from Patrick Henry HS, which was just up the street. You could have more people on the grounds than in the stands.

Clay: 'You guys are from the city. We play real football down here in the south.' I guess when you come up 95 and get to the urban area they think they're more suited to play football down there.

Jones: For our home games, you'd have friends and family in the stands but 3,000 people in the tailgate area, and they would come over to the fence -- some of them -- and watch. It was very bizarre -- you'd have 500 people in the stands and 3,000 in the tailgate.

Clay: It really wasn't a problem getting open. I felt like we were balanced. I remember Frole making a couple of plays and Matt was running it well.

Jones: We'd had an injury to Avery Farmer who was really a good athlete. If he wasn't 5-6, he would have played at a small D-I or something like that. He got hurt and it was just me and a bunch of freshmen and a first-year strong safety (in the secondary).

Clay: I do remember it being physical at points getting tackled. Not necessarily dirty but you could just tell they were making a point.

Jones: I picked him off early, because (me) being a former bad high school quarterback, if you didn't look me off, I'd have a pretty good day. He didn't look off early and I picked him off. That was early in the first half, and then when we went back and looked at the film, they would run a play-action fake, and because we were getting burnt deep, I wasn't playing up. ... I wasn't doing that because he was throwing darts all over the place. And you can see there was this huge area between the defensive line and where I was, 20-25 yards, big gaps that they were throwing into. And we had no pass rush, none.

From Keith McMillan archive. Click for full-size image.

Randolph-Macon converted that turnover into a touchdown catch by Mark Gannon, but missed the extra point and led 13-7. Catholic answered with a Debraire Meekins kickoff return to midfield but sputtered, bringing up a fourth-and-5 at the Randolph-Macon 45. Following a timeout, the Cardinals brought the offense back onto the field, and in the closing seconds of the first quarter, Ricca finds slot receiver Pete Anspach all alone for a 45-yard touchdown.

Favret: Anspach’s TD catch I remember like it was yesterday. It was on fourth and short at midfield. It was the first time we ever ran a fake screen to Jeff Clay. They really bit on the fake and nobody was within 20 yards of Pete when he caught the ball.

Clay: We faked the screen and he normally comes in to scrape the corner and the safety jumped the screen and then Pete took it up the sideline on a wheel route and caught it and went in. I was happy for Pete -- his shots to do that were kind of few and far between.

Ricca: It was a counter to our screen game, our screen to Jeff, to the wide receivers, and to all the other guys we played out there. We knew we had it up our sleeve, and we wanted to use it early, I do recall that -- to get those linebackers and cornerbacks backed up a little bit. I didn't know we would use it on fourth-and-5 at midfield, but that's what we did, we took a lot of risks. We tried to make a big play there.

Anspach: I don’t know what got into me but I was so fired up I spiked the ball, giving us a penalty on the ensuing kickoff.

Favret: He scored and then proceeded to throw down the clumsiest, least athletic spike in the history of college football. 15 yard penalty on the kickoff (more good field position). I went crazy -- told him 'my mother could have scored that TD.' Pete and I had some memorable exchanges back in those days.

Clay: That sounds just like coach.

Anspach: Favret lost it. I’m pretty sure he broke his clipboard and said some swears I’d never even heard before (that’s not true, he yelled at me a lot so I had heard them all). Coach Clark gave me that look he had that made you want to crawl under a rock and die.

Clark: Anspach was just so excited, that’s one of those teaching moments, in terms of self control. Hard to get mad at a kid in that situation, particularly when it really hadn’t been addressed.

Ricca: I know Anspach was so fired up, man. ... Pete knew it was either going to be a touchdown or a dud. He wanted to score a touchdown. You could see that after he crossed the goal line. He was pretty fired up.

WCUA broadcast: I don’t know how excessive that celebration was. It’s not like it was in your face. It was just the sort of celebration that I thought the NCAA was looking for. But nobody really knows what the NCAA is looking for anymore.

That was Catholic’s first, and it turns out, only lead of the game. Randolph-Macon returns the kickoff deep into Catholic territory and, after a personal foul on the return, the Yellowjackets strike right away. Bland finds Jon Crooks in the end zone, but the ball deflects off of his hands and into the hands of Dave LaBelle for the touchdown to give R-MC a 19-14 lead.

Bland: We knew it was going to be a magic day for us. Crooks, I loved throwing to him as a tight end and Dave LaBelle and I are great friends to this day. We were roommates and lived together after school. And that was right in that end zone in front of all the fraternities. I think they may have had some beer spilled on them.

Ricca: Randolph-Macon quarterback George Bland ... he went nuts. He went out there and gave them a ton of energy, a ton of fire. I think he threw five or six touchdowns on the day. What a sparkplug.

The defense picked off Ricca to get the ball back in Bland’s hands, and the drive includes a halfback option from Hurt to Bland before Bland finishes the drive with a touchdown pass and a two-point conversion, giving R-MC a 27-14 lead less than five minutes into the second quarter.

Bland: That was one of the most embarrassing moments of the game. I was wide open, I caught the ball, I had so much green space in front of me, and I really ended up losing my balance and tripping over my own two feet. I guess my mobility wasn't that great in the open field.

Down by two touchdowns midway through the second quarter, Catholic had a touchdown called back because of a holding penalty but converted one fourth down on a fake punt, and converted another as Ricca hit Clay inside the 5. Clay makes the catch but is hit and fumbles. Even then, Matt Taylor is right there to fall on the ball.

Jones: It was one of those games, too, where, even when I would make a play in the end zone, I just destroyed this guy, hit him right on the ball, and the ball goes flying into the Catholic guy’s hands who's standing 5 yards away.

One play later, Taylor bowls his way into the end zone to cut the lead to 27-21 with 6:53 left in the half. But the first half is far from over, as a little Randolph-Macon swing pass ends up lighting up the crowd.

WCUA broadcast: Gets it off to Hurt. Hurt across the 40, now he breaks a tackle again, 30, 25 Phil Williams -- a HUGE block, he’s blocked WAY out of the play. Hurt in, touchdown Randolph-Macon. And Phil Williams is down! He got crunched, it looked like by No. 82 Francel Smith.

Hurt: I remember catching it and I'm running downfield and trying to make a couple people miss, and I see Francel out of the corner of my eye, so I started towards him. And the guy that was trailing me had no idea Francel was there. So as I make a move and come towards Francel, he completely cleans this guy's clock. Just lifts him off his feet.

Smith: We were in four wides, and we were just running a play for the receivers, and Mike was kind of an outlet guy. And nobody was open, so George swung it out to Mike. And he cut back across the field. I just saw a guy eyeing him up, probably from the other numbers. It's a block that probably would have gotten me kicked out of the game nowadays, but it was definitely one of the highlights of my career.

Hurt: And I turn around once I get to the end zone because I'm expecting all my teammates to meet me in the end zone and congratulate me, and everyone's over by Francel.

Smith: I felt bad for Mike because Mike ended up scoring and nobody knew, because the whole crowd was going crazy over the block.

Hurt: Francel's all hype and everybody's like, ooh, Francel, great hit, great block, and I'm like 'what block?' ... I was joking, hey man, this block was created by the awesome run. So maybe you should thank me for leading this guy directly to you so you could kill him.

Bland: I still thank Mike to this day for padding my stats a little bit. And Mike's nephew plays for me at Freeman now. … I didn’t remember that block necessarily, but I guess I owe him for that as well.

Clay: I remember that kid catching that pass out of the backfield.

Jones: I don't remember it because I'm sure at that point I was already getting yelled at on the sidelines. We were trying to figure out how to prevent a first down.

Smith: It was definitely a helmet to the ribs. I got him square in the middle of his chest. Back then it was perfectly legal.

From D3sports.com/CFD archive. Click for full, uncropped image of page.

Williams does get up under his own power, and eventually returns to the game, which is good, because Catholic is already missing a senior standout, safety Dan Burns, who starts the season injured and won't play until October. Meanwhile, Catholic puts together one final drive in the first half and goes to the locker room down 33-28.

Mark Houck, CUA starting free safety: I remember we had a young defensive backfield with two freshmen starting (corner and strong safety) and me and Phil Williams (corner) as the veterans. I do believe if Dan played we win that game — no doubt in my mind.

Ricca: Tom Clark was a big-time adjustments guy. He met with his staff, his entire coaching staff would meet. The D staff and the O staff would go over the first half and get together. We didn't really have a ton of work or meeting time. It was a time for the players to blow off some steam, get off their feet and talk amongst themselves and get things going. I just remember a lot of the defensive guys, a lot of the senior leaders, mixing it up, making sure the offense knew that the defense was going to get it right. We weren't going to give up 33 again. And that we might need to score 50 or 60 to win the game but they were going to help out.

In the other locker room, the offense had had a great 30 minutes, but similar to Catholic, the head coach was also the defensive coordinator.

Bland: I do remember that Coach Riccio was a lot more upset than Coach (Gregg) Waters (the offensive coordinator) was. Coach Riccio was pretty frustrated at the time trying to figure out how to slow them down. His speech may not have been quite as uplifting or positive as maybe we were thinking it should have been from an offensive perspective. And that's with love -- I love Coach Riccio.

Jones: It was crazy. I was co-captain of the defense. And you can't say, well, I've got one guy who's never played defense in college before. I've got two freshmen. I'm not going to talk back to my coach like that. You just kind of took it.

Riccio, to Vic Fulp of the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1995: We said we didn’t want to get into a shootout with them because we know they are capable of scoring points, but not that many.

Jones: I remember finally they put in the best athlete -- he was a freshman. And I just said, 'look, if you get beat, just tackle the guy. We don't want to give up seven.' First play, hitch-and-go, he tackled the guy, I high-fived him. I'm like, 'good job. you didn't give up a 55-yard touchdown.' Heads were spinning.

Ricca: 33-28, we knew anything could happen ... and it was about to.

Ricca had had a pretty good first half, at 15-for-25 for 179 yards and a touchdown, but he had thrown two interceptions. Randolph-Macon had 313 total yards, 113 on the ground, but had been mostly through the air after a 70-yard rush on the first carry of the game. The Yellowjackets had rolled up 313 yards of total offense in the first half, but were held to 194 after halftime.

Clark quote from 1995: I have to be proud of our defense. If there was ever a game they could have backed off or freelanced, this was it. But they kept playing and playing.

Catholic U. safety Mark Houck in 1995: Going into Randolph-Macon it was only our second game and we weren’t able to throw in as many packages defensively as we wanted to. We had young guys and it’s hard for them to pick things up in camp, and it was a new system, too, so we were all learning something new.

In the second half, Bland was 11-for-24 and Ricca was 16-for-21, much of Ricca’s total coming in the final 8 minutes of the game.

Favret: Kevin Ricca was brilliant down the stretch. We sped up the tempo which was unusual 25 years ago. Kevin's ability to scramble and create was pretty special. It turned basically into a pickup basketball game with No. 13 playing point guard.

Clay: I was really, just give me the ball, they can't check me. I was just starting to feel confident. It was only my second game being the main receiver. Kevin was trying to spread the ball around. I felt like as the game went on, I got more opportunities.

Jones: There weren't these sustained drives. It was all big chunk plays and a lot of chasing.

Clay: We just didn't want to lose. We knew losing one game would prevent us from getting in the playoffs.

Ricca: I put a ball up on a fade that Jeff, I'm not sure to this day how he caught it inbounds. I threw it only my guy would catch it or it would be out of bounds. Jeff was able to fully extend with one foot behind him, catch the ball outstretched in the back of the end zone.

That 26-yard touchdown catch came with 6:13 left and cut the R-MC lead to 47-42.

Clay: I'm not being funny -- it was actually a pretty great catch. I know I stuck it like I was running a slant and then I took it outside up the sideline and the safety came over and Kevin put a great ball right on the back pylon. I kind of extended for it and got both feet in and brought it in. That was a big momentum booster right there.

Jones: From an offensive standpoint, I'm sure it must have been a lot of fun, but when you're on the other side of the ball, yeah, not so fun.

Somewhat unsung was a big field goal by Ben Armstrong, a 42-yarder with 3:41 left in the fourth quarter that pushed the Randolph-Macon lead back out to 50-42. This came after he had missed a 45-yard attempt wide left in the first half.

Jason Eichelberger, Randolph-Macon long snapper: Ben Armstrong was 3-for-4 on extra points, but after missing that second one, we kept going for two to make up the difference. As a result, we weren't on the field a lot ... He was a freshman, but he had a strong leg so we knew the distance was within his range.

Hurt: If I remember correctly, Ben had the biggest leg in the league. Just wasn't the most accurate leg in the league.

Eichelberger: As always, the focus was on getting a good snap and hold to give him a chance.

But Catholic had plenty of time to come back and try to tie the game, and the Cardinals got their shot when Taylor got into the end zone with 19.3 seconds left, cutting the lead to 50-48.

Favret: The last two-point conversion was designed to go to Jeff.

Hurt: I grew up in a religious household so I'm just praying that we can get a stop, a turnover.

Favret: We had worked on the play Friday and I remember telling Kevin that Frole would be in the back of the end zone if the play broke down. He remembered- and it became our ‘90s version of Montana to Clark -- total sandlot.

Ricca: I do remember having to buy a little bit of time and getting hit in the pocket. I saw Jeff Clay making an adjustment to his route, coming back across the end zone, and I saw another black jersey there. I can't say that I knew it was Bob Frole, but I knew this. I was going down and I had to get rid of it and I had to put some air under it.

WCUA broadcast: For the two-point conversion and the tie: Ricca, back to pass. He’s rushed, comes out of the pocket, lofts it up in the end zone. Does Frole come down with it? YES, he DOES!

Ricca: I really did think Jeff could get to that ball. I was a bit surprised it was Bob Frole who came down with it as I watched from the ground.

Clay: When the ball was coming, I thought he was throwing it to me. But it was weird because it was kind of high. I kind of saw Frole out of my peripheral. Kind of hit him right in the stomach. I think I might have been coming in a little more shallow.

Hurt: There's no worse feeling to know as an offense you've just put up 50 points and you still don't win a game.

Jones: It was crossing routes. He had all day. We couldn't do anything right. Especially because we were so young in the secondary, it felt like we were moving in jello. You could see it happening, but you couldn't ... (breaks down laughing).

After the final gun, the teams gathered at midfield, with the coaches and officials talking, leading to thoughts that they might find some way for the game to continue. At the time, four conferences were using the tiebreaker in league games, but the Old Dominion Athletic Conference was not one of the four. And Catholic did not join the ODAC until 1999.

Clark: I do remember trying to talk officials and Coach Riccio into playing overtime. I was a young coach and just didn’t want to go home with a tie.

Favret: There was definitely some confusion. The NCAA had discussed some new OT rules but they didn’t go into effect until the following year. Both of the head coaches were defensive guys. In the end, I think they both said -- let’s just get out of here.

Bland: Whoa whoa whoa whoa ... I know that is absolutely garbage. We were out there fighting for it, are you kidding me! They couldn't stop us all day, no way! Let's meet up and go ahead and play that overtime. I'm ready!

Ricca: In hindsight, if they had decided to play on and go ahead, this wouldn't be as fun to talk about. Being part of a 50-50 tie, I'm sure guys on both sides to this day have to think that record is never going away. That’s ours, forever, for the eternity of football.

Bland: The competitor in me, even if it didn't make for an awesome story, I would have liked to end the day with a W and put it to rest in overtime.

Anspach: I remember thinking after the game that my penalty was the reason we didn’t win. That’s probably not true but the TD and penalty played a big part in the momentum of the game. We had big aspirations that year so every game, every play was important and that tie felt like a loss for us.

Hurt: Another W on our record would have been great. Definitely didn't want another L. But you look at it now, 25 years later and we're still talking about this game. We wouldn't have this conversation today if that didn't happen then.

Houck: I remember feeling pretty deflated after the game with no outcome to celebrate or lament. Ties are really limbo and you are left not sure what to think. I remember thinking “well, it’s better than a loss.” But in truth, we wanted a chance to play for a win. We felt we had the momentum in the fourth so we believe we would have taken it if we had overtime.  

Coming off the breakout 8-2 season in 1994 and starting 1-0-1 in 1995, Catholic did not immediately become the playoff team it had hoped. The Cardinals struggled to a 5-3-1 finish, although one of those losses was to a team which later vacated its entire season.

Favret: That was a frustrating year. Teams adjusted to some of the things we had done well offensively. We started to see a lot more soft coverages and defenses were reluctant to pressure us which we had really feasted on those first few years. Tommy and I still bicker about that season -- we turned the ball over a bunch and ended up becoming a much more conservative offense down the stretch -- not my strength as a play caller. It seemed we played a bunch of mud bowl games that year as well.

Clark: That game was a turning point in our program. We learned defensively that we needed to be more multiple and we started to become a real attacking and pressure defense. That paid off in years to come. We also gained confidence that we were never out of a game: Flash forward to the Randolph-Macon game in 1999, we’re down 29-6 at halftime and win 35-29.

Ricca: That 1995 season wasn’t as glorious as ’96 and certainly not as ’97. It was a sloppy bit of an ugly time, but it certainly taught us a lot in that 50-50 tie. We always knew that if our backs were against the wall, we had a chance.

In the immediate aftermath, Randolph-Macon also struggled, but the program went 22-8 over the following three years. After a dropoff, the Yellow Jackets have rebounded, including three NCAA playoff appearances in the past 12 years, not to mention six consecutive victories in The Game rivalry against Hampden-Sydney. But immediately after the game, well, coaches weren’t particularly happy.

Jones: I just can't say what I want to say because this is being recorded, but it was awful. Not as bad as when we got smoked by Emory & Henry and drank on the bus, but it was close. It was a lot of running, especially for the defense. I just kind of blocked that out.

McMillan: Monday after the game, the offense goes to watch video. Defense dressed and went out to the field. The plan was to run 50 110s, or one field-length sprint for each point we gave up. Somewhere around 24 or 26, Coach Riccio gets bored and instead of running he started having us do duck walks, bear crawls, wheelbarrows where a partner holds your feet and you walk with your hands. The length of the field.

Jones: Yep, yep, yep. He just started making up stuff that we had to do. He took it pretty personal because he was a defensive coach.

Hurt: I'm surprised half those guys stayed on the team after that. They ran and ran and ran. We used to call them the track team.

McMillan: I always was pissed that I was the dime back that game and I didn't play a down. I probably should have quit football that day, but I guess it worked out for the best.

Smith: I remember our coach saying, 'you better not laugh at them, or you can go join them' and we took that to heart. We did not laugh at them at all. We laugh at them now, though.

This was the breakout game for Clay, who went on to break the Division III single-season receptions record in 1997 and was one of the three finalists for the Melberger Award, back when that was equal in stature to the Gagliardi Trophy. In 1996, with Ricca still at quarterback, Clay set the Division III record for receiving yards in a game with 364 yards in a must-have game at Albright. In this, his second game as a starting wide receiver, Clay finished with 12 catches for 159 yards and two touchdowns, including nine catches for 116 yards in the second half.

Favret: I had coached Jeff in high school and recruited him to come to Catholic. He showed up his sophomore year and looked like a different guy. We changed his jersey number from 87 to 12 -- his tight end body was now a wide receiver body. I remember scrimmaging Montgomery College-Rockville, a junior college, in August – and he made them look silly. He was ready to take a big step forward.

Clay: I felt like I wasted a year because I was sulking and I just felt like I should be dominating. I felt I should be scoring crazy touchdowns and catching crazy yards. To be real, Coach Favret got into it a lot when I was in HS. He was pretty tough on me. We didn't really develop that love-love relationship until midway through my sophomore year because we were both just stubborn dudes. I was out to prove to him that I could get it done.

Ricca: That day in Ashland was the day that the team and everyone got to see what I knew. I got to play against Jeff in the WCAC (the area high school Washington Catholic Athletic Conference) and he was a heck of a playmaker, a heck of a competitor, and he loved it as much as everyone. That's when our connection started right there, that day.

It was Bland’s second start as well, and his 24 completions and 357 passing yards set a school record, not to mention the six touchdown passes.

Bland: After the first two weeks, I had broken a bunch of records, which have all been broken again after the advent of the true spread offense. It certainly helped my confidence and I was excited and I got a lot of press for it, and people were patting me on the back but at the end of the day, we still hadn't won a dad-gone game yet. You can look at all the statistics, but our record still said 0-1-1.

Smith: George took over the reins and he was about as calm under pressure as you possibly could be. He really flourished in that game and solidified himself and he was the quarterback for the rest of the year.

Meanwhile, we would have loved to have a video of the game to share with you at this time, and clips to intersperse through this story, but like many things, videos are hard to come by.

Favret: I held on to that 1995 VHS tape until this past summer. It became a COVID casualty of a bored football coach cleaning out his office. I’m mad at myself for not hanging on to it -- would love to watch that fourth quarter again.

Clay: Oh my god. That’s ridiculous, man. I would have came and took that off his hands. I don’t have any of that stuff.

Bland: I don't believe it. There's no way. He's just making it a good story. C’mon, Marty! I like the memories of it almost better than watching the tape anyway. As a coach now, I’d probably look back at it and pick myself apart.

Thanks to Keith McMillan; Catholic’s current head coach Mike Gutelius; to Jason Eichelberger, who has been SID at both his alma mater of Randolph-Macon and currently at Catholic; to Randolph-Macon SID Philip Stanton, former WCUA radio sports director Ray Martel, and Old Dominion Athletic Conference assistant commissioner J.J. Nekoloff.