The Saint Vincent Bearcats overcame a 15-point halftime deficit to earn a 38-31 victory over visiting Carnegie Mellon in a Presidents' Athletic Conference game at Chuck Noll Field.
Trailing 28-13 at the half, SVC scored 17 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a 30-28 lead, then had to post one final comeback after a CMU field goal made it 31-30 in the fourth quarter. Andy Borgen's pass to DJ Oceant-Kelly with 9:02 left in the game proved to be the game winner.
Much of the first quarter belonged to the Tartans, as they took advantage of two Bearcat turnovers in the first five minutes of play. After an interception on the game's first drive, the Tartans struck quickly, as quarterback Andrew Hearon scampered 24 yards into the end zone on the visitors' first play from scrimmage. Renny LaRue-Holloman blocked the extra point, leaving the score at 6-0.
On the ensuing drive, an SVC fumble gave the Tartans the ball at the Bearcat 46, and Hearon connected with Sam Benger on the second play of the drive for a 46-yard touchdown catch and run, making the score 13-0 after just three offensive plays by CMU.
Later in the first quarter, Cody Lambert intercepted a Hearon pass and returned it 19 yards to the Tartan 39. Six plays later, Borgen ran 17 yards for a Bearcat touchdown with 29 seconds remaining in the quarter. The extra point hit the upright and bounced back onto the field, and the score was 13-6 at the end of the first.
Five plays into the CMU drive, Matt Jenkins forced a fumble which was recovered by Matt McCarthy at the visitors' 45, and Borgen then went to work through the air. He completed passes of 15 yards to Bronson Przybilinski and 19 yards to Oceant-Kelly, moving the ball to the CMU 11. Borgen then ran the final distance to the end zone on the next play, and a Morgan Porter point-after-touchdown tied the score at 13-13.
CMU answered quickly, embarking on an 8-play, 79-yard drive for a score that made it 20-13.
While the Bearcats were unable to move the ball on their next drive, punter Mark McCracken sent a 63-yard punt near the goal line, and LaRue-Holloman made the touchback-saving play to get the ball downed at the Tartan one-yard-line. However, Carnegie Mellon then put together an 8-play, 99-yard scoring drive that culminated in a 35-yard pass from Hearon to Chris Herrera that made the score 28-13 with 3:52 remaining in the first half. Neither team scored the remainder of the second quarter.
SVC came out of the locker room energized, as the defense forced a three-and-out by the Tartans on the opening drive. The Bearcats got as far as the Tartan 12 before being stopped, but Porter came on and hit a 30-yard field goal to make the score 28-16.
The defense again rose to the occasion, as McCarthy sacked Hearon on a third down play at the start of the next drive, causing a fumble that was recovered by Anthony May at the CMU 20. On the next play, Borgen ran for this third touchdown of the day, making the score 28-23.
After forcing another Tartan punt on the next drive, the Bearcats wasted no time getting taking their first lead of the day. Borgen rolled to his left and faked a run, stopping just short of the line of scrimmage and sending a pass downfield to a wide-open Dustin Lowman, who ran untouched to the end zone to complete an 86-yard scoring play and give SVC the lead, 30-28 with 6:16 left in the third quarter.
Early in the fourth, CMU drove to the Bearcat 29 and lined up for a 46-yard field goal attempt, but a bad snap forced the holder to attempt a pass which fell incomplete, keeping the Bearcats in front by 2 points.
However, the Tartans later drove deep into SVC territory, and after a defensive stop at the 8-yard-line, Tyler Kohman kicked a 25-yard field goal to return the lead to the CMU side of the ledger, 31-30.
The Bearcats took over at their own 35 after the kickoff went out of bounds, and two plays later, Borgen ran a similar play to the long touchdown pass to Lowman, this time hitting Przybilinski for 40 yards to the Carnegie Mellon 21. After a 5-yard run by Shavonta Craft, Borgen connected with Oceant-Kelly for what would prove to be the game-winning touchdown at the 9:02 mark. Up 36-31, the Bearcats went for the two-point conversion and lined up left tackle Logan Portes as an eligible receiver. Borgen bootlegged and found an open Portes on the pass, and the freshman carried it the rest of the way into the end zone for a successful 2-point play to make it 38-31.
Still, the Bearcats would need two interceptions by Darius Brown in the final 5 minutes to hang onto the victory.
On the day, CMU posted 22 first downs compared to 15 for the Bearcats, and outgained SVC by a 446-380 margin.
Borgen, who made his first start of the year at quarterback, was 15-for-23 for 254 yards passing, and ran the ball 14 times for 58 yards and three touchdowns. With two TD throws, he had a hand in all five Saint Vincent touchdowns.
Oceant-Kelly caught 6 passes for 64 yards, while Lowman had three catches for 98. Przybilinsky caught two passes for 55 yards. On the ground, Craft had 22 carries for 69 yards.
Defensively, Nick Revis had 10 tackles, while McCarthy added 8, LaRue-Holloman and Jenkins 7 each. The Bearcats had six quarterback sacks on the day, led by TJ Feeney with two.
Saint Vincent is now 3-2 in the PAC, 3-4 overall, and 3-0 at home. The team will wrap up the home portion of the schedule on Saturday, November 1 against Westminster College at 1PM.