Sam Ragland, back and as strong as ever. Ursinus athletics photos by Manning Smith

By Joe Sager
D3sports.com

No matter what, Ursinus insists it isn’t looking in the rearview mirror.

Even if one of the program’s biggest victories is still very visible there.

The Bears won their first game at Muhlenberg since 1999 with a 42-35 decision over the No. 8 Mules on Saturday. It was the program’s first win over a top-10 opponent as well.

“It feels great. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Ursinus junior defensive lineman Ethan Belville said. “There’s nothing better than accomplishing something you set out to do.”

As a new week dawned, though, the Bears got back to work to prepare for Franklin & Marshall.

“It was a great weekend, just on campus, seeing the excitement on everybody’s faces,” freshman defensive back Aaron Anderson said. “Muhlenberg is a great football team and they are a very well-coached team I think a win like this is huge for our program and lifts our team up. But, we’re focused on being 1-0 every single week. The win gives us the momentum we need and puts us where we want to be, which is 1-0 each week.”

The victory was especially sweet for Ursinus (2-1) since it was coming off a 49-21 setback at Johns Hopkins to open Centennial Conference action. The Bears got two quick touchdowns to begin the second half for a 28-14 edge over the Mules. Jack Psenicska found Octavious Carter for a 55-yard TD pass. Almost a minute later, Anderson delivered the first of his two splash plays when he picked off a pass and ran it back 42 yards to the house for a 28-14 lead.

“It was my first pick-6 ever,” he said. “It was great to do it against a great team like Muhlenberg. The best part was, after I scored, I turned around and I could see my sideline going nuts and a sea of white jerseys just surrounding me. It was something very special for me.”

Aaron Anderson, off to the races.

The Mules weren’t done, though. Neither were the Bears, for that matter.

Muhlenberg stormed back for the next three touchdowns to grab a 35-28 lead eight seconds in the fourth quarter. The Mules were on the edge of putting the game away as they got back to the Ursinus 2 on their next possession. However, Anderson snagged his second interception of the day and raced from the end zone to Muhlenberg’s 13. After a penalty, the Mules cashed in on third-and-20 when Psenicska found Sam Ragland for a TD pass to tie the game with 9:28 to play.

After forcing a punt, the Bears went ahead when Ragland plowed through the defense for a 21-yard scoring run and a 42-35 advantage with 6:03 left.

“The story goes that Sam tells our quarterback, ‘I am scoring on this play.’ There was about five guys on Muhlenberg that had him dead to rights. He held true to his word and made it happen,” Ursinus coach Peter Gallagher said. “I would love to say it was just like I coached him. It was more of his determination to get that ball in the end zone.”

The jaunt gave Ragland 35 career rushing TDs – a program record. 

“After the game, people were congratulating me, but I didn’t even know why,” he said. “This is more of a team accomplishment because I couldn’t have done it alone. It’s great to see all the hard work pay off.”

The Bears’ defense hung on to secure the win.

“From camp until now, we didn’t know a lot about what our team would look like,” Belville said. “As a defense, we’re getting a good identity of being a nasty group that wants to get after people. Offensively, we’re starting to look explosive. We’ve seen a tremendous amount of improvement.”

The victory offered validation for Ursinus that it can compete with – and beat – elite teams.

“It’s one thing to know you are a good team, but another to prove it. It puts the rest of the conference and the rest of the country on notice,” Ragland said. “Now, it’s how do we build on that and not get too high on that? Sometimes, when you get a big win, you feel like every game will be like that. It’s not easy to win a football game. We have to build off of it, but not bask in it too much. We just want to go 1-0 every week.”

Gallagher earned his 100th career victory with the triumph. It was especially sweet since it came at Scotty Wood Stadium.

“I told our kids they do have a lot of character. They were determined, for sure,” he said. “Hopkins has a very talented team and we made some mistakes. It got away from us. We kind of left that field with the message that we have a good team; we just weren’t good enough that day. The kids knew that and believed in themselves. We prepared to go to Muhlenberg and win a football game and that’s what we did.”

Ragland’s record-setting performance against the Mules was another highlight. As a junior, he suffered a season-ending knee injury against Muhlenberg on the same field.

“The win definitely means a lot, not just for the team, but for the program and school,” he said. “Muhlenberg over the past 10 to 20 years has pretty much had our number. So, not only to get a win, but to do it on their home field was very, very special.”

The victory not only exorcised the demons of Scotty Wood Stadium, but helped Gallagher put his mind at ease after Ragland’s 2019 injury.

“That was a very similar to game to the one we just played and it’s been a troubling situation for me,” Gallagher. “We were on the verge of scoring and the play came down from the press box and I changed the play to something and it led to an interception. That led to Sam Ragland chasing down the interception on that play and ripping his knee up. It was a bad injury. I thought at that point, we had lost to Hopkins by a couple points earlier and we were hanging with arguably one of the top five teams in the country. Then, that injury happened and we finished the season OK, but certainly not to the team’s expectations.

“That was tough for me as a football coach. I was the one that made that call. Just to be able to bring Sam back to that place that has haunted me for my career, for sure, and to be able to escape there with a victory was certainly one of the more rewarding days of my career.”

At 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference, the road ahead remains difficult for the Bears, who face contenders Franklin & Marshall this week and Susquehanna next week.

“We’ve had this ‘on to the next one’ mentality,” Anderson said. “That was a real huge win for our program. But, it’s a new week, a new opponent and a new test. Franklin & Marshall is coming in here and they want to win. We’ll do our best trying to prevent it from happening.”