WILKES-BARRE, PA (October 2, 2021) – Senior quarterback Tyler Moore rushed into the endzone from 11 yards out with 29 seconds left to give the King's College football team a 10-7 victory over Alvernia University on Saturday afternoon from McCarthy Stadium in Wilkes-Barre.
The Monarchs improved to 2-2 on the season and 1-2 in Middle Atlantic Conference play while the loss drops the Golden Wolves to 0-5 and 0-3 in the conference.
King's kicked off to begin the game and quickly held Alvernia to a 3-and-out. The Monarchs got the ball at the Alvernia 45 yard line after a short punt and drove down to the 28 yard line after runs by Gabe Boccella and a 10-yard gain from Brennan Robinson. The drive, unfortunately, stalled there as Alvernia pushed the Monarchs back to the 36-yard line and forced a punt. The teams traded a couple of quick drives before the Monarchs got the ball at their own 33-yard line.
King's drove the ball down the field as Moore completed passes to Boccella, Tyler Carey, and Brandon Cohen while Tekoah Guedes, Enzo Poulson, and Boccella each had runs for at least six yards. KC drove the ball down to the 11-yard line before Kyle Prescavage kicked a 28-yard field goal to give the Monarchs a 3-0 lead with 50 seconds left in the quarter. In total the drive went 56 yards on 12 plays and lasted for 5:16.
Alvernia responded with their first long drive of the game to start the second quarter using eight plays to go 30 yards before the Monarch defense forced their fourth punt of the game. After a three-and-out possession from the Monarchs, the Golden Wolves kept the Monarch defense on the field for 6:04 with a 10-play drive but the Wolves only went four yards due to a pair of false start penalties, a holding call, and a pair of sacks to force a punt.
The Monarchs got the ball back on their own 5-yard line with 4:45 left in the half and drove the ball to their 26 on six plays before punting. The Golden Wolves started their drive back at their own 33-yard line after a penalty on the punt. AU drove the ball downfield to the King's 24 before a personal foul penalty pushed them back out of field goal range and the Monarchs locked down defensively with four straight pass incompletions to head into the half with a 3-0 lead.
King's got the ball to start the third quarter and neither team was able to score on the first three possessions of the second half. The Golden Wolves got the ball on their own 12-yard line with 5:12 on the clock and put together their longest and best drive of the game which resulted in a touchdown. Alvernia went 88 yards on 10 plays in 5:22 ending with a 33-yard pass to Neeko Scurlock on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Monarchs responded to trailing for the first time in the game with a strong start to their first drive of the final quarter. Guedes completed two straight passes to Cohen for 15 and 8 yards to begin the drive. The Monarchs drove the ball down to the Alvernia 36 before a Moore pass on fourth down was intercepted by Jyleen Neals at the 27-yard line.
Alvernia took 5:38 off the clock with an 8-play, 19-yard drive before the Monarchs forced them to punt with 5:53 left. KC started their drive at their own 19 and went to work immediately as Moore found Carey for 8 yards, Poulson rushed for 5, Moore ran for 8, and then completed a pass to Robinson for 11 yards down to the King's 49. Robinson ran for 6 yards and Moore found Tim Cosantino open for a first down with a four-yard completion. He then completed passes to Josh Willenbrock for 5 yards and Poulson for 4 yards. On fourth and six on the Alvernia 35 with 1:46 on the clock Moore found Boccella over the middle for 16 yards and a huge first down.
Moore's next two passes fell incomplete before finding Cohen for 8 yards on third down. On fourth down Moore took the snap and on a designed run found a gap and found the endzone giving the Monarchs the lead with 29 seconds left. Prescavage calmly connected on the extra point giving KC a 10-7 lead.
The Wolves completed three short passes before King's got a huge sack by Dallas Solomon with a second left to end all hopes of a comeback by the visitors.
Moore finished the game 13-22 on passing attempts for 90 yards and 12 yards rushing on four attempts with the one touchdown. Boccella led the rushing attack with 30 yards on seven attempts while Robinson rushed for 26 yards on four rushes. Cohen caught four passes for 36 yards while Boccella and Carey each had 29 yards on four receptions each.
The Monarch defense, which was strong all game, was led by Brendan Mozeleski with 12 total tackles (four solo, eight assisted) including a tackle for a loss and an assisted sack. Dylan White had eight tackles and two pass breakups while Jamil Thomas also had a big day with seven tackles.
As a team, the Monarchs rushed for 140 yards and passed for 118 to finish with a total offense of 258 yards. Alvernia had just 53 yards on the ground and 170 yards in the air for 223 total yards. The Monarchs converted on both of their red zone possessions while keeping the Golden Wolves out of the red zone the whole game.
King's will now turn their attention to nationally ranked Delaware Valley who they will face next Saturday in Doylestown. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm at James Work Memorial Stadium. The Aggies, a 32-7 winner at Lycoming on Saturday to improve to 4-0, were ranked 10th in this week's D3football.com Poll and seventh in the AFCA Coaches Poll.
--MONARCHS--