Sabers come up short in hard-fought battle

BY JOBY FAWCETT
Times-Shamrock Writer

Meyers came away with a hard fought win, 19-14, over No. 8 Susquehanna on Saturday at William Emminger Memorial Field.

The Mohawks built a 19-7 advantage, then held off a pair of Sabers threats to improve to 2-0. Last week, Meyers defeated Montrose.

In the first half, Susquehanna (1-1) built a 7-0 lead after taking advantage of outstanding field position, graciously provided by Meyers, which failed to convert an early fake punt attempt.

Brett Hepler scored on a 5-yard run for Susquehanna, but never looked the same the rest of the game on offense.

He did, however, have a solid game punting, with three kicks of 51 yards. One pinned Meyers at its own 8, but on a third-and-8 from the 10, a completed pass was run for a touchdown that brought the Mohawks to within 7-6.

That spoiled an otherwise dominant half by Susquehanna defensively. The Sabers limited the big-play Mohawks to 16 yards rushing on 17 carries in the first 24 minutes.

In the second half, however, Meyers turned to a more straight-forward attack, pounding away at the interior of the Sabers line.

That approach and the suffocating humidity wore on Susquehanna as the Mohawks seized a 12-7 lead by finding the end zone after a punishing 14-play, 71-yard drive.

“They pretty much ran the same thing every play and we were getting tired and we were getting blown off the ball,” Susquehanna coach Kyle Cook said.

Susquehanna struggled to move the ball and punted it away to a fired up Meyers team.

Three plays after the change of possession, Meyers darted 75 yards on third down after a shifty move along the sideline to make it 19-7 with 11:03 to go in the game.

Susquehanna responded with an eight-play drive that covered 69 yards. Austin Felter had a 22-yard run, Nolan Hausser added a 13-yard burst, and Austin White had runs of 12 yards and finally 1 yard for a touchdown that made it 19-14.

After forcing a 2-yard punt by Meyers, the Sabers had a shot to take the lead, but turned the ball over on a fumble at the Meyers 37.

In the game’s final 1:30, White had a 22-yard run and was hit out of bounds to tack on 15 more to move Susquehanna to the Meyers 45. But the Sabers moved only 5 yards closer on a Hausser reception, and had the drive stall with three straight incompletions.

“Historically, when we get down a touchdown, our heads go down, but we came back,” Cook said. “We fought back.”