MILTON, Mass. — The 1,337 who turned out for Saturday afternoon’s New England Football Conference championship game between Maine Maritime Academy and Curry College at Walter M. Katz Field were already drenched.
So it didn’t matter to them if the game went into overtime, which seemed inevitable.
But MMA’s Tyler Angell and Alex Coulombe spared them a few more minutes of discomfort as they hooked up on an improbable Hail Mary pass covering 36 yards with no time left on the clock to give the Mariners a remarkable 48-42 triumph.
A fortuitous deflection off the hands of Curry free safety Bobby Driscoll resulted in Angell’s heave landing in the waiting arms of Coulombe, who then raced 7 yards into the end zone to supply the 9-1 Mariners with an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Mariners will travel to New Jersey for a first-round matchup against Montclair State (9-1) on Saturday at noon.
The Mariners were able to get within striking distance when a roughing-the-passer penalty on linebacker Dan Dawson moved the ball to the C-36 with one second remaining. Dawson’s penalty came at the expense of MMA wide receiver Nate Duford as the Mariners tried a trick play that failed when Duford’s pass fell incomplete.
“That penalty gave us an extra chance, so we went for the Hail Mary,” said Kennebunk’s Coulombe. “Instead of going for the interception, [Driscoll] knocked it up in the air and I caught it and scored. It bounced up and went right into my hands.”
“It was fate. It was suppose to happen, you know,” added Coulombe. “It’s the most exciting thing to ever happen to me.”
Angell said, “I was just trying to get it to Coulombe. He’s a tall kid [6-foot-3] and I just wanted him to jump for it. I was throwing it up for grabs.”
“It was unbelievable. When I got up, I saw Alex running into the end zone,” added Leeds’ Angell, who was knocked down after he threw the pass.
“It’s a crazy game,” said MMA senior fullback Jim Bower of South Paris, who bulled his way for 166 yards on 37 carries and scored three touchdowns. “I’ve never experienced anything like that. That roughing-the-passer penalty was huge.”
Stunned Curry linebacker Mike Murray said his team was unlucky.
“That last play went their way and not our way,” he said.
“Stuff happens in football,” said Curry standout quarterback Zach Cavanaugh as he sat dejectedly by himself on the team bench. “You can win on any play and you can lose on any play.”
Cavanaugh’s nifty 6-yard touchdown scamper with 42 seconds remaining, in which he cut back to evade two Mariner tacklers, capped a seven-play, 53-yard drive and tied it.
Cavanaugh, who spent a year at Hebron Academy, ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. He also threw two TD passes.
The seesaw game featured two dominant offensive lines which combined to pave the way for 687 rushing yards. Curry ran the ball 54 times for 345 yards (6.4 yards per rush) while the Mariners’ option attack ground out 342 yards on 67 carries (5.1).
The Mariners dug themselves a hole by fumbling the ball away twice, resulting in touchdowns 20 seconds apart and a 14-0 deficit. Jamaal Woods plunged in from the 1 and, after a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, John Sughrue spun off tacklers at the line of scrimmage and rambled for a 32-yard TD.
“We don’t let things like that bother us,” said Angell. “We know we can come back and score any time we need to.”
Nick Bourassa cut the lead to 14-6 with a 25-yard run that capped a six-play, 58-yard drive but the Colonels (8-3) answered with a 30-yard Cavanaugh run that made it 21-6.
MMA responded with a nine-play, 59-yard drive finished off by Angell’s 1-yard sneak.
On the next Curry possession, MMA linebacker Wade Mondoux threw Cavanaugh for a loss after the quarterback fumbled the snap on fourth-and-four. MMA then marched 45 yards in four carries with Bower going the final seven yards.
Curry led 21-20 at the intermission.
The Mariners took their first lead by taking the second-half kickoff and driving 56 yards, capped by Bower’s 1-yard TD run.
Cavanaugh tied it with a 2-yard TD pass to Jon Rodriguez, Bower made it 34-28 with a 5-yard run and Curry answered with a 27-yard TD pass from Cavanaugh to Jeff Hibbard. Alksninis’ extra-point kick made it 35-34.
Curry regained possession with a chance to expand the lead, but Cavanaugh fumbled a snap and MMA linebacker Travis Fergolz recovered at the C-33.
Seven plays later, Angell snuck in from the 1 and Todd Murphy ran for the two-point conversion and a 42-35 lead with just 3:23 left. But Cavanaugh rallied the Colonels, carrying the ball four times for 30 yards, including his 6-yard TD run to tie it for the final time.