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DALLAS TWP. — Misericordia University wanted to make some history in its first postseason football game ever on Saturday in a season that was full of firsts.
The history that the Cougars made was not what they wanted to do.
Instead of building on an eight-win campaign, the team tied a school-record for most points allowed in a 70-14 loss to Ursinus in the MAC-Centennial Bowl Series at Mangelsdorf Field. The points surrendered is the third time the team allowed that many, but the first time since the program’s inaugural season in 2012.
“It’s an embarrassing loss is what it is,” Cougars coach Mark Ross said. “I think we did not prepare for this week. We earned what happened today because we didn’t take care of business.”
The Bears rolled up 702 total yards mainly using the option as quarterback Tom Garlick, who was named game MVP, threw for three touchdowns and ran for one, while tailback Sam Ragland rushed for four scores and caught another.
“I know we didn’t prepare well for the first time all year,” Ross added. “They ran the option. I blitzed us into some bad scores early, that’s on me. The option was a problem. I knew coming in and I blitzed into it and killed us too many times.”
The game didn’t start off horribly. The Cougars (7-1 MAC, 8-3 overall) created an interception on the first drive. Then came a 28-second span in the first quarter where three touchdowns were scored on three straight plays from scrimmage. A 5-yard run by Garlick gave Ursinus a 7-0 lead with 9:30 on the clock.
Misericordia’s first play from scrimmage after getting the ball back was a 65-yard touchdown scamper by David Cromwell, who netted a team-high 106 rushing yards. A 75-yard TD pass from Garlick (365 passing yards) to Jacob Clifford on the Bears’ next play came with 9:02 to go in the first for a 14-7 lead.
From there, Ursinus rolled to five more scores in the first half to open a 42-14 lead at the break.
A 92-yard TD run by Ragland (203 rushing yards) on Ursinus’ first play of the second half started the rout and ended any chance the Cougars would have at making their fifth comeback win of the season. Ursinus tacked on three more touchdowns the rest of the way.
“As a coach you always got something to worry about and we certainly didn’t want to come up here and seem like we were running up the score or anything,” Bears coach Peter Gallagher said. “We had our backups in and we were running the ball in the fourth quarter. It just happened that way. Misericordia’s a good football team and they’re well-coached and they got a bright future.”
Despite the less than stellar effort on Saturday, the Cougars still had the best season in school history surpassing the program’s prior combined win total. A few days before the game, the team picked up MAC honors as QB Brady Williams – who missed the last two and a half games with an injury – was named the MAC Offensive Player of the Year and Ross was lauded as the conference’s Coach of the Year. Ten Cougars in total earned MAC honors, the most the team has ever produced.
“We accomplished a lot of things, just to finish the way we did, it’s not what I wanted,” Ross noted.
MAC-Centennial Bowl Series
Ursinus 70, Misericordia 14
Ursinus`21`21`14`14`—`70
Misericordia`7’7`0`0`—`14
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
URS – Garlick 5 run (Cherneskie kick) 9:30
MIS – Cromwell 65 run (Dinnocenti kick) 9:15
URS – Clifford 75 pass from Garlick (Cherneskie kick) 9:02
URS – Ragland 24 pass from Garlick (Cherneskie kick) 3:40
Second Quarter
URS – Ragland 1 run (Cherneskie kick) 7:10
URS – Vera 29 pass from Garlick (Cherneskie kick) 4:38
MIS – Gillison 16 pass from Barry (Dinnocenti kick) 2:00
URS – Ragland 3 run (Cherneskie kick) 1:12
Third Quarter
URS – Ragland 92 run (Cherneskie kick) 11:41
URS – Ragland 13 run (Cherneskie kick) 6:12
Fourth Quarter
URS – Klassen 5 run (Cherneskie kick) 10:30
URS – Davis 6 run (Cherneskie kick) 3:43
Team statistics`URS`MIS
First downs`29`14
Rushes-yards`41-338`29-141
Passing yards`365`142
Total yards`703`283
Passing`17-25-2`16-30-1
Sacks by-yards lost`1-8`0-0
Punts-avg.`2-35.0`9-36.2
Fumbles-lost`1-0`0-0
Penalties-yards`4-55`6-65
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
PASSING — URS, Garlick 17-25-2-365. MIS, Barry 16-30-1-142.
RUSHING — URS, Ragland 21-203, Carter 2-64, Garlick 6-30, Wiggins 5-25, Davis 3-22, Klassen 2-15, Honick 2-(minus-6), Gravelle 0-(minus-15). MIS, Cromwell 10-106, Salerno 4-19, Dallas 6-10, Vleck 4-8, Williams 1-3, Barry 4-(minus-5).
RECEIVING — URS, Ragland 5-95, Gravelle 3-90, Clifford 2-86, Loughlin 3-40, Vera 1-29, Cardozo 2-20, Wiggins 1-5. MIS, Gillison 7-71, Williams 7-64, Solomon 1-7, Kelly 1-0.
INTERCEPTIONS — URS, Jones 1-2. MIS, Murray 1-4, Becke 1-0.
MISSED FGs — none