Sports

Fumbled away

• A fumble as the Wildcats attempted to run out the clock cost them their season in the first-round of the af2 playoffs Saturday.

Paul Dehner Jr.

ALBANY — As cornerback Roland Cola hauled in an interception with less than a minute remaining to halt the attempt at a game-winning drive for the Manchester Wolves, a raucous, playoff crowd at the Albany Civic Center hit a deafening crescendo.

Players danced, fans exhaled an exhausting sigh of relief. The celebration was on.

Then what was supposed to be the coronation of the South Georgia Wildcats first home playoff win in history turned into a 56-second nightmare.

Attempting to run out the clock, center Donald Usry and quarterback Andrico Hines fumbled the exchange and Manchester recovered. The Wolves tallied the game-winning touchdown while South Georgia’s final shot was knocked away with six seconds left.

As the bitter 46-42 final score hung as a reminder on the scoreboard, the second-seeded Wildcats stood in disbelief of championship dreams fumbled away.

“We have been fighting hard all these weeks, now we are on a seven-game winning streak,” Cola said. “Now we come to the playoffs and just give it up like that, it seems like we just worked for nothing.”

The fumble proved to be the most pivotal mistake in a game loaded with them for South Georgia. Efficiency and near-flawless football sat as the cornerstone of the Wildcats run to the South Division championship.

Yet, in an atmosphere unlike many others this season, the Wildcats two fumbles and sluggish offense were equally out of the ordinary.

Even after squandering the lead with 56 seconds remaining, South Georgia found itself in a position it has been in all year. The Wildcats have won five games on the final play and three times scored points with no time left to pull out victory.

Lining up the offense on the 8-yard line down by four, the game was still in their hands. Though, in the decisive final minute, that proved the last place they wanted it to be.

On the second play of the drive, P.J. Berry ran deep and sprinted past a defender as Hines’ pass lofted into the air it grazed Berry’s fingertips and fell harmlessly to the ground.

“I have to make that catch,” Berry said. “That is on me.”

After a first-down connection, Hines ran to the line to spike the ball, but lost the grip and fumbled it. After hoping on top of it, the Wildcats were forced to burn their crucial final time out.

With Manchester now taking away the outside edge, the Wildcats wound up in a fourth-and-8 with 17 seconds remaining. There, 6-foot-3 receiver Buchie Ibeh broke open deep and had a one-on-one in the end zone with 5-foot-11 defensive back Al Phillips. Ibeh got his hands on the pass, but Phillips poked it away at the last second.

A certain victory wobbled harmlessly on the ground as Ibeh hunched over on his knees.

“The pass was a little underneath, I looked back and it kind of caught me off guard a little bit,” said Ibeh, who caught 10 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns. “I credit that defender; he wanted to go on to the next round, so did I. But, the ball came out.”

It served as one final missed opportunity.

On the final play before halftime, Ibeh took a pass across the middle and lateraled to Berry, who scrambled and dodged defenders to dive into the end zone for an apparent momentum-grabbing score going into the half.

It was called back by holding.

After Cory Bailey recovered a fumble with 6:30 remaining, the Wildcats offense had an opportunity to gain the first two-possession lead of the night.

Their drive died on downs at the Manchester 9.

And, of course, after Cola’s interception there was the turnover this game will constantly be remembered for.

“It just seemed like we could never grab the momentum,” Stingley said. “We could get it, we just couldn’t really seal the deal. Turnovers really killed us. I can’t say that one play is the reason why we lost this game today. We had some opportunities; we just didn’t take advantage of it while Manchester did.”

Players and coaches screamed all night long in the faces of an officiating crew that called 11 penalties on South Georgia to just three on Manchester.

The largest reaction came as the Wildcats claimed the Wolves called out the cadence on the final fumble to force an early snap while Hines wasn’t even under center.

Hines said he feels like the season was stolen from him.

“I really do,” he said. “But what can I say. We are out of it and we had a good run.”

As this nightmare overflowed into a heartbroken locker room this collection of players will never again share, the stunning reality sunk in. It was just that: A run. And it’s over.

“When I put the team together, I didn’t put the team together to bow out in the first round of the playoffs,” said Stingley, who is 23-12 in two seasons with the Wildcats. “I put it together so we could go all the way and win the thing. I didn’t see this day coming. Not now. What I saw was us going all the way to the championship. Now it is somebody else’s championship to be won. Not ours.”

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