Sports

‘Cats miffed over fumble

• With South Georgia winding down the clock to win, a fumbled snap gives the ball to Manchester for the go ahead score.

Derek Barichello

ALBANY — South Georgia’s title hopes came to a screeching halt on one controversial play.

With less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats regained possession in their own territory with a three-point lead and as long as they could run out the clock, they were on their way to the second round of the af2 playoffs — and another home game.

Instead, the Wildcats fumbled the next snap and the Manchester recovered. As a result, the Wolves scored the game-winning touchdown on the next play and left Albany with a 46-42 victory.

“Everybody was upset after it happened,” Wildcats center Donald Usry said. “We just lost this game basically.”

However, it was not that simple.

After the game, questions still surrounded the bizarre play, like exactly what happened? And was it legal?

After a Roland Cola interception held off what appeared to be the Wolves’ last charge, the Wildcats offense approached the offensive line looking to run out the clock — when a ploy from the Wolves’ nose guard threw the Wildcats off target.

“On first down, we get up to the line and the nose guard yells ‘Go!’” Usry said. “Instinctively I’m thinking it’s my quarterback. So I snap it.”

But quarterback Andrico Hines was not ready for incoming football.

“I was looking back at the motion and the defensive guy yelled go and we hiked the ball,” Hines said. “That’s what happened, in a nutshell.”

As both sides scrambled for the loose ball, the Wolves recovered and celebrated the wild turn of events, while Wildcats’ players and coach Derek Stingley plead with officials to overturn the possession because they knew the tactic used by the Wolves’ nose guard was illegal --- even to the point of an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

“The official wouldn’t call it,” Usry said. “They said they didn’t hear it.”

The Wildcats know the play is illegal from experience. Just two weeks ago in a win at Peoria, Wildcats defensive lineman Joe Woolridge was called for trying to throw of the Pirates’ snap count.

“The crazy thing about it was in Peoria, we did the same thing and they penalized us,” Hines said. “Then to come here and be home and have more penalties than anybody…”

However, Stingley does not blame the Wolves for trying the tactic.

“It’s smart on them,” Stingley said. “If something like that happens, they get the ball back and they got the momentum.”

While in the moment, the Wildcats pointed fingers at the officials, after the game, they pointed only fingers at themselves.

"It's the first time anything like that happened to me," Usry said. "It's my fault. Rookie mistake. All we had to get was one yard. I couldn’t complete the snap to the quarterback.”

However, while Usry took a long shower after the game and put a lot of the blame on himself, his teammates knew in a game with many twists, it came down to more than that one play.

“A lot of people don’t understand it’s pretty tedious when you’re out there and you’re playing center,” Wildcats offensive lineman Lou Vega said.

“You’re on edge and you’re trying to get that jump, first thing you hear, you don’t care where it’s coming from you’re going to snap it. Unfortunately, it went in their favor. We’re not going to give any speeches. That’s not why we lost.”

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