Monmouth University's Two Point Conversion Beats Fordham In Overtime

Photo above courtesy of Monmouth University: White Jr. scoring one of his two touchdowns Saturday

WEST LONG BRANCH – Monmouth University head coach Kevin Callahan was in a gambling mood in Saturday’s game against Fordham University. After going for it and converting on two second half fourth-down plays that led directly to touchdowns, Callahan rolled the dice one last time in overtime.

On Fordham’s first possession of overtime, the Rams scored in four plays with Chase Edmonds running it in from the 2-yard line to take a 41-34 lead with the extra point. The Hawks then answered with a touchdown in four plays as well - overcoming a five-yard penalty on first down that negated a big gainer - with senior Ed Royds bulling his way in from 4-yards out.

Callahan didn’t hesitate leaving his offense on the field for a two point conversion and the gutsy call paid off handsomely. Sophomore quarterback Cody Williams found his go-to receiver Reggie White Jr. all alone in the back of the end zone and White Jr. made the sure-handed catch to give the Hawks a thrilling 42-41 win in front of a delirious Kessler Field crowd.

“We were going for it all the way,” Callahan said. “After they scored and we knew what we had to do, we said even before we snapped the ball on the first play that ‘we’re going for two.’”

“At first when coach told me we were going for two I was like ‘you’re joking, right,’” Williams said. And when he said no I was like ‘all right let’s do this.’”

Monmouth quickly fell behind 13-0 in the first quarter before two Matt White field goals pulled the Hawks to within 13-6 three minutes into the second quarter.

The Hawks then forced Fordham to punt before embarking on a 16 play, 89-yard scoring drive that took close to eight minutes off the clock with Zach Welch scoring from 1-yard out to even the score at 13-13 with 1:30 left in the half. Williams completed four key passes for first downs to White, Zach Fable, White again and Darren Ambush to keep the drive alive.

Then with less than a minute remaining in the half, and Monmouth on the verge of taking control of the game, Fordham quarterback Kevin Anderson’s third-and-10 pass from the Rams 31 fell incomplete and it appeared the Hawks would get the ball back.

However, Monmouth was called for roughing the passer on the play and the penalty handed Fordham a first down at their own 46. On the next play, Anderson hit Austin Longi with a 54-yard touchdown pass lifting Fordham to a 20-13 lead.

It didn't end there. Following the kickoff, Williams first-down swing pass hit the ground and after a booth review was ruled a fumble with the Rams recovering at the Hawks 20-yard line. Three plays later Edmonds ran it in from the one and incredibly within a one minute span the Hawks went from a tie game with the ball and three timeouts in hand, to being down two touchdowns.

And to many of the Hawk faithful in the stands, the game suddenly took on an eerie similarity to last year’s loss to Fordham when the Hawks committed five turnovers in their 54-31 loss to the Rams. Already Monmouth had lost three fumbles along with that critical roughing the passer penalty.

“That takes a lot of courage; it takes a lot to overcome that type of adversity going from a 13-13 game to a 27-13 game at the half in under a minute,” Callahan said. “We came out (in the second half) and did some really good things on both sides of the ball and made the plays when we had to and that took it right down to the final play.

“We just made our mind up at halftime that we were going to go out and first of all get ourselves back in the game. And then once we did that we were going to go on and win it. I got to give a lot of credit to both sides of the ball; we just continued to make plays. We put ourselves back in the game and ended up winning it.”

On Fordham’s first possession of the second half cornerback Kamau Dumas’ jarring hit on a Ram receiver forced a fumble with freshman linebacker Evan Powell recovering for the Hawks. But the turnover plague continued for Monmouth as Zach Welch coughed up the ball on third-and-1 from the 49 accounting for the Hawks fourth fumble on the day.

“To get the turnover and come right back and fumble again was just one of those things we had to overcome,” Callahan said. “We had to refocus as Cody mentioned and just play on and that’s what we did.”

With Fordham now driving for what looked like the game-clinching touchdown, the Hawks defense – led by senior defensive end Darnell Leslie – got a huge fourth-and-5 stop at the Hawks 28-yard line as Leslie pressured Anderson into an incompletion.

On the next play, Williams hit White Jr. with a short pass in the flat and after eluding a couple of would-be tacklers White Jr. broke it to the right and just flat-out, out-ran everyone down the right sidelines for a 72-yard touchdown to pull within 27-20 with just under six minutes left in the third quarter.

Following the kickoff, Fordham drove to the Hawks 33 and were facing a third-and-6 for a first down but Mike Basile, Payton Minnich and Leslie combined to stop Edmonds after a three-yard gain bringing up a fourth-and-3 from the 30. Deciding to for it, Anderson again felt the heat from Leslie as he stepped up in the pocket looking for Cantelli, but LeKeith Celestain was there to break up the pass turning the ball back over to Monmouth.

On Monmouth's ensuing possession, a 15-yard run by Royds, a 12-yard pass to White Jr. as the third quarter ended and critical Williams 12-yard run on fourth-and-9 gave Monmouth a first down at the Rams 24-yard line. Then, after a 6-yard pass to Ambush, Williams again found White Jr. for 18-yard catch-and-run touchdown to tie the game 27-27 with 13:32 left.

The Rams took over on their own 33 following the kickoff but the inspired Monmouth’s defense forced a three-and-out. On first down, Basile and Powell stopped Edmonds for a 3-yard loss before Basile sacked Anderson for a seven yard loss setting up a third-and-21 at the 22-yard line. Under pressure from the heart of Monmouth’s defensive line Anderson overthrew a wide open receiver downfield and the Rams were force to punt as the Hawks dodged a bullet.

Monmouth’s offense was in a groove now and feeding off its defense as they headed to the line of scrimmage with 63 yards in front of them for the go-ahead score. A crucial fourth-and-2 Williams to Ambush 6-yard completion kept the drive alive and a Michael Jolly 7-yard run on third-and-three gave the Hawks a first down at the 20-yard line. Royds then gave Monmouth a 34-27 lead taking it in on first-and-goal from 9-yard line with 6:45 remaining in the game.

However, Fordham wasn’t done quite yet as the Rams then went 78 yards in six plays to tie the game at 34 with Edmonds scoring on a 55-yard burst up the middle as Monmouth missed at least three tackles on the play.

Fordham got the ball back with 1:22 left in the game after the Hawks were forced to punt and unbelievably the Rams positioned themselves to win the game.

Under intense pressure on every play, two Anderson scrambles on third-and-9 from the 40 and again on third-and-14 from the 50 - with Monmouth players draped all over him - gave the Rams a first down at the 30-yard line with 6.2 seconds left in the game. A stunned Monmouth crowd then watched as Rams kicker Makay Reed lined up for the possible game winning kick but his 47-yard low line-drive attempt was no good and the two teams headed to overtime.

This was a huge win for Monmouth University as they fought through some intense adversity against a perennial FCS top 25 team and never stopped battling. Was it a program-defining win? That’s still to be determined, but it definitely stamps Monmouth as a program on the rise in the scheme of things in the FCS landscape and people will take notice.

Williams had the game he needed to have for the Hawks to have any chance of winning against Fordham. He was outstanding in his play and exhibited the leadership - in some very rough spots - that has always been expected of him. He never got rattled and his decision making throughout the game was spot on while avoiding any costly turnovers.

“When we got into the locker room at halftime we knew what we were capable of,” Williams said. “We knew it we just stayed focused and stayed task driven on all our assignments and everyone did their jobs we could be right back in this game. There was a lot of football left to play.”

His 290-yards passing are a career high for Williams as he completed 22-of-31 passes with two touchdowns and rushed for an additional 25 yards on four carries. The Hawks were 6-for-6 in the red zone and 2-for-2 on fourth downs and held a 35:50 to 24:10 advantage in time of possession.

Royds had a fantastic game stepping up and in for the still hurting Lavon Chaney and Zach Welch rushing for 103 yards on 19 carries and two touchdowns with some incredibly important runs down the stretch.

“He did a great job,” Callahan said. “We lost Lavon earlier in the game and Welch was banged up too and Ed Royds came in made some key plays. He ran really tough on some of those first downs he made and made a huge run in overtime after the penalty.”

White Jr. also had a career day with 10 receptions for 167 yards, two touchdowns and the two-point conversion. Whenever the Hawks needed a big play it White Jr. who got the call. Ambush also had some big catches grabbing six balls for 81 yards.

Defensively, Basile and Powell led with eight tackles apiece with Basile recording a sack and 2.5 TFL and Powell recovering a fumble and getting a TFL. Leslie had six tackles with three TFL, FF, sack and QBH while Dimitrius Smith recorded four tackles including a half a sack. Defensive tackle Manny Maragoto registered 1.5 sacks with four tackles and cornerback Teddy Martinez had six tackles and half a TFL. Minnich finished with five tackles and two QBH and linebacker Diego Zubieta chipped in with five tackles.

The Hawks improve to 3-2 on the year, while Fordham falls to 2-2 with their first loss to an FCS team this season.

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