RB
Denzel Knight and OL
Xavier Santiago celebrate Knight's first-quarter touchdown (Photo by Jon Lambert)
Box Score
West Long Branch, NJ - Wagner quarterbacks
T.J. Linta and
Luke Massei combined for 377 yards passing and a school-record six touchdowns, including three to wide receiver
D'Erren Wilson, running back
Ryan Fulse became the 10th Seahawk to eclipse the 2,000-yard career rushing mark, while also breaking into the Seahawks' all-time top-10 rushing list, but Monmouth was able to drive the length of the field for the winning score with 1:14 left to play in pulling out a dramatic 54-47 shootout win at Kessler Stadium on Saturday.
With the loss, the Green & White fall to 1-4 on the season while their former longtime Northeast Conference (NEC) rival Hawks improve to 3-2.
The crowd of 3,791 fans on the sun-splashed Monmouth campus, along with a national audience logged in on ESPN +, bore witness to a wildly entertaining, back-and-forth contest, one that saw these teams combine for one big play after another throughout the afternoon. All told, the Seahawks and Hawks combined for a staggering 101 points, 950 total offensive yards, 14 touchdowns and six lead changes. In the first half alone of this wild and wooly affair, the teams combined on 62 points, eight touchdowns, including five through the air by Wagner, and 472 total offensive yards, along with five lead changes, as the Seahawks took a 33-29 halftime lead.
In a harbinger of things to come, the contest got off to a unique start when Monmouth took an early 2-0 lead on a safety off a low snap that got past Linta, forcing the graduate student and former two-year starter at Brown University, to chase down the bouncing ball before wisely diving on it in the Seahawk endzone. Following the free kick, Seahawks came up with their first of three turnovers that led to 21 unanswered points and a 21-2 Wagner lead.
The Wagner surge was triggered when blitzing junior outside linebacker
Cam Gill came off the left edge to partially deflect a pass atempt by Monmouth quarterback Kenji Bahar that wound up in the hands of junior cornerback
Darryl Gamble that set the Seahawks up at the MU 46.
After picking up one first down, Wagner fourth-year head coach
Jason Houghtaling aggressively went for it on 4th-and-4 at the Hawks' 30 and the move paid off when Linta hit graduate student wide receiver
Denzel Knight for eight yards and a first down at the 22. Three plays later, on 3rd-and-6, Linta found Knight again, lofting a pretty 18-yard touchdown pass as Wagner jumped in front, 7-2.
Monmouth moved the ball to the Seahawk 33 on its ensuing possession when junior safety
Khaliq Byard strip-sacked Bahar on 2nd-and-17, with redshirt junior linebacker
Santoni Graham pouncing on the ball at the Seahawk 40. This marked the beginning of a productive day for the combination of Byard and Graham, who would go on to share team-high honors with nine tackles apiece. On first down, Fulse shook loose for a game-long 28-yard burst to the MU 22. Two plays later, Linta delivered a perfectly-thrown touchdown pass to a well-covered Wilson in the right part of the end zone to make it a 14-2 lead.
Things then went from bad to worse for the Hawks on the ensuing kickoff when fifth-year senior wide receiver
Jeffrey Bost delivered a tremendous individual effort, when, all in one motion, he ripped the ball out of the hands of MU return man Matt Castronuova, and managed to hang on for the fumble recovery at the Hawk 26, only after an instant replay review upheld the bang-bang turnover. On first down, Linta connected with Wilson again on a 26-yard scoring strike in building the Seahawk lead to 21-2. Linta was on fire early, completing six of his first seven passes for 88 yards and the three touchdowns.
It was then Monmouth's turn to heat up offensively, as the Hawks reeled off 20 consecutive points in taking their first lead of the game, a 22-21 edge with 11:16 left in the opening half, a flurry aided by a huge penalty that went MU's way. Trailing by that 21-2 count, the Hawks were on the move again on their next drive when, onn 3rd-and-8 from the Wagner 33, Seahawk junior defensive lineman
Chris Williams dropped Bahar for what would have been a nine-yard sack. However, in the process, Williams was flagged for a facemask penalty, with the 15-yard march-off giving MU a first down at the Seahawk 18. Five plays later, Bahar found wide receiver Reggie White, Jr. in the end zone.
Following a failed MU two-point try, the first quarter came to an end with the Seahawks on top, 21-8.
The energized Hawks then struck for 14 quick points on a five-yard Pete Guerriero run, that made it 21-15, followed by a nifty 68-yard TD jaunt by quarterback Kenji Bahar, who broke several tackles in weaving his way to pay dirt and a 22-21 MU lead.
Senior quarterback
Luke Massei, who had come on in place Linta two drives earlier, fired a a 48-yard touchdown pass along the left sideline to
Willie Dale, hitting the redshirt sophomore wide receiver in stride with a hook-up that put Wagner back up on top, 27-22. MU then countered with a five-play, 75-yard drive, capped by a Devell Jones two-yard run, which put the Hawks back in the lead at 29-27.
Massei then capped the half by leading Wagner on an 8-play, 55-yard march, capped by a three-yard toss to Wilson. In snaring his third touchdown reception, the tall, rangy Texan out-wrestled the Monmouth defender in the deep left corner of the end zone with just 22 seconds left. After Wagner failed on the two-point conversion try, the Green & White took a 33-29 lead into the intermission.
After MU opened the second half by inching to within 33-32 on a 37-yard Matt Mosquera field goal, following a Wagner punt, senior cornerback
Sterling Lowry picked off a long Bahar aerial at the Seahawk 29. From there, Massei engineered a crisp 8-play, 71-yard drive, that featured a mix of run and pass, culminating in a five-yard touchdown burst by Fulse that made it 40-32 with 6:32 left in the third quarter, which is where the score remained heading into the game's final stanza.
After a sack by Williams forced a three-and-out, Wagner struck again, putting together a 10-play, 70-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 26-yard touchdown toss from Massei to senior tight end
Chris Woodard on a designed play-action roll-out to the right, which gave the Seahawks their biggest lead of the game, at 47-32.
On its ensuing drive, following a long kickoff return to the MU 44, Monmouth answered with five-play, 56-yard drive, the last 21 coming on a scoring run by running back Juwon Farri. Wagner managed one first down in its next drive before the drive was halted. A 14-yard Monmouth punt return set up a short 28-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 19-yard Farri score that knotted the game at 47-47;
MU stopped Wagner's next drive at their Hawks' 40 when Seahawk sophomore
Eric Silvester (40.3-yard average on 7 punts), dropped a beautiful, high-arching ball that was downed at te MU one-yard line. After getting some breathing room out to their own 16, Bahar then found White, Jr. open over the middle and long-striding receiver did the rest, sprinting for an 84-yard touchdown, capping a 99-yard, three-play drive.
Wagner had one last gasp before Massei, who wound up 25-of-34 passing for 289 yards and three touchdowns, was picked off near midfield to end the Seahawks' final chance.
Monmouth did a nice job defensively on Fulse, limiting the Seahawk All-American candidate to 72 hard-earned yards rushing on 28 carries. In the receiving department, Wilson matched his career high with 10 receptions for 127 yards, Knight finished with seven catches for 64 yards and one score, while Bost set career highs with five grabs for 71 yards.
Bahar wound up 14-of-26 passing for 251 yards, with two TDs and two INTs, while being harassed into five sacks by an active Seahawk defense, led by Gill's 2.5 sacks. Farri was MU's leading ground-gainer with 104 yards on just seven carries, while the MU defense was led by Ryan Schoer's 10 tackles.
The Seahawks are next in action on Saturday, October 6 when Wagner travels to Buses Creek, NC to meet their second consecutive Big South conference opponent in the Campbell University Camels.
NOTES
