So much for the demise of Holy Cross.
After beating Uconn and hopping into the national FCS rankings, the Crusaders took a huge step back with a loss to Merrimack last week and everyone was quickly jumping off the bandwagon.
In typical Bob Chesney fashion, he had his team ready to go when Holy Cross made a trip to the Yale Bowl on Saturday as the Bulldogs were seemingly opening their schedule with an “easy” FCS win, right?
Not so fast in the infamous words of Lee Corso. Thanks to a late field goal with just 48 seconds left from Derek Ng, the Crusaders took down Yale 20-17 for their second FBS win in three games. This was only the third time since 1982 that Holy Cross has won at the Yale Bowl. The Crusaders’ most recent road win over Yale came in October of 2005. To put that in perspective, I was still a junior in high school.
Holy Cross (2-1) remains on the road for a game against Monmouth next weekend before returning home to host Harvard on October 2nd.
Matt Sluka had a monster day offensively for the Crusaders. The sophomore QB had 85 yards on the ground (12 carries) and two rushing touchdowns along with 80 yards through the air. Marco Siderman threw the ball five times in this one, completing four of them for 68 yards. Defensively, Holy Cross gave up 356 total yards, but only allowed Yale to go 2-for-11 on third downs. Walter Reynolds had an interception for Holy Cross too, icing the game with the lone turnover for either team.
Jackson Hawes (19 yards) hauled in a touchdown pass from Griffin O’Connor (stats) and JJ Howland brought one in from 74-yards out – both in the second quarter – to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead. The Crusaders responded with a 44-yard field goal from Ng and a 6-yard touchdown run from Sluka in the final 30 seconds of the half to cut it to 14-10 at the break.
Sluka added a 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to give Holy Cross its first lead of the game at 17-14 but Yale tied things up at 17-17 with a 47-yard field goal 45 seconds into the fourth. The Crusaders took their first lead of the game with 48 seconds left on Ng’s field goal and one play after the kick off Reynolds’ interception sealed the deal. Prior to the winning kick, Sluka converted a 4th-and-short with a 5-yard run that may have been the biggest play of the afternoon.
For Ng, it was actually his second game-winning field goal against Yale. Ng also booted a game-winner in 2018 against the Bulldogs, winning that game 31-28.
It’s only one win in late September, but Saturday’s win is one of those potential springboard type games and if Chesney has anything to say about it it’ll be the first of many special memories this team creates in 2021. The sky still appears to be the limit for the Crusaders.