WILMINGTON — With a touchdown pass with just 10.5 seconds remaining, visiting Batavia put a damper on Wilmington’s Homecoming game Friday night, defeating the Hurricane 28-21 in SBAAC American Division action at Alumni Field.
Batavia quarterback Carson Harris connected with Marcus Eubanks for the game-winning score with only 10.5 seconds remaining in regulation.
The teams, which played to a 7-7 halftime standoff, and a scoreless third quarter, put on an offensive display in the final quarter.
Batavia had a time-consuming 10-play, 63-yard drive with the score tied at 14-14. Harris connected in the corner of the end zone with Maximus Mehlman for the tie-breaking touchdown, and the PAT by Joey Coffey made it 21-14, in favor of the Bulldogs.
Undaunted by the Bulldogs’ heroics, Wilmington responded with an 80-yard TD by Payden Mawyer, with 49 seconds remaining in the game and the PAT by Dylan Groves knotted the score at 21-21 each.
On the Bulldogs’ next series, Zane Smith came up big with an interception at the 30, but Wilmington fumbled it away and the Bulldogs capitalized with the game-winning touchdown in the waning seconds.
“Some costly penalties and turnovers — that was the difference,” said WHS head coach Ryan Evans, en route to the locker room following the contest. “We simply have to find a way to stop the opponent. Batavia is a very good team and we could not stop them when we needed to.”
Wilmington had the only score in the opening quarter, a 13-yard pass from Jake Stephens to Elijah Stewart, and Groves’ PAT gave WHS a 7-0 lead.
Batavia was able to tie the game at the 3:40 mark of the second quarter on a six-yard pass from Harris to Eubanks and the teams headed to intermission tied at 7-7.
Wilmington snapped the tie on the opening play of the fourth quarter when Stephens connected with Stevie Rickman on a 19-yard TD pass, but the Hurricane could not prevent the Bulldogs from getting the eventual game-tying, and go-ahead touchdowns to secure the win.
Wilmington travels to Goshen to face the Warriors next Friday night.
