Akins field goal caps Bears comeback win

(Portage) – The last three times St. Joseph and Portage Northern have faced each other, Northern held a touchdown advantage and in each of the last three meetings St. Joe would rally for a victory over Northern. St. Joe outscored Northern 16-6 in the final 8:26 of the game to improve to 3-0 with a 30-27 win.

Neither team was able to break the scoreless deadlock in the first quarter as each team had an early turnover.

A fumbled punt by Northern gave the ball back to St. Joe, but a fumble near the goal line stopped a St. Joe scoring attempt.

Northern would get on the board early in the second quarter when Eric Coley threw a 35 yard touchdown pass to Daryn Snow, the kick was no good and Northern had a 6-0 lead.

St. Joe would take the lead later in the 2nd quarter on a 28 yard touchdown pass from Griffin Beaudette to Jordan Brewer, Sean Akins point after was good and St. Joe lead 7-6.

The lead didn’t last long as Northern would retake the lead on the first play from scrimmage on the following drive when Noah Hecht scored on a 64 yard touchdown run.  The Huskies made the 2 point conversion and it was 14-7.

The Bears would close out the scoring in the second half with Brewer and Beaudette connecting again on a touchdown pass with :32 seconds left in the half and the two teams went into the intermission tied at 14.

Northern would grab the lead again just 2:18 into the third quarter on a 3 yard run by Grant McNally to put the Huskies up 21-14.

It would stay that way until early in the fourth quarter when Coley threw another TD pass to Snow, this from 17 yards out.  The PAT was missed and northern upped the lead to 27-14.

The Bear comeback would start on the following drive when Beaudette wrapped up a 10 play drive with a 1 yard QB Keeper to pull St. Joe closer at 27-21.

The defense helped provide the next score as Northern was forced to punt deep in their own territory, the punt only reached the 34 yard line of Northern and Derek Atkins returned it to the endzone.  Akins PAT attempt was blocked and the game was tied at 27.

Following another Northern punt, St. Joe would drive down the field but would stall at the Northern 18 yard line, but Akins hit a 35 yard field goal with 43 seconds left to give St. Joe the lead.

Still with 43 seconds. Northern would be able to take it down to the St. Joe 12 yard line, a penalty, only 4 seconds remaining, and a previous missed field goal Northern would go for the win.  Coley would try to find his favorite target Snow, but the pass to Snow was knocked away by a pair of St. Joe defenders and incomplete as time ran out. 

St. Joe improves to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the SMAC West.

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