BROOKLINE – If nothing else, Northeastern and Villanova will be approaching the rest of their Atlantic-10 seasons with a renewed awareness of their competition.
Catapulted by the relentless offensive prowess of quarterback Shawn Brady and wide receiver Cory Parks, while overcoming a late Wildcat (3-3 overall, 0-3 A-10) drive in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter, the Huskies (3-2, 2-1) took home a hard-fought 34-30 victory Saturday at Parsons Field.
The win came about in a game that had much of the same aggressive style as the team’s 38-35 overtime loss last week against William ‘ Mary in Williamsburg, Va. And we are likely to see this spirit the rest of the way, Husky coach Rocky Hager said.
“They tell me this is a typical A-10 game. My goodness, this is probably the most evenly matched league that I’ve ever had the privilege of being involved in,” Hager said. “Villanova is a good football team. They are growing and maturing. They played much better today than they did on tape against [the University of New Hampshire]. Our defense was challenged nearly to the max, and thank heavens not to the max.”
With 44 seconds remaining in the game and the Huskies clinging to the latest score change (a 34-30 lead in their favor), Villanova began their crucial final drive. Quarterback Marvin Burroughs (31-41, 350 yards, two TDs), on target throughout the day in the air, was looking to pass as the Wildcats began at their own 37.
He found receiver J.J. Outlaw (7-113, one TD) upfield on the sideline for a 20-yard gain. Then, calling from shotgun, he passed the ball 5-yards up to receiver Chris Polite, who carried the ball another 10 up to the Northeastern 28. A second straight pass to Polite for 6-yards then put it at the 22. The Husky defense, however, led by continued pressure from the line, including Matt Campopiano and James Abosi, disrupted Burroughs’ final three passes. Linebacker Jamil Young broke up the final pass on a four-wide set.
The teams understood that the win was up for grabs and each played as if the season was on the line until the very end.
“It’s tough to come into NU and play, we understood that,” said Outlaw, a junior and veteran of the A-10. “The thing about our team is, we always play hard. I know coaches say that when you play hard, the outcome is the outcome, but this one hurts.”
The win was the 17th straight at Parsons Field and may have all but dropped the Wildcats out of the playoff picture.
“It was a game that either team could have won,” said Wildcats coach Andy Talley, who is in his 20th year. “It was really a heartfelt game. A real tough game. I think in the Atlantic-10 that when you get in a shootout like this, being at home is helpful. We knew coming in here it was going to be a hard place to play. We did what we wanted to do offensively. [For] 35 minutes we had the ball, we had a pretty good mixture of run and pass. We just let them make some big plays on defense, and they made them.”
Parks, a junior, has been the consistent, exciting playmaker many have come to expect from the Miami native. With 164 yards on eight catches, along with three touchdowns, he alone put the Husky offense in good control. “Having a receiver like Cory makes my job that much easier,” said Brady, who passed for 299 yards, while connecting for four TDs. “Going into every week, I know Cory’s going to do what he’s going to do. He’s a great player, a great athlete and he makes big plays.”
The Wildcats’ Anthony Wright scored the first points of the game, at 12:46 of the first quarter, on a four-yard reception from Burroughs. Adam James’ kick was good and the score stood at 7-0 early.
Parks then received the first of his three touchdowns on the ensuing drive when Brady found him wide-open in the back corner of the end zone. The game was still in Villanova’s favor at 7-6, after Miro Kesic’s kick was blocked, a factor that would play into the rest of the contest. Villanova added to their point total on a Terry Butler (16 rushes, 83 yards) 17-yard run and a James 36-yard field goal, both mixed in between Parks’ scores. The Huskies, looking to correct Kesic’s kick, failed to gain two points after both of Parks’ TDs. At the half, the Huskies held a one-point lead (18-17).
“If there was an area that would draw concern for me, it would be our lack of protection in field goals and extra points,” Hager said in reference to the usually automatic Kesic. “We’ve been working hard on it in practice and hopefully we’ll get that straightened out.”
The third quarter was all Northeastern, as the Huskies looked to end any Wildcats’ threats. Husky tailback James West (16 rushes, 76 yards), the featured back of a depleted staff, helped move the ball down the field before Kesic gave the Huskies a four-point lead with a tough 41-yard field goal (21-17).
Burroughs then decided to take matters into his own hands.
He and Butler exchanged rushes as Villanova did their best to move down the field against the Husky defense in a drive that took 5:02 off the clock.
The key play of the drive was a Burroughs pass to John Dieser 16 yards to the Northeastern 22. However, on second and nine from the 21, Burroughs’ pass was incomplete. Then on both the third and fourth down, Abosi and Young took turns sacking the QB, ending a key drive.
Outlaw, perhaps inspired by an increasingly frustrating Northeastern defense, notched two straight scores to set up the heroics of the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
His first TD came at the start of the fourth quarter when he finished an 80-yard drive with a six-yard run. James’ kick was blocked, however, another key special teams mistake that put the Wildcats out of a field goal opportunity (27-23).
Outlaw came back again with a huge 53-yard reception from Burroughs with just over eight minutes remaining. This time, James’ kick was good and the Huskies had eight minutes to storm back from a three-point deficit (30-27).
Once again, even in a drive in which he had no part of the scoring, Parks came up with an answer; his 41-yard, diving completion to the Wildcats’ 24 set-up all the scoring the Huskies would need. “Watching them on film, we’ve seen them get after the ball,” Parks said. “They’re aggressive. From there it was just Brady with great throws, the offensive line with great protection. For me, it was just finding the zone, finding what’s open.”
Five plays later, Brady tossed the ball to Shawnn Gyles after a shotgun setup. Gyles then barreled in from nine yards out to put the final stamp on the contest. With Kesic’s kick, the Wildcats had no other option but a touchdown, and the Husky defense was waiting.
“The plays by Liam [Ezekiel] are always kind of awe-inspiring,” said Hager of the All-American linebacker, who led the team with 19 total tackles. “He makes a lot of good plays for us. I feel very good about the way we were able to handle the adversity that a close game like this does bring to the table. I wouldn’t say we handled it perfectly, but we handled it, and that’s what matters.”
GAME NOTES: Parks tied an NU game record with three receiving touchdowns … This is the first time two NU receivers had 100 yards receiving (Parks 164, Quintin Mitchell 104) since Oct. 14, 2000 vs. Villanova … Northeastern’s final non-league game of the season is at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday at Harvard. The Crimson enter the game undefeated, with a record of 4-0.
