With the ball at the 28-yard line needing one yard to continue the drive, Marist football missed an opportunity to convert on third and fourth down for a chance to top Valparaiso, falling 17-14 in their closely contested game.
While Valparaiso gets their first PFL win of the season, Marist failed to snag their first win of the Mike Willis era, falling to 0-8 for the first time in recorded program history.
The play came after a lull of offense from both teams in the second half. After entering the final quarter tied 14-14, the Beacons kicked a field goal to hold the small advantage throughout the majority of the quarter.
The field goal ended up determining Marist’s fate on their final possession. In a two-minute drill offense starting at the Valparaiso 48-yard line, Marist began to string together a game-winning-like drive with successful ball movement.
This led to graduate student receiver Mohamed Diawara getting the ball on an end-around handoff to the right side, stepping out of bounds to stop the clock, but stepping out one yard short of a first down.
Despite the short field position, head coach Mike Willis stuck to his aggressive playcalling. Taking a deep shot to the end zone with his quarterback that failed, it all came down to fourth down: a designed flea-flicker for a second consecutive deep shot. Failing to connect, the Red Foxes lost the ball–and the game–in their attempt to go up.
“I thought coach [Bob] Davies made a terrific call,” said Mike Willis after the game about his offensive coordinator and play calling. “I’ve told everyone who I work with that I am going to be extremely aggressive. I support that call. You can always rear-view mirror bad outcomes, but if the process is good, I don’t worry about it.”
Willis stated that the decision and aggressive play calling are attributed to success in coaching with his former team.
“The idea of not pre-planning those situations will never resonate with me,” said Willis. “The aggression has led to success throughout my career. It defined winning a high percentage of my games during the last five years at Princeton.”
Even with the short yardage to the goal posts, Willis explained it was never in the game plan to go for a field goal to effectively tie the game.
“The goal is to win the game because overtime is ultimately a high-variance scenario. We had a terrific call on fourth down into a look we liked,” said Willis
Marist came into the game with the bottom-ranked offense in the PFL (15 points per game) facing off against Marist’s bottom-ranked defense (40 points per game allowed). The Beacons have had their fair share of tough opponents, facing off against top PFL opponents Drake (27-3 loss) and St. Thomas Minnesota (42-14 loss) en route to their first in-conference victory today.
Despite the offensive woes, the day started with a surge from the Beacons. No tackles giving him any trouble, team-leading rusher redshirt senior running back Michael Mansaray powered through the shaky Marist run defense 58 yards to the house; his longest rush of the season on their second play of the game. He finished with a season-high 135 yards and both Beacon touchdowns on 21 carries.
The Beacons built off their momentum, and conservatively pushed with their offense based on screen passes, curl routes and inside runs from the pistol formation, matching Marist with six less yards of offense total.
“They [Valparaiso] did a terrific job taking advantage of those hitch-RPOs [Run-pass options], most of those were categorized as running back options,” said Willis about the Beacons offense. “I think the effort in the second [half] and the whole game was terrific, and the execution was, for the most part, really good.”
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Sonny Mannino commanded the Marist offense throughout the first half, efficiently making passes that continuously moved the chains.
He appropriately attacked his first reads while using his running ability to extend drives, handing the ball to graduate student running back Tristan Shannon for his first touchdown of the year.
The Red Fox quarterback went 12-for-18 for 124 yards and a touchdown in the strong first half to his favorite target of the day senior receiver Will Downes, who finished with five receptions for 78 yards and the second Marist touchdown despite battling rib soreness entering the game.
Both offenses began to stall in the third quarter. With good field position starting the first possession of the second drive, Mannino continued to lead an efficient offense, but trouble struck at the four-yard line.
The Beacons prevented Marist from taking an early lead in the third quarter, stopping a Carter James rush attempt for a turnover on downs.
Followed by a series of punts from both teams, Marist kept themselves in the game with intense line pressure, keeping the Beacons a measly 2-for-11 on third-down conversions and 0-for-2 on fourth down.
Marist defined their fourth quarter with said stops, including a stop on a Valparaiso quarterback sneak reminiscent of a Philidelphia Eagles “Tush Push” from graduate student and freshman defensive linemen Gannon McCorkle and Braylon Ricks with nine minutes left in the game.
The Red Foxes got the opportunity for the two-minute-drill offense thanks to a big third-down stop from sophomore safety Kade Werner, stuffing Mansaray on a third-down rushing attempt before the two-minute warning.
Despite the improvement in play to stay with their opponent, it’s back to the drawing board for the Red Foxes. Marist has 12 straight losses dating back to Oct. 28, 2023.
They now travel to Des Moines, Iowa to take on the first-place Drake Bulldogs next Saturday at 12 p.m. ET.
Edited by Jimmy Tsiantoulas
Graphic and Photo from Jaylen Rizzo
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