BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – A better ending couldn't be scripted for coach Frank Sheptock's return to Bloomsburg University football as he won his first game at Redman Stadium as the head coach on what he calls a "Hail Horst". Freshman quarterback Ben Ries (Bloomsbury, N.J./Phillipsburg) connected with freshman Malik Langley (Chester, Pa./STEM Academy) for a walk-off touchdown and the 31-27 win over Gannon, Saturday.
 
During the pregame coin toss, the Bloomsburg football team honored their late teammate Tyler Horst (Schaefferstown, Pa./Eastern Lebanon County) as his family served as the honorary captains. Horst would have been a senior this season but tragically passed away last January. With his family in attendance for the first home game in nearly two years, the Huskies came away with a wild and exciting win.
 
With 1:32 to play in the four quarter, the Huskies forced Gannon to punt near midfield for what turned out to be the final drive of the game. Senior Tyshaun Pollard (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin East) collected the punt with a fair catch on the Huskies 10-yard line and then the offense took over, needing 90 yards in 90 seconds and zero timeouts. Ries kicked the drive off with a quick pitch and catch to senior Nyfease West (Philadelphia, Pa./North Penn) who took it down to the BU 16 and after a throw away pass to stop the clock, Ries connected with freshman Nas Jones (Williamsport, Pa./Williamsport Area) for five yards and Huskies first down.
 
After a pair of incomplete passes, Ries hit Jones once again, but this time for six yards to get to the Bloomsburg 27-yard line, however, it was 4^th-and-4, and time was not on the Huskies side. With nothing to lose, Ries hit Pollard down the middle of the field to the Gannon 47-yard line to keep the drive alive. The Huskies had to spike the ball to stop the clock, as they were out of time outs, and there was just four seconds left. After Gannon used a time out, Ries unloaded down the field and hit Langley as he was covered by six Golden Knights in the end zone for the walk-off win.
 
The drive took nine plays and the Huskies used every second they had left to go 90 yards.
 
The late game heroics were set up by a back-and-forth affair for the Golden Knights and Huskies.
 
Bloomsburg got the scoring going as they needed just two plays and 55 yards on their first possession to get Joes in the end zone with a 56-yard haul from Ries. Freshman Torsten Hartmann (Bloomsburg, Pa./Bloomsburg Area) connected on the point-after attempt to give BU a 7-0 lead, which the Huskies held for the rest of the quarter.
 
The Golden Knights answered in the second as Kory Curtis hit Johnny Freeman for a 69-yard connection and the game-tying TD with 12:08 to play in the second. On Gannon's first play of its last drive of the half, junior Quentin Gaskill (Waynesboro, Pa./Waynesboro) forced a fumble and recovered the ball to set the Huskies up on Gannon's 37-yard line. The Huskies needed eight plays to go the 37 yard but graduate student Alex Gooden (Parkesburg, Pa./Octorara) found his way into the endzone with a two-yard run and Hortsmann's extra point gave Bloomsburg a 14-7 lead going into half time.
 
Gannon opened the second half with a three-play 93-yard drive that took just 1:06 off the clock and tied the game at 14-14. With 3:43 to play, Hortsmann hit a 30-yard field goal to give Bloomsburg a 17-14 lead.
 
The Huskies and Golden Knights traded touch downs to open the fourth quarter as Melvin Banks ran it in from 15 yards out for Gannon and West took it 48 yards for BU. After West's run, the Huskies led 23-21 with 11:45 to play, but Gannon reclaimed the lead with 8:13 to play on a 28-yard pass from Curtis to Alex Whittaker to give the Golden Knights a 27-23 lead. With some confusion on the play for the point-after attempt, the Golden Knights ran a rushed two-point conversion attempt and fumbled the ball. Redshirt senior Chris Monaco (Pocono Pines, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) recovered the fumble and took it to the house for two points and to cut the lead down to 27-25, which set up the late-game fireworks.
 
Ries and freshman David LePoidevin (Middlesex, N.J./Bound Brook) split time under center for the Huskies as Ries went 14-for-28 with 243 yards and two TDs and le Poidevin finished the game 6-for-13 with 100 yards. Pollard led all receivers with 121 yards while Jones finished with 74 and a touchdown. Langley finished the day with 86 yards on two catches, including the game-winning TD.
 
Freshman Kaleb Monaco (Pocono Pines, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) led the Huskies on the ground with 68 yards rushing and West finished the day with 62 yards and a touchdown.
 
Defensively, freshman Nadir McLeod (Philadelphia, Pa./Martin Luther King) collected eight total tackles and one tackle-for-loss while redshirt senior AJ Simon (Tobyhanna, Pa./Pocono Mountain West), redshirt sophomore Ky Seesholtz (Mifflinville, Pa./Central Columbia), senior Chase Heath (Dover, Pa./Dover Area), and freshman Tom Goetz (Wenonah, N.J./Gateway Regional) had a hand in three total sacks for the defense. Simon led the group with 1.5 sacks for nine yards.
 
The Huskies will get back into action next Saturday as they hit the road for their Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opener against Shippensburg. Opening kickoff is set for 1:00 pm.