Luck was not on the Pioneer sidelines Saturday.
After mounting a comeback effort on the arm of third-string sophomore quarterback Bryce Corrigan, the Pioneers (3-1, 0-1 WIAC) scored with 11 seconds to play, making the score 27-26 against no. 5 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (3-1, 1-0 WIAC), and setting the stage for a dramatic finish.
Pioneers head coach Mike Emendorfer chose to go for two with the game on the line, and Corrigan lofted a pass to junior receiver Ryley Bailey in the corner of the end zone. The pass hit Bailey’s hands, but then was knocked away by a Warhawk defender, silencing the large crowd and handing the Pioneers their first loss of the season.
“Whitewater is a very good team and it came down to the last couple of possessions,” Corrigan said. “Fumble or no fumble, we were right in the game and we just needed to make a couple of more plays. We thought we had a good matchup on the outside with (Bailey) going one-on-one, but at the last moment the defender just made a great play.”
Junior defensive lineman Alex Schaefer commented on the emotional loss. “It was a hard one to lose. We had to play through a lot of adversity and we came up just a bit short.”
Emendorfer cited momentum and injuries as keys in his decision to go for two.
“I thought we had Whitewater on the ropes and with our team being banged up, we had an opportunity to go for the win and so we did,” head coach Mike Emendorfer said.
Emendorfer also had high praise for the performance of his third-string quarterback.
“You never really plan for the first and second string quarterbacks to go down with broken collarbones. However, for someone who does not see a lot of reps in practice, he came in and played well and got better as the game progressed,” Emendorfer said.
The Pioneers looked sharp out of the gate. The defense forced four consecutive three and outs and the offense looked poised to make the game a blowout, scoring two touchdowns on their first two possessions, including a 78 yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback John Kelly to junior wide receiver Aaron Loferski to put the Pioneers up 14-0 over no. 5 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
But on the final possession of the first quarter, bad luck seemed to have taken over.
Kelly suffered a broken collarbone, the same injury that sidelined starting quarterback Nick Anderson two weeks ago. The injury sent Corrigan into the game, his first significant playing time this season.
After struggling through the second and third quarters, including two deflected interceptions and amounting to a combined 107 yards of total offense, Corrigan did find his stroke in the forth.
Corrigan drove the ball twice deep into UW-Whitewater territory, but bad luck struck again and one of those drives was taken out of Corrigan’s hands when the referees called a fumble on a play on which Corrigan had already hit the ground.
The defense played well, and scored an interception returned for a touchdown from senior cornerback Tommy Magna in the third quarter helped keep the Pioneers in the game.
“Our quarterback got knocked out of the game and it was up to us (the defense) to try and make plays,” said Magna. “We were lucky to get the interception, but unfortunately we ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard.”
The Pioneers will be on the road next week at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.