The Saint Vincent Bearcats won for the second straight week to start the season, holding on for a 32-30 victory over Thiel College on the road in a game that was delayed for more than an hour by lightning.
The game opened with a successful onside kickoff attempt by the Tomcats, giving them the ball near midfield. However, Thiel had a miscue on the fourth play of the drive, snapping the ball over the head of quarterback Ryan Radke, resulting in a 27-yard loss. Three plays later, the hosts were forced to punt.
The Bearcats then put together a scoring drive on their first attempt of the day. Derek Stewart completed passes to four different receivers on the drive, which covered 83 yards in 10 plays. The series was capped by a 14-yard strike to Damon Black Jr in the end zone. Sam Elliott's point after put the hosts in front, 7-0.
Thiel came right back, however, as Radke escaped for a 60 yard run, breaking several tackles en route to the end zone at the 6:32 mark of the first quarter.
On the next drive, the Bearcat offense answered, as Stewart connected with DJ Oceant-Kelly five times, part of a 15 play scoring drive. Shavonta Craft ran the ball one yard into the end zone to give Saint Vincent a 13-7 lead.
However, before the kickoff could take place, heavy rain and lightning moved into the area, forcing the teams to the locker rooms for one hour and 18 minutes.
After play resumed, SVC held Thiel on the first possession, forcing a punt. The Bearcats then marched downfield, with the key play another Stewart to Black pass, this one covering 30 yards to the Thiel 1. Craft then finished the drive with a scoring run to the left side, putting SVC in front 20-7 after the Elliott PAT.
A 31-yard Tomcat field goal cut the margin to 20-10 near the 9-minute mark of the second quarter.
More than five minutes later, Elliott answered his Thiel counterpart with a 30-yard field goal that made it 23-10.
Once again, the Tomcats responded. After a 38-yard kickoff return and a personal foul penalty allowed the hosts to start their drive from the Bearcat 37, Radke wasted no time, hitting DeShawon Bracy in the end zone on the first play from scrimmage to cut the gap to just six, 23-17.
In the closing minute of the first half, Thiel scored to tie the game, 23-23, on a one yard run by Payton Hicks. The Tomcats lined up for the point after, attempting to take lead for the first time in the game. However, the Bearcats blocked the extra point attempt. Black scooped up the ball near the 20-yard line and took it 80 yards for a Saint Vincent 2-point conversion, making it a 25-23 game at the halftime break.
Early in the third quarter, the Bearcat defense forced a Thiel punt, but an attempted fake punt resulted in a fumble. Nick Nitowski picked up the ball for the Bearcats and rumbled 19 yards to the Thiel 19. Three plays later, Craft took it in from 10 yards out on a run, and the Elliott point after made it 32-23 in favor of the Bearcats.
Both teams then went into a scoring drought that lasted more than a quarter, but the Tomcats scored on a 19-yard pass from Radke to Bracy in the corner of the end zone, reducing the lead to just two, 32-30, with 3:55 left in the fourth.
After that score, for the first time in more than three hours, the rain stopped as, SVC took control of the ball. It was all Craft from there, as the senior running back carried the ball nine straight times, picking up 53 yards and three key first downs.
The second of those first down runs, for 13 yards, pushed Craft's career total to more than 1,385 yards, a modern day Bearcat record.
The final first down run was on a fourth down play with seven seconds remaining, securing the Saint Vincent win.
Stewart finished the night 20-for-31 for 225 yards and a touchdown. Oceant-Kelly had six catches for 84 yards, while Black caught six passes for 75. Dalton Dietrich and Ryan Crawford had three receptions each. On the ground, Craft carried the ball 24 times for 111 yards.
Defensively, Cody Henry, Cameron Mack and Matt McCarthy each had six tackles. Garrett Virostek, Devin Anderson, Nick Holtzer and Matt Jenkins recorded five each.
The Bearcats are 2-0 on the season and will begin conference play by hosting Geneva College on Saturday, September 17 at 1PM.