William & Mary Kicks a 45-yarder at the Buzzer to Beat Villanova
Villanova led 32-22 with 2:43 left. It lost 35-32. That is thirteen points in under three minutes for William & Mary, and the last three of them came from Max Lipinski's 45-yard field goal as time expired.
Here is how it got there. Villanova opened with an Isaiah Ragland 5-yard run, William & Mary answered with a 68-yard Winston Watkins touchdown pass to Carson Jenkins, and the Wildcats (the home team, to be clear) were up 17-10 at the half after a Ja'briel Mace run and a 42-yard Dominic LeBlanc field goal as the half ended. Lipinski cut it to 17-13 with a field goal, Watkins snuck in from a yard out to make it 19-17 (the extra point failed), and Lipinski added another from 41 yards to push it to 22-17.
Then Villanova went and got two scores in a hurry: Pat McQuaide to Brandon Binkowski for 8 yards plus a two-point conversion, then Ragland ripping off a 37-yard run with 2:43 left to make it 32-22. William & Mary needed a field goal at 0:53, a 37-yard Watkins touchdown to Kai Austin at 0:22, and then Lipinski again. Five field goals for him in all. The game had five lead changes and two ties.
The cost for Villanova was in the turnovers. McQuaide threw three interceptions and Mace lost a fumble, four giveaways against one interception for William & Mary, and the Wildcats still out-gained the Tribe 427 yards to 393. Take away the giveaways and this is a different night.
William & Mary is 1-0, Villanova 0-1. Fantasy owners got a lot out of this one: Watkins led everybody with 35.4 points and Ragland was second at 26.4.