Brown edges Will Rice 27-20 in triple OT
Brown took one step closer to clinching its first playoff berth in Powderpuff in five years with a thrilling 27-20 double-overtime win over Will Rice in the Powderpuff Game of the Week.
The first half was a defensive struggle. Will Rice (2-5) barely made any headway offensively, and Brown (3-3) committed two turnovers. On the next-to-last play of the first quarter, senior halfback Amy Richter received a toss from sophomore quarterback Tori Gascoyne and then threw a wobbly forward pass that was easily intercepted by junior cornerback Caitlin Thomas near midfield. That pick proved harmless, as Brown forced a punt despite committing a 10-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on the drive.
Brown’s second turnover, though, was costly. Midway through the second quarter, sophomore cornerback Sarah Zelonis tipped a pass that was promptly intercepted by senior outside linebacker Kelsey Beach at Brown’s 40-yard line and returned for a touchdown. With the extra point, Will Rice took a 7-0 lead.
On its opening drive of the third quarter, Brown made a major adjustment. In the first half, the team ran a highly pass-oriented offensive scheme, but they began to rely on tosses to Richter and short runs up the middle by sophomore running back Allison Conner. Brown coach Busch Cummings, a senior, said he had to adjust to Will Rice’s tight defensive sets.
“They ran a two-man front, and they had their corners covering our receivers pretty tight, [so we had] to run the ball up the middle,” Cummings said. “Our line did a really amazing job. It was all about the numbers. We had four on the line [to block] who are all very solid players, and they had two on the line.”
Using this new offensive strategy, Brown ate up most of the clock in the third quarter, marching down to Will Rice’s 21. On a second-down play, Gascoyne threw a touchdown pass to freshman receiver Cait MacIntyre to tie the game at 7.
With just under two minutes remaining in regulation, Brown appeared to put the game away when Richter capped off yet another long drive by taking a toss left into the end zone for a touchdown.
Trailing 14-7, Will Rice was down to its last leg. On third-and-six from its own 39 with 30 seconds left, junior quarterback Cassie Moore threw five yards downfield to sophomore receiver Maggy Taylor, who then then threw a backward lateral to freshman halfback Marie McKinnon, who ran the remaining 56 yards for the touchdown.
Brown advanced to the Will Rice 48 on its subsequent possession before the clock ran out. The game headed to overtime with the teams tied at 14.
Brown scored quickly in its possession in the first overtime. Richter ran for her second touchdown of the game, this time from 19 yards out on their second play of the period — but an incomplete pass on the extra-point attempt left the score at 20-14.
Will Rice could have won the game then with a touchdown and extra-point conversion. However, after losing three yards on its first two plays, the team was once again facing defeat. Will Rice got a reprieve when, on third-and-13 from the 23, McKinnon scored on yet another hook-and-lateral to tie the game at 20. On the point after try, Brown’s defense stopped Moore before she could cross the goal line near the right sideline, but an offsides penalty gave Will Rice another opportunity to win. This time, Moore ran left looking for the end zone, but Brown’s defense was there to stop her again, ensuring a second overtime.
Will Rice’s possession in the second overtime lasted an eternity. Taylor appeared to catch the go-ahead touchdown, but Moore had stepped a yard in front of the line of scrimmage, resulting in an illegal forward pass penalty and forcing fourth-and-14 from the 24. Despite pressure from Brown’s defensive line, Moore bought enough time to throw a 15-yard completion to Taylor for a first down at the 9. Two plays later, McKinnon came close to scoring her third touchdown of the game, catching a flat pass and running it to within a foot of the goal line.
On the next play, McKinnon ran up the middle for the go-ahead score, which is illegal under Powderpuff rules
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