BEVERLY — It was a picture perfect ending to a storybook weekend of football for the Connolly family — and an absolute heartbreaker for the Endicott College Gulls.
At the end of a thrilling, back-and-forth battle of Northeast powers Saturday afternoon more than 2,000 fans held their breath when the Gulls lined up for a potential game-tying 49-yard field goal with four seconds to play. Salem native Jake Connolly, the Bombers’ starting safety, watched Ryan Smith’s boot stay true but then dip short. The junior exhaled with his No. 18 ranked Bombers escaping Hempstead Stadium with a 20-17 victory.
“I could barely hear the crowd, I was so in the moment. My heart was beating out of my chest,” said Connolly, the Salem News Player of the Year three seasons ago for nearby Bishop Fenwick. “Everything from the last play is kind of a blur.”
Connolly was greeted afterwards by a huge group of supporters that included his parents, a number of coaches and teammates from Fenwick and his brother Luke, now a captain for the Crusaders. The younger Connolly’s Fenwick team pulled off the upset of the weekend Friday night by toppling Marblehead and big brother was watching on the livestream from Ithaca’s team hotel while preparing for his own chance to shine on the gridiron here on Saturday.
“It was so cool to see them get that huge win. I’m so proud of Luke,” Jake said. “Coming in here, we knew Endicott was a great team with great players and a great coach. We had a feeling the battle would go down to the wire … but we got the outcome we wanted.”
Endicott (1-1) appeared poised for its first-ever win over a ranked opponent when Clayton Marengi’s 10-yard TD pass to Markys Bridgewater made it a ten point game at 17-7 with 13:33 left in the fourth quarter. The Bombers (1-1) and their preseason All-American QB A.J. Wingfield had other plans.
Facing 3rd-and-22 just outside field goal range, Wingfield threw a dart to Sam Kline to pick up the first and snuck into the end zone three plays later to make it 17-13 after the extra point was blocked. Connolly and the Ithaca defense forced a quick punt and the visitors seized all the momentum.
“All the time, we tell A.J. we’re going to get the ball back for you and he says I’m going to score for you. The defense and offense on this team compliment each other greatly and our energy level was very high,” Connolly said.
Wingfield, held to 133 yards passing by Endicott’s stingy defense, hooked up with Kline again from 30 yards out put Ithaca ahead at 20-17 with 2:06 to pay.
Marengi and the Gulls weren’t done, either. With all three timeouts remaining, the mixed the pass and run while marching 49 yards in 13 plays to get into range for a long field goal try. Endicott converted two third downs and a fourth along the way but ran out of time in terms of getting a few more yards for Smith’s leg.
“That’s a tough kick, a long kick,” said Endicott head coach Paul McGonagle. “Smitty’s a great kicker. I just told him if I didn’t trust him, I would have gone (for a Hail Mary) instead. I still trust him.”
Both quarterbacks had to shake off some tough drives in the face of tremendous defenses. For Marengi, the pressure came on the first drive when he was intercepted on his second pass of the game, leading to a quick Bomber score.
The Gulls wound up scoring 10 unanswered points on an A.J. Caggianelli rush and a Smith field goal to lead 10-7 at half. The hosts added another on Marengi’s TD strike to Bridgewater early in the fourth to make it 17 unanswered before the game swung back the other way.
“Anytime you play a nationally ranked team and make that early mistake, most teams crumble. I don’t think we did. We answered the bell and realized it was a 60 minute fight,” McGonagle said.
Marengi threw for 105 yards and did a lot of damage with his legs, rushing for 74 yards on 14 carries. Freshman tight end Jacob Ward was a key target with three grabs for 33 yards and captain Shane Aylward caught five balls for 33 yards. Defensively, Matthew Whelan led the Gulls with nine stops, Colin Meropoulos had eight stops and forced a fumble.
“We came up a little short. They made a few more plays than us,” said McGonagle. “Give them credit: They capitalized on their opportunities at the end of the day.”
Connolly was credited with eight tackles, seven of them solo stops. It was a thrill getting to play a college football game so close to home, he said.
“The first half we lacked some energy and at halftime we got each other hyped,” he added. “That third quarter went by really fast so in the fourth we had to be ready to go.”