The seniors on the King’s College football team took their final march on to the turf at McCarthy Stadium Saturday and faced an extremely formidible foe in the form of No. 11 Widener.
The Pride’s high-powered, up-tempo offense was clicking on all cylinders as quarterback Seth Klein found Montrell Hicks-Taylor for a 58-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. Klein threw for 291 yards and two touchdowns as Widener put a 55-piece on the visitors’ scoreboard slot.
The Monarchs once again limited the penalties this week, which crippled them in the first seven weeks of the season but did not have much of an impact on the outcome of this one.
Although, the penalties were limited, King’s did not play mistake free football. Senior Tyler Hartranft threw two interceptions, one of which was returned 96 yards to the house for a score. One stat that King’s led in was time of possession in which they had the ball in their hands for nearly 20 more minutes than Widener.
The Pride’s frantically paced offense was to thank for the difference in time of possession.
In the time that King’s had the ball, they had some opportunities to put some points up on the board. Kicker Mikhail Kniaziewicz missed a 38-yard field goal on King’s opening possession and that set the tone for the rest of the day. Missed opportunities plagued King’s and timely execution was the key for Widener.
The Pride outgained King’s 525-326 in yardage. The 326 yards that King’s put up is not something to hang their heads about yet it was overshadowed by the massive yardage that big-play Widener had.
Hartranft threw for 278 yards and hit Antoine Basquiat on a 72 yard strike for King’s lone score of the day. The Monarchs running game was non-existent, due to the fact that they fell behind early and needed to get large amounts of yardage to catch up to Widener. The Monarchs ran for just 53 net yards as Kyle McGrath and backup quarterback Tom Hehre led the ground game.
The Monarchs have one final chance to add another one in the win column as they travel across town to take on Wilkes in the battle for the Mayor’s Cup.
Donny Hopkins covers King’s sports for WRKC Digital, follow him on Twitter @HopkinsDonny or email him at DonaldHopkins@Kings.edu