After falling behind early, Manchester Academy was a few yards away from making a valiant comeback in a 28-21 loss to St. Aloysius.
The loss gave the Mavericks their first blemish on their conference record bringing their overall record to 5-3 and their conference record to 3-1.
Manchester Academy head football coach Bryan Dendy believes that St. Al was as good as he believed they would be.
“We knew they were a talented team,” Dendy said. “They had some kids that could flat out run. It was a tough test, especially since we got down early. We as coaches have to do a better job of getting them ready for big games.”
At first, it seemed as if the teams were easily matched.
A 3-yard touchdown run by Warner Griffin and a touchdown by St. Al had things knotted up at 7-7 heading into the second quarter.
That’s when things took an unfortunate turn for Manchester.
St. Al began to gash the Mavs, outscoring them 14-0 in the second to take a 21-7 lead.
Early on in the third quarter, it was much of the same with St. Al scoring again to push their lead to 28-7.
But as the Manchester faithful have grown to love about this team, the Mavericks never gave up, never quit.
They fought back at the 10:55 mark of the fourth quarter, the Mavs scored on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Kinkead Dent to Reece Singleton.
With 6:50 remaining in the game, the Mavs struck again. A 13-yard Kinkead Dent pass to Will Fouche cut St. Al’s lead to 28-21.
Then it came down to a final drive.
The Mavericks drove all the way down to the 12 before facing a 4th-and-1 with 1:30 remaining in the game.
With the game on the line, Dent dropped back to pass and let the ball fly towards Singleton, but the two were unable to connect one final time.
The Mavericks’ amazing comeback fell just short.
Although his team was understandably upset with the loss, Dendy was pleased to see emotion in his team’s eyes.
“As soon as it was over, you could see the hurt in their eyes,” Dendy said. “That shows the coaches that they care. That’s what you want to see. We’re now preaching that it is over and you have to put it behind you. We’re moving on.”
Kinkead Dent had another nice game for the Mavs, going 9-for-19 through the air for 138 yards and two touchdowns. He was also once again excellent in the final quarter with a 6-for-9 performance and both touchdowns.
Reece Singleton led the Mavericks in both rushing and receiving with 88 yards and 33 yards, respectively, with one receiving touchdown. He also had one tackle and an interception in the defeat.
Warner Griffin had 74 rushing yards and a touchdown on the offensive side, and on the defensive side, he had nine total tackles.
Will Fouche also caught a touchdown pass in the loss.
Blayke Dendy had a team-high 12 tackles in the losing effort.
Taylor Porter had 11 tackles.
The Mavericks will attempt to rebound from the loss with their Homecoming game against Central Holmes on Friday night.
The Trojans of Central Holmes are 1-7 on the year with a winless record in the conference after falling 62-22 to Greenville Christian on Friday night.
Despite Central Holmes’ record, Dendy believes that his team will have to be ready for the game.
“They have a quarterback that can run and a running back with some speed,” Dendy said. “They’ve got some size up front. They’ll try and establish the run early and hit us with play-action passes. They’re a well-coached team, so we’ll have to be ready to play.”
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
