Asante, Holy Cross walk off with OT win
Holy Cross 53 Fordham 52
Bob Chesney was tired of tying the game.
The Holy Cross coach could have kicked an extra point in overtime Saturday afternoon, but he decided to go for the win at home, dialing up a gutsy reverse play on a 2-point conversion that ended with Ayir Asante waltzing untouched into the end zone in the No. 5 Crusaders’ 5352 win over No. 24 Fordham at Fitton Field in Worcester.
“I don’t know if there was another option at that moment,” Chesney said. “We felt like we had a play.”
Chesney said the play was designed for Asante to throw the ball on the reverse, but the sun obstructed Asante’s view and he chose to run it in.
Asante may have finished the game, but it was quarterback Matthew Sluka who put on the most impressive showing of the afternoon.
The junior made play after play in the second half, throwing for 187 yards and two touchdowns, then adding a 9-yard touchdown pass to Justin Shorter in OT to pave the way for Asante’s 2-point conversion run. Sluka finished with 291 yards and four TDs through the air on 15-of-23 passing, and showed off his quickness on the ground, taking 21 carries for 174 yards and a touchdown.
With more than three minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Crusaders (8-0, 4-0 Patriot) were down, 31-21, and hadn’t scored on their last four drives.
They turned to Sluka, and he delivered, rumbling for 66 yards down the left sideline and stiffarming a defender before going down at the 8, setting up running back Peter Oliver for one of his two touchdown runs.
That sparked a back-andforth shootout, with the teams combining for 46 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“Our job is to outscore them and just keep going,” Sluka said. “[We] just go out there every single drive, every play, just execute and just score.”
Other leaders for the Crusaders were wideout Jalen Coker (six receptions, 131 yards, three TDs) and Oliver (19 carries, 95 yards, two TDs). Fordham (6-2, 2-1) quarterback Tim DeMorat threw for 256 yards and five touchdowns on 19-of-38 passing, linking up with Dequece Carter for three TDs and Mekai Felton for two.