Saturday’s NCAA Division 3 first round playoff game between two of the top 15 teams in the country, fittingly, came down to the final play.
No. 14 ranked Endicott trailed by six and saw Kennedy Charles scoot out of bounds at the Cortland State 11-yard-line with four seconds left. That gave the Gulls time for one throw into the end zone, but senior quarerbackc Clayton Marengi’s bid fell incomplete and the No. 11 Red Dragons escaped Hempstead Stadium with a 27-24 victory.
“The old saying goes that football comes down to inches. Today it was 11 yards,” said Endicott head coach Paul McGonagle, whose Gulls finish the season 9-2.
Cortland (10-1) advances to face No. 18 Grove City (Pennsylvania) in the second round next weekend.
Endicott’s third turnover came with 3:04 to play and the Red Dragons opted to go for it on fourth down to keep the ball out of Marengi’s hands. The Gulls’ defense rose up and knocked the running back down for a loss of yards to give the home team’s offense a shot with 1:53 remaining.
“Cortland’s got a very explosive offense. We did really well up front, felt like we played pretty well,” said fifth-year senior Joe Pagett, a defensive back. “Our coaches put us in great position to make plays.”
Taking over at their own 42, the Gulls marched 47 yards on seven plays to get within a stone’s throw of the end zone. Marengi (223 yards passing) completed three passes on the drive and Endicott mixed in the run to keep Cortland off balance.
The Gulls fell behind 7-0, 17-7 and 20-10 but got big plays from senior captain Shane Aylward and Marengi to stay in the ballgame. Aylward caught a 23-yard touchdown to tie it 7-7 in the first quarter and hauled in a 69-yard touchdown pass late in the third to make it 20-17. He finished with five grabs for 119 yards.
“Shane’s the ultimate silent assassin. He’s a blue collar guy from a blue collar family,” said McGonagle. “And we were down two tight ends, so he played a new position. He learned it in a week. He’s the ultimate competitor.”
Cortland had one of the nation’s best passing offenses and Endicott held it to 162 yards. The Dragons opted for the ground attack Saturday, rushing for 255 yards, holding the ball for twice as long as Endicott (40:41 to 19:19) and hit a 37-yard field goal with 3:12 left to extend their three-point lead.
Ryan Smith nailed a 42-yard field goal for Endicott on the final play of the first half. Jackson DeAngelo had nine tackles and 1 1/2 sacks to pace the Gull defense, and Ismar Kandic made 11 stops.
“I’ve never been part of a team that cares more than this one. I’m beyond proud of everybody that stepped foot on the field and is part of this program,” said Aylward. “It’s bigger than all of us.”
This was Endicott’s third consecutive Commonwealth Coast Conference championship and third straight year hosting a first-round NCAA playoff game. Though the Gulls are still chasing the first NCAA tournament win, the national respect they’ve built the last few years is very meaningful.
“Selfishly, I love that I ended my career here at home,” said Pagett. “You hate to lose; that’s not easy on anybody. But like Shane said, it’s bigger than us and the support we have here means the world.”
McGonagle lauded his senior class, which got through the pandemic pause and the lost 2020 season together to go 27-6 over the last three years while achieving the program’s first-ever win over a nationally ranked opponent earlier this season.
“The season we had, to beat the No. 5 team in the country and play No. 11 down to the wire? I couldn’t have asked for any more,” McGonagle said.