Elated Espinoza gets 2nd chance at Triple Crown

W-B native played a ‘Big’ set-design role here

First Posted: 9/13/2014 EDWARDSVILLE &#8212; It was less than 10 minutes into Saturday&#8217;s game at Schmidt Stadium and Misericordia was trailing Wilkes by only seven points as the Colonels were set to take possession deep in their territory.
So by all means, Misericordia had a very good chance of winning the ball game.
But what happened prior to the Colonels regaining possession had a huge impact, turning the momentum in their favor. Wilkes then scored on its next four drives en route to a 41-7 win over the Cougars as Wilkes coach Trey Brown received an ice bath after picking up the first coaching victory of his career.
&#8220;It felt great. The water was cold but it just felt really good,&#8221; Brown said about his dousing. &#8220;Felt as good &#8212; probably felt even better than I thought it would.&#8221;
Misericordia had strung together a 10-play drive and 41 yards on its second possession of the game moving to the Wilkes 23 while trailing 7-0. Then on consecutive plays, normally sure-handed receiver Juwan Petties-Jackson dropped two straight passes from Jeff Puckett. The first drop was when he was wide open in the end zone, and the other occurred when he was open on fourth down beyond the first down marker.
&#8220;Certainly it&#8217;s the type of momentum that we could&#8217;ve used,&#8221; Cougars coach Mark Ross said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;re doing a good job of responding to adverse situations and that was certainly a situation that we didn&#8217;t respond to very well.&#8221;
Wilkes (1-1) took advantage driving 77 yards on just six plays capped by a 1-yard TD dive by P.J. Incremona, who had two rushing scores on the afternoon. Incremona&#8217;s second put the Colonels up 20-0 early in the second quarter, which occurred after another Cougars (0-2) miscue.
Looking to get some points on the board, Ross sent out his kicker Patrick Newins to attempt a 41-yard field goal. The kick was lined trying to get distance and was blocked by Tim Bousson, scooped up by Tanner Stengel, and returned 55 yards to the Misericordia 5 setting up the Incremona touchdown.
&#8220;We were trying to get some points and turn it into a positive,&#8221; Ross said. &#8220;We were moving the ball well, just weren&#8217;t making the plays in the red zone.&#8221;
Wilkes tacked on two more scores in the first half opening up a 34-0 lead as Drew Devitt and Jeremy Hartman each hauled in TD strikes from Ryan Dailey, who had three first-half passing scores before sitting out most of the second half. At halftime, the Colonels offense resembled what Brown was hoping for as they tallied 281 total yards, which was already more than twice as much as they had in the whole Week 1 loss to Muhlenberg.
&#8220;If you can score on your first five possessions, there&#8217;s no doubt it&#8217;s moving pretty good,&#8221; Brown said.
Misericordia&#8217;s offense also improved on its Week 1 loss to Utica. Puckett rushed for a game-high 161 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. The team also totaled 313 yards, which surpassed its showing from the previous game. But not being able to finish hurt the Cougars as they were deep in Wilkes territory five times and only got seven points. The Cougars turned the ball over on downs twice when they were inside the Colonels 25, while getting intercepted once and missed a field goal.
&#8220;To (Wilkes&#8217;) credit, they&#8217;d make a play and shut it down,&#8221; Ross said. &#8220;It&#8217;s something we need to learn how to do if we&#8217;re going to be successful.&#8221;
Wilkes 41, Misericordia 7Misericordia`0`0`7`0`&#8212;`7
Wilkes`13`21`0`7`&#8212;`41
First quarter
WILKES &#8212; Bousson 13 pass from Dailey (Behrmann kick) 12:34
WILKES &#8212; Incremona 1 run (kick blocked) 5:10
Second quarter
WILKES &#8212; Incremona 5 run (Behrmann kick) 14:41
WILKES &#8212; Devitt 6 pass from Dailey (Behrmann kick) 8:58
WILKES &#8212; Hartman 32 pass from Dailey (Behrmann kick) 4:47
Third quarter
MISERICORDIA &#8212; Puckett 9 run (Newins kick) 4:18
Fourth quarter
WILKES &#8212; Behrmann 3 run (Behrmann kick) 6:14
Team statistics`MU`WU
First downs`21`19
Rushes-yards`62-265`38-133
Passing yards`48`248
Total yards`313`381
Passing`6-23-1`11-19-0
Sacked-yards lost`2-14`1-3
Punts-avg.`6-40.7`4-34.5
Fumbles-lost`1-0`1-1
Penalties-yards`10-94`9-101
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING &#8212; MIS, Puckett 29-161, Kurtz 5-31, Custodio 13-30, Leap 5-28, Rainey 10-15. WILKES, Behrmann 12-47, Incremona 10-42, Deemer 4-36, Hayes 6-13, TEAM 1-(minus-2), Dailey 5-(minus-3).
PASSING &#8212; MIS, Puckett 5-20-0-41, Leap 1-3-1-7. WILKES, Dailey 8-15-0-212, Hayes 3-4-0-36.
RECEIVING &#8212; MIS, Ro. Custodio 2-9, Petties-Jackson 1-16, Steltzer 1-8, Rowe 1-8, Ra. Custodio 1-7. WILKES, Devitt 3-52, Deemer 2-85, Hartman 2-58, Behrmann 1-22, Conklin 1-14, Bousson 1-13, Dawson 1-4.
INTERCEPTIONS &#8212; MIS, none. WILKES, Padillas.
MISSED FGs &#8212; MIS, Newins (41, blocked; 23 blocked)

In rout, Colonels’ Brown picks up first win