It was a short pass on second and eight in the final seconds of the third quarter, but by the time Stetson’s Kegan Moore was hauled down from behind 78 yards later, it changed the entire complexion of the day for the homestanding Hatters.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Cole Mazza crashed into the end zone and, when Jordan Acham’s PAT kick cleared the upright, the Hatters had a 15-14 lead over visiting Marist. Stetson went on to tack on another touchdown later in the final quarter, giving the Hatters a 22-14 Homecoming victory over Marist.

(Pictured: Cole Mazza dives forward for extra yards early in the Hatters’ 22-14 victory over Marist. By: Kristi Tyrrell.)

With the win, Stetson’s third in a row, the Hatters improved to 5-5 on the season and 3-3 in Pioneer Football League play. Marist slipped to 3-7 overall, 3-4 in PFL play. It was the first home win for Stetson since last season’s Homecoming victory over Davidson.

Stetson coach Roger Hughes was visibly emotional after the game, even after taking time to change into dry clothes following a sideline shower of blue PowerAde.

“I am pretty proud, both of our players and our assistant coaches,” Hughes said while fighting back tears. “Someone told me before the game that four wins is a great season. We have always had our sights set higher than that. We didn’t lower our standards from winning because winning sets the standard for excellence. Anything below that is not acceptable.”

The Hatters won on Saturday in front of 4,265 fans at Spec Martin Memorial Stadium – the largest crowd of the year, home or away – in much the say way they won the last two games on their three-game win streak. They made halftime adjustments, and dominated the second half.

“They did some things with their linebackers that they hadn’t done in the past, and we couldn’t generate enough offense to analyze what they were doing because we kept going three and out,” Hughes said. “It took us a little while to figure it out but, at halftime I thought our offensive coaches did a tremendous job of putting a new game plan together.”

The game plan was predicated on attacking the Marist defense where they weren’t.

“We made some big time adjustments at halftime to attack where they were leaving,” Hatters quarterback Ryan Tentler said. “Every spot they left, we wanted to attack there. We started driving and, eventually, a few things starting clicking. Once we start getting momentum, we don’t stop.”

It looked as if the Hatters would have momentum from the very start of the game. Stetson took the opening kickoff and needed just six plays, five of which were runs by Cole Mazza, to march 65 yards for an opening score. To add a twist, Stetson faked the PAT and kicker Grant Amick plowed over defensive back Craig Thompson for the conversion to give the Hatters an 8-0 lead.

After that, there was very little positive for Stetson offensively in the first half. The Hatters managed just 27 yards of offense the rest of the way and had just one first down.

“They started to shift over and the backers were mirroring us,” Mazza said of the Marist defense. “We had to run a lot of slants and pick guys off the back side. Coach (Tim) Holt and Coach (Matt) Diniak figured out what we needed to do. Once the offensive line got going, we just executed the plan.”

While the Hatters were struggling to find offensive success, the Stetson defense was doing all that it could to keep the Red Foxes at bay. Marist took advantage of the first of two Stetson turnovers, a muff of a punt by Darius McGriff, to get on the board midway through the first quarter. Quarterback Anthony Francis connected with Armani Martin on a perfectly thrown ball over the hands of Glenn Adesoji for a nine-yard TD pass. The PAT cut the Stetson lead to 8-7.

That is where the game stayed until the closing seconds of the half when Francis capped a 12-play drive with an 18 yard TD pass to Matt Tralli. The PAT gave the Red Foxes a 14-8 lead at intermission.

“You are seeing a team that is maturing,” Hughes said. “In the past, if we had gotten down at the half like that, with the mistakes, one would have compounded the other and we wouldn’t have been able to recover. There is a belief and confidence on this team that is growing and, when bad things happen – and we had some crucial, mental errors in this game – that could have turned the game around, we didn’t let it bother us.”

The third quarter started like the second played out, with the teams exchanging punts.

Things started to change on the second Stetson possession of the quarter when the Hatters drove 55 yards in 13 plays. Even though they didn’t score – Grant Amick’s 43-yard field goal attempt was low and got blocked – the success of that drive led to future success.

While the Hatters were starting to find things that worked on the offensive side of the ball, the defense put the Marist offense in lockdown. The Hatters started getting to the Marist quarterback with pressure and it was apparent that the sophomore was feeling the heat.

“You could definitely see him start to scramble around a little more and try to get out of the pocket,” defensive end Davion Belk said. “It seemed like he got uncomfortable back there, and that is good for us. We want to make him uncomfortable and make him move around.”

After throwing for two touchdowns in the first half, Francis was 5-of-13 for 49 yards and was sacked five times in the second half.

“It seemed that as the game went on, and the hits accumulated, it had an affect on him,” Hughes said. “I know his receivers were getting frustrated because the ball wasn’t placed where he needed to and I attribute that to the pressure we were able to get on him and the compound nature of the hits we were able to get on him.

After the missed field goal, the Hatters shut down the Marist offense, forcing another punt, but had to start at their own nine. After trying a halfback option pass on first down, the Hatters got 10 yards on a pass to Ryan Selimos before Tentler gunned the ball into the hands of Moore.

““First off, he was a little tired because, on the play before, he ran a wheel route and Cole overthrew him by 65 yards,” Tentler said. “We wanted to come to the front side to Austin (Marks) and Rob (Coggin) but I saw that the corner was playing outside of Austin and the dawg safety was playing inside of Kegan.

“When he catches the ball, you never know what is going to happen. I threw it at him as hard as I could and when he caught it he did a little move and just took off. If it hadn’t been for the play before, he would have scored.”

The Hatters put the game away later in the fourth quarter when an old friend got back into the offensive attack. Fireplug running back A.J. Washington has missed more time than he has played over two seasons with injuries, but he carried the load late in the game, putting icing on the Homecoming cake with his first career touchdown on a nine-yard run.

“Andre has come back from a lot of injuries,” Tentler said. “He is my roommate and we have been talking all season. Whenever he gets back to full speed he is going to be special. He is still not 100 percent. When he gets the ball he sees things that no one else can see and can do things that no one else can do. When he gets to be 100 percent he is going to be a special player.”

For the Hatters, getting the win at home, for Homecoming, was special.

“This is a huge milestone for the program, really setting the tone in just our second year,” senior center Fletcher Eldemire said. “There is a bright future ahead of us.”

Mazza finished just three yard shy of 100 for the game, and had a pair of short TD runs. Tentler threw for 187 yards and completed 13-of-19 passes with one interception.

On the defensive side, Donald Payne continued to rack up incredible numbers. He finished the night with 21 tackles, including three for loss, and he forced a fumble. Belk also had a strong performance, with eight tackles, including three for loss and a couple of sacks.

With the team now even on the year, the Hatters are not yet ready to celebrate a successful season.

“It is a blessing to be at .500,” Mazza said. “We thought we could be here, and we could have won two more games. We are going to enjoy this, but we want to get two more.”

Tentler was even more pointed.

“To finally get a home win is good, but I am over it right now,” Tentler said. “I am ready to go play Morehead. I just want to keep playing.”

GoHatters.com