O'Brien's 214 yards powers Gators to win at home

Sep. 25—Allegheny College overcame a slow start with an explosive third quarter in Saturday's 31-20 win against Bethany at Frank B. Fuhrer Field.

The Gators attempted a field goal on their opening drive, but it was blocked. The play summed up the first 28 minutes of the game.

With 1:50 left in the second quarter, quarterback Jack Johnson engineered a four-play, 74-yard drive that resulted in a 23-yard touchdown pass to tight end Austin Williams. Allegheny went into the break down 10-7.

"Honestly, we weren't in the place we wanted to be at halftime. We didn't yell, we didn't scream, it was a gut check," Allegheny head coach Braden Layer said. "Everything we talked about before the game, we got to hit reset at halftime and figure out, can we really take advantage of possessions on offense, can we really close the game defensively and then on special teams can we stop giving teams points and we put points on the board. I thought the second half was maybe our best half of football this season."

The Gators opened the second half with a 14-play drive that ended in a field goal from the 5-yard line. Bethany responded with a field goal of its own to lead 13-10, but from there, it was all Allegheny.

On the first play of the next drive, senior wide receiver Declan O'Brien got open on an out and up route. Johnson hit his favorite target in stride and O'Brien carried his defender the last couple yards into the end zone.

"I always feel like we're one Declan O'Brien explosive play away from hitting our rhythm," Layer said. "It is can we get him into the game with a big play? We hit the double move for a touchdown and it was on from there."

The Gators next drive resulted in an 2-yard Tre Worship dive for a touchdown and a 24-13 lead.

On the ensuing Bethany drive, Malcolm Denomme returned a fumble 64 yards for a touchdown. The play pushed Allegheny ahead 31-13 gave the Gators a 21-0 scoring run.

"A lot of times I think halftime adjustments are a little bit overblown and people make too much of a deal out of that, but we did change some things as far as our offensive game plan and it really helped with what we were doing," Layer said. "Then kudos to our guys being able to go out and execute."

In the fourth quarter, Allegheny's defense stayed aggressive and defensive end Josh Salisbury intercepted a tipped pass with about 10 minutes left to play. The Gators turned the ball back over after three plays and the Bison scored with about six and a half minutes left to play.

The Gators burned 5:19 off the clock and turned it over on downs with 1:09 remaining. Bethany managed one first down and didn't advance beyond the 30-yard line.

Johnson finished with 328 passing yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Worship ran for 40 yards and one touchdown and O'Brien caught nine passes for 214 yards and one touchdown.

O'Brien has a red-hot start to the season. The Norwin High School product leads the Presidents' Athletic Conference with 42 catches and 614 yards. He is second in touchdown grabs with five.

"I credit it to the scheme. They find ways to move me around to get matchups that benefit us and benefit me and find ways to get me open and get the ball to me a lot," O'Brien said. "I worked my butt off this summer and every year for the past three years and I am really happy it's coming together for me and the team as a whole."

Nationally, O'Brien is second in Division III in receptions and yards. He trails Jake Breitback of Gustavus Adolphus College by one catch and 21 yards.

"That's always the fun part (O'Brien's production), but you need to have a counter to what the defense does. How do they take him away?" Layer said. "We could stay up for hours and hours designing plays to get that kid the ball. It's a good problem to have."

Allegheny is 2-2 and will host Carnegie Mellon this week for Blue and Gold Weekend. The Tartans are ranked No. 24 by D3football.com and lost to Grove City College 21-14 on Saturday.

"We take everything one week at a time. You look at the Saint Vincent and Geneva games, those are the teams that, in my opinion, are right above us on the conference ladder," Layer said. "It's a challenge this week because we are skipping those rungs and going right to the very very top. That won't be lost on us. We know it will take our absolute best game to compete."

Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.