PC Bites #23 Butler to End Season on Four-Game Winning Streak, 30-27
Anchored by a career-best performance from Quante Jennings in his Blue Hose swansong and a two-touchdown effort by fellow senior Worth Warner, the Presbyterian College football team outlasted #23 Butler in the 2024 finale on Saturday afternoon with a 30-27 decision.
NOTABLES
- The three-point thriller is PC's fourth all-time victory over a top-25 opponent since making the D-I transition, a feat they hadn't seen since 2014 when the Blue Hose defeated #12 Furman and #22 Charleston Southern.
- Jennings penned his best-ever performance on the final afternoon that he'll don the Presby colors, gaining 190 yards on 15 carries while responsible for the tiebreaking TD with 4:43 left in the 3rd frame.
- Warner similarly had a last ride to remember, scoring two receiving touchdowns on the same day for the second time in his career. His eight-yard grab in the 2nd was the first score for either club, later catching a 17-yarder that ended a 20-0 Butler spurt.
- Redshirt-freshman quarterback Collin Hurst finishes his breakout season with five games in a row where he did not throw an interception. His last turnover came all the way back on October 12 (going 135 consecutive passes without an INT).
- Linebacker Alex Herriott hangs up his PC cleats for the last time as one of the greatest defensive players in Presby's D-I era, concluding his tenure with 368 tackles to rank 2nd in school history.
- Another senior who capped off a brilliant career with some long-lasting statistics, Zach Switzer has now become Presbyterian's new single-season record holder in all-purpose yards (surpassing Terrance Butler's total in 2007). This year, he collected 1,298 yards in rushing, receiving, and kick returning.
- Safety Anthony Thornton – one more senior who means so much to Englehart's crew – was the catalyst to PC's first points of the contest, hauling an interception after Bradley Russ-Martin tipped a longball high into the air.
- That gave the Scotsmen possession at the Butler 41, where they promptly hit paydirt two plays later.
HOW IT HAPPENED – FIRST HALF
- Defense reigned supreme in the opening 15 minutes as both sides took turns ending the other's promising series with disruption. PC's second drive of the day fizzled out inside the red zone, where the Bulldogs blocked a 36-yard field goal attempt to keep them off the board.
- Butler then held the ball for the next six minutes, only to get a taste of their own medicine after gambling on 4th down at the Presby 20 but coming away with an incomplete pass and a still-scoreless ballgame.
- Thornton's aforementioned interception allowed Englehart's gang to draw first blood on a Warner touchdown, a play that was set up by a 33-yard run from Jennings.
- A third-down sack from Carter Szydlowski (his sixth of the semester to tie the most on the roster) led to a quick punt from the Bulldogs and another TD by Presbyterian that lofted the lead to 14.
- Hurst did the honors with his legs after booming a 62-yard completion to Dominic Kibby, dealing Butler their largest first-half deficit of the entire season as a result.
- Nearly pitching a 30-minute shutout going into the break, PC saw their lead dwindle a bit on a 12-play, 77-yard drive that finished with a fourth-down score at the 15 with 30 seconds to go in the 2nd.
HOW IT HAPPENED – SECOND HALF
- Still ahead by eight to start the 3rd due to a missed PAT on Butler's lone TD, the Blue Hose met a big obstacle and flirted with disaster after the visitors found two touchdowns in the first four minutes of half number two.
- Butler made it a one-point cushion on a 23-yard rush just one minute and 14 seconds into the quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, PC fumbled the ball back to the Bulldogs that caused another score from 15 yards out.
- At this moment, Presbyterian was battling from behind thanks to three unanswered touchdowns. However, the counter punch was delivered with twice the velocity.
- PC answered their only deficit by marching 75 yards in fewer than three minutes and distributing another TD to Warner that swung the momentum back in their favor.
- The point-after was wide of the mark, keeping the score tied at 20 apiece. It didn't stay that way for long, as Jennings reached his fourth touchdown of the season on a 10-yarder that came after a Bulldog three-and-out.
- Presby carried that seven-point lead into the final frame, doing an exceptional job of playing keep-away to preserve the victory.
- Butler was forced to punt once more and give possession back to PC with 11:29 on the clock. The Blue Hose then held the ball for nearly 10 whole minutes, converting a couple of crucial third downs and extending the advantage to double-digits on a Peter Lipscombe field goal from a distance of 18 yards.
- That left the Bulldogs with only 1:45 to work with and a 30-20 hole. On the very next snap, senior Robert Porter forced a fumble that Szydlowski fell on top of, further decreasing Butler's hopes for a miracle.
- PC elected to keep their offense on the field with a 4th-down scenario at the Butler 31, although unable to move the chains to cast a smidge of doubt on the outcome.
- Butler raced to a 42-yard touchdown with 64 seconds left, trimming the margin down to three. Presby didn't need to worry, however, as Nathan Levicki recovered the onside kick attempt that served as the Bulldogs' last hope.
The article, another photo gallery & Coach Englehart's comments here.
