Falcons fall in 2OTs

River Forest

A 2 point conversion pass in the second overtime gave Concordia- Chicago a 22-21 win over the visiting Falcons Saturday afternoon. The victory allowed CU-Chicago to move into a first place tie with CUW and Lakeland.

The visitng Falcons led 7-0 at the half, getting a 3 yard burst to paydirt from Carlton Austin to complete a 40 yard drive. The Cougars (7-1 on the season) came back to tie the game in the third period on an 80 yard march that ended with a 10 yard scoring toss from Mike Marotta to Ian Jackson.

Things looked bleak for the Falcons after Khyree Copeland sprinted 52 yards to give the hosts a 14-7 lead with less than ten minutes remaining in the contest, but senior signal caller TJ Pacchioli came into the game (torn ACL notwithstanding) to drive the Falcons 76 yards to a tying touchdown with just one minute remaining in regulation.

In the first overtime, Concordia- Chicago went nowhere in 4 plays and the Falcons appeared poised to win. Three running plays gained just one yard before Dan Winsey's field goal attempt hit the upright and bounced away.

Greg Etter's team scored in four plays from the 25 to start the second overtime with Pacchioli diving in from a yard out. Winsey's point made it 21- 14 CUW.

CU- Chicago, winless in their most recent 22 tries against the Falcons, broke that long pattern of futility on their next series. Marotta hit Mike Egebrecht for the TD and then found him again on a 2 point conversion to end this thriller after two overtime sessions.

Statistics were as even as the final score with the Falcons holding a 328 -321 yardage advantage. Pacchioli finished 13 of 22 for 136 yards, throwing for one TD and scoring another. Next Saturday looms even larger now as the Falcons (4-1) host Lakeland (4-1) before traveling to winless Rockford while Concordia- Chicago still needs to play at Aurora and at Benedictine. After traveling to Mequon next Saturday, Lakeland has their finale with Aurora.