Hampshire beats DeKalb on final play

DeKALB — With 40 seconds left and Hampshire tied with DeKalb 27-27, Hampshire coach Dan Cavanaugh was thinking about his plays for overtime. But the Whip-Purs had other ideas.

Kyle Anderson found Brendan Waterworth for 52 yards to the 2-yard line and, after a penalty, Anderson took it in himself with .4 seconds left as the Whips won their first game of the season, 33-27, in nonconference action in DeKalb.

The score capped a comeback from an 8-point, fourth-quarter deficit.

“I thought (Waterworth) was going to get in, but we can’t do anything easy,” said Cavanaugh. “But that would probably have left too much time on the clock, anyway.”

The Barbs had tied the game on a 3-yard run by Dylan Hottsmith with 40.7 seconds left. Hottsmith, who is the Barbs’ kicker, was hurt on the play, and the extra point attempt by the backup kicker barely got off the ground. Thus, barring disaster, Hampshire was looking at no worse than overtime.

“We all stuck together on the last play and put it in there,” said Anderson. “We just wanted to be prepared on that last drive for the worst-case scenario, but we knew we were going to stick it in there when we got it down on the 2-yard line.”

Hampshire (1-1) took its first lead with 1:28 to play on a 1-yard run by Phil LaPointe, but DeKalb needed just 4 plays and about 48 seconds to tie it.

DeKalb mostly scored on long plays, while the Whip-Purs went for ball control. The Barbs scored on plays of 79, 63, and 62 yards. That included 2 long runs by sophomore tailback Dre Brown, who finished with 198 yards on just 12 carries.

Hampshire, by contrast, scored on three 1-yard runs and a 6-yarder. Anderson also threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Kuefner.

It was a backfield by committee for the Whip-Purs, who rolled up 253 yards on the ground with no one topping 100.

Tyler Crater ran for 90 yards, including the 6-yard score, before leaving with a head injury just before halftime. He returned to the sideline in the second half but did not play. Instead, LaPointe took over, rushing for 73 yards and a pair of scores after the break.

Anderson completed 7 of 12 for 158 yards and added 50 yards on the ground.

Brown ran 79 yards for a score on the second play from scrimmage and it looked like the Whip-Purs might be in for a long night.

Trailing 14-7 just before the break, Hampshire moved deep into DeKalb territory but the Barbs stuffed 2 straight runs from the 1-yard line to preserve their lead.