This past Saturday Seton Hill Football lost a heartbreaker to the University of Charleston 38-41. It was a hard fight that saw eight lead changes through four quarters, and had the Griffins coming up short on Ray Wilkins 49-yard field goal to tie it up in the last minute of the game.
By Shawn Conway
Contributor
This past Saturday Seton Hill Football lost a heartbreaker to the University of Charleston 38-41. It was a hard fight that saw eight lead changes through four quarters, and had the Griffins coming up short on Ray Wilkins 49-yard field goal to tie it up in the last minute of the game.
It seems that the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat have been a large part of this football season. The team had exciting wins against conference rivals number 10 Glenville State and West Virginia Wesleyan. Glenville fell in overtime and gave the Griffins their first victory of the year. Wesleyan was taken down on Homecoming weekend for the first homecoming victory in the team’s history. The crowds were pleased with the success the team was having.
“I thought it was amazing I was really happy for the fact that the football team won,” said Andrew Roberts, a senior. “I was up on my feet, I was cheering with everything I had and I do not do that very often for most sporting events.”
“The wins in front of the home crowd felt great and very exhilarating,” said Greg Sell, a junior football player. “We showed signs of the team we knew we could be.”
However, the team has suffered some blowout losses to Northeast Regional powerhouses like current number 7 Slippery Rock and number 5 Shepherd. And they’ve lost some closer games to Walsh, West Virginia State, and most recently to number 6 Charleston. The young Griffin team did not take these losses lightly.
“The team in general did not take them very well. We believe that we were the better team in each of the games,” said Sell. “Those teams did not beat us, we beat ourselves.”
Contrary to the team’s reaction, their fan base seemed to take the losses in stride. “I was really disappointed, but I knew at the same time that they played as hard as they could which was impressive,” said Roberts.
Despite a buzz about the success of the team, Sell doesn’t believe that the support the team has received has been enough. “With the addition of the pep band I believe we have some more support but our fan base has still not grown to the size we would like it to be.”
So what’s next for this Griffin team?
“We are just taking everything one game at a time,” commented Sell. “The only thing that matters is the next opponent on the schedule.”