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WASHINGTON, D.C. - SUNY Morrisville's (1-1) last second field goal attempt was blocked by the Cardinals as Catholic (2-1) held on to defeat the Mustangs 28-27 on Saturday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium. 

Catholic opened up fast, scoring 21 first quarter points to jump out to a 14-point lead after 15 minutes of action. The Cardinals went 74 yards on four plays on the opening drive of the game with Zach Williams punching it in from six yards out to open the scoring. Catholic came out firing right from the start as a flea flicker resulted in a 44-yard completion from Joey Gulbin to Andrew Tabor. A 29-yard gain to Malachi Hansen took the Cardinals inside the 10 before Williams finished off the drive. 

Sean Holt forced an Alex McBurnie fumble on Morrisville's opening drive with Carson Henry recovering at the Catholic 28. 

On the next drive, facing a 3rd-and-10 from the Morrisville 46, Gulbin found Hansen down the left sideline. Hansen made a defender miss and scampered into the end zone for the score. 

Morrisville answered with its first score with 5:09 remaining in the opening quarter. Isaac Sylvain ran for 38 yards to get into Catholic territory. After a 14-yard gain to Jashon Thomas on 3rd-and-10, Alek Britten tossed it to Quamel Jarvis for a 32-yard score. 

Catholic made it three touchdowns on three drives the next time out with Gulbin finding Cade Chrebet in the back of the end zone for an eight-yard score after a 28-yard gain to Hansen. 

The Cardinal offense would slow down slightly, not finding the end zone again until the third quarter as the Mustangs made it a 21-14 game at the half. 

After Morrisville turned it over on the downs in the third, Catholic put together an eight-play, 62-yard scoring drive to make it a two-score game with 3:20 to play in the quarter. After an offside call against the Morrisville defense on 4th-and-10, Gulbin found Hansen for a gain of nine and a fresh set of downs on 4th-and-5. Back-to-back Omari Owes runs got Catholic to the 14 before Daequan Harvin returned to the game and punched in a 14 yard score. 

The Mustangs got a nine-yard touchdown from McBurnie with 3:21 remaining, but elected to go for two, but the pass from Britten fell incomplete. Catholic was forced to punt the ball back with 2:09 remaining, but Owen Cole's 38-yard field goal was blocked by Tyler Donnelly as Catholic came away victorious. 

Gulbin completed 24 passes for 303 yards and two scores to lead Catholic in his first career start. Harvin rushed for 53 yards and a score despite missing a quarter-plus with an injury. Hansen caught five passes for 117 yards an a score, giving him his first 100-yard receiving game since November 12, 2022 vs. Springfield. Anthony Giordano grabbed seven passes for 60 yards. 

Defensively, Sean Finan finished with a team-high 11 stops for Catholic and added a pass break-up as well. Michael Hopkins and Mason Stillwell each totaled eight tackles while Hopkins and Brendan Smith combined on a sack. Smith also forced a fumble in his first appearance of the season.

Catholic will head to New York to take on Alfred next weekend.