After falling behind in the first half 24-0, UNK stormed back in the second to make a game of it. UNK had a 26-yard Hail Mary fall short to drop their final game of the season to Fort Hays 27-20.
UNK had started that drive at their own 25 with 59 seconds left and no timeouts. UNK engineered a couple of big pass plays and drove the ball to the Fort Hays 26-yard line. UNK had a chance with three seconds left and quarterback Reagan Jones got the ball to the back of the end zone after scrambling around, but no one could make the play and the game ended.
Coach Ryan Held, while fighting back tears, said his team continued to fight.
“We were on the brink of getting run out of the gym,” Held said. “We talked about the whole year and how hard we fought and these guys just kept fighting. We easily could’ve folded, so what more can you ask?”
Fort Hays’ mistakes fueled the Lopers comeback. The Tigers committed three unsportsmanlike penalties on UNK’s first drive of the second half, helping the Lopers move down the field where Jones connected with Stephen Lewis on an eight-yard touchdown pass.
With the multiple unsportsmanlike penalties, Held brought his team together to settle them down with the high energy of the game.
“These rivalry games can get that way and so I said let’s just take a deep breath and to just play football,” Held said. “These guys aren’t going to back down to anybody but I don’t need fake tough guys. I need guys that are going to go out there and execute because the 15-yard penalties ended up hurting them and getting us back in the game.”
On the next Fort Hays possession, UNK made it clear that it was game on. Redshirt senior David Lilly blocked a punt and returned it untouched down the left side for a 16-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 24-14 midway through the third quarter. UNK would continue to grab the momentum as on the first play of the next drive, Chandler Brown intercepted a Fort Hays pass, putting even more life into the crowd and sideline.
UNK went three and out after the interception, but the Loper defense continued to play well and didn’t allow the Tigers to score in the third quarter after Fort Hays put up 386 yards of offense in the first half.
After a couple of punts and turnover on downs from both sides, UNK would score midway in the fourth quarter thanks to a four-yard rushing touchdown from Jones. The point after was missed, making the Tiger lead 24-20.
Fort Hays took five and a half minutes off the clock on their next possession and kicked a field goal with just under a minute to play to make it 27-20. From there, they held on to win their eighth game of the season.
UNK dropped their finale to Northwest Missouri last year 56-7 to finish a 3-8 season, and Held said this doesn’t feel anything like that.
“When we walked off that field against Northwest Missouri, I was probably as down as I’d been in many years,” Held said. “I’m not down. We’ll move forward, but I think we have a lot of good players coming back. We got picked last and we didn’t finish last. We went toe-to-toe with everybody and I’m just so happy that we just kept fighting.”
On his senior day, Jones finished 16-29 with 178 yards and a touchdown, also rushing nine times for 33 yards. Isaiah Harris had 15 carries for 63 yards.
UNK finished 5-6, a two win improvement from 2023 in the second year under Held. The Lopers played in many close games again this year, finishing 3-3 in one-score games.
Held now looks ahead to 2025 where the Lopers will continue to try and improve.
“We have to create a competition at every single position,” Held said. “We want to get guys in here, we want to develop the guys that are here because we will play the best players and I’m excited to finish up and see how recruiting goes.
The Lopers honored 26 seniors before Saturday’s game.
