By MONTE DUTTON

The Presbyterian Blue Hose made history. They didn’t make the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, but they made history.

A 29-25 Pioneer Football League victory over Marist took the Blue Hose to heights they haven’t scaled but wasn’t enough to keep them playing.

Drake (8-3, 7-1), which PC did not play, won the PFL’s playoff bid with a 17-10 victory over Morehead State (6-6, 4-4). Presbyterian (10-2, 6-2) tied with San Diego (8-4, 6-2), which it did not play, for second. The Toreros mauled Stetson (3-9, 2-6), 42-8.

Those are the breaks. The PFL has 11 teams. Each member plays eight league games and plays all but two of the other 10. The Blue Hose got an unfortunate two.

In 113 seasons of football, Presbyterian has accomplished 10 wins in a single campaign three times: 1959, 2005 and this one. Steve Englehart’s fourth season in Clinton exceeded all but the wildest expectation. He and his staff have taken the Blue Hose from 1-10 to 4-7 to 6-6 to 10-2.

Surely Englehart, who came to Presbyterian in the aftermath of the Kevin Kelley disaster and carefully rebuilt the program, will receive credit appropriate for the Blue Hose’ miraculous recovery. The Blue Hose opened the season with upsets of Southern Conference champion Mercer and member Furman. To point out for the umpteenth time, those schools award football scholarships; Presbyterian does not.

In front of 2,911 at Bailey Memorial Stadium, Justin Montgomery scored the winning touchdown on a five-yard run with 46 seconds left to play against Marist (5-7, 3-4). Presbyterian won all six home games.

The winning drive – eight plays, 65 yards – took 1 minute, 25 seconds. PC averaged 45 points a game at home.

Jett Jackson connected on all three of his field-goal attempts at distances of 39, 41 and 34 yards.

Linebackers Michael Torres and Boyce Bankhead combined for 19 tackles, three for losses and two forced fumbles. Malik Lewis added nine stops.

“This game was almost all big plays,” Bankhead said. “It wasn’t pretty.”

A senior from Columbia, Bankhead is emblematic of what the team has achieved. Englehart’s mantra is recruit, develop and retain. Bankhead spent most of his freshman year, the 1-10 year, filming games from the press box.

“I mean, we’re very proud of our freshman year,” he said. “We all stuck it out. We put our heads down. We knew the team we had, and how special it all worked.”

Montgomery and Zach Switzer combined for 103 yards on the ground, and Collin Hurst completed 18/32 passes for 211 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 26 during the season. He was intercepted once.

The Blue Hose led 13-0 at intermission but twice had to come from behind in the second half.

“To me, the shocking thing was, when all of a sudden, there was a clear and present danger of a loss, that’s when the team has to react immediately,” said Hurst, from Davie, Fla.

The Red Foxes arrived from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., riding home wins over Stetson (41-13) and Davidson (37-10), and they scrambled. Four quarterbacks attempted passes. Seven receivers caught them. The chief suspects were Will O’Dell, who was 12/15 for 180 yards and a touchdown, and Lance Martinez, who snagged four for 81 yards. Marist’s leading rusher was Tristan Shannon, who had 51 yards in 10 attempts.

The season’s great regret was a 14-13 loss at Davidson, on Nov. 8, when Hurst was sidelined by a hamstring injury. That was the day Englehart wishes he had back.

“But, even if we hadn’t lost that game, it would have been the same,” he said. “We would have tied Drake, been the co-champion, but the way it all works out, they would have still gotten the playff berth.

“Still, there’s no better way to end the season. … I’m so proud of our program in general, and in particular, I’m really proud of these [34] seniors, the ones who’ve stayed with us. They came in here and lost 10 games, and they really took a chance. I’m really proud of them and how they were able to finish their careers.”

Take a look at the stats here.

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