The Butler football team takes the field before a game at the Sellick Bowl. The Bulldogs dropped their fifth game in a row on Nov. 3. Jimmy Lafakis/Collegian file photo.
JAROD LIPSON | STAFF REPORTER | jlipson@butler.edu
Butler University’s football team lost a heartbreaker to Jacksonville on Nov. 3 by a score of 48-44.
The Bulldogs once again started slow, going down 14-0 after two Jacksonville touchdowns sandwiched a Butler punt.
Redshirt senior running back Anthony Scaccia put Butler on the board first with a seven-yard touchdown run. Senior wide receiver Pace Temple’s 54-yard catch put the Bulldogs in position to score.
Temple caught 12 passes for 196 yards in the game.
After junior defensive back Luke Sennett’s two tackles helped force a three-and-out, Butler answered again.
Senior quarterback Will Marty’s one-yard touchdown run, set up by a 29-yard Temple reception, brought the Bulldogs to within a point.
After trading punts and then trading touchdowns back and forth twice, Butler was down a point at halftime.
The touchdowns came off a 3-yard Marty rush and a 5-yard Temple reception.
Junior wide receiver James Marbaugh’s 34-yard reception took the Bulldogs into enemy territory on the latter drive.
Butler had possession only twice in the third quarter, ending in a three-and-out and a field goal.
A Jacksonville touchdown in between put the Bulldogs down 35-30 heading into the final quarter.
A 52-yard touchdown catch senior wide receiver Thomas Baldwin put Butler in front early in the fourth. A missed two-point conversion left the Bulldogs up by one.
Jacksonville ran a 52-yard touchdown of their own in, which put the Dolphins up five after their own missed two-point conversion.
Scaccia’s ten-yard touchdown run put Butler up once more, giving the Bulldogs a 44-41 lead with three minutes remaining.
Butler needed a stop but couldn’t get one and let Jacksonville drive 12 plays and 48 yards to score with four seconds remaining to put them up by four points. The Dolphins converted a fourth down early on in the drive that kept them alive.
Butler’s attempt at a laterals play did not succeed and the Bulldogs fell for the fifth consecutive week.
The loss takes Butler to 3-6 overall and 1-5 in conference.
The Bulldogs will host Stetson in their final home game of the season on Nov. 10.