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But UB Quarterback’s Career Night Spoiled By Holy Cross’ TD On Final Play

By Matt Spielman 6 min read

AMHERST -- Everything was going Cole Snyder's way for him to be the hero for the University at Buffalo in his home debut with the Bulls on Saturday night.

The 2019 Southwestern graduate engineered a game-tying drive that ended with Alex McNulty making a 52-yard field goal to knot up the game with Holy Cross at 31-all.

Presumably, the game would head to overtime and Snyder would have an opportunity to add on to his career night.

But 31 seconds remained.

And that was just enough time for the Crusaders to pull off the improbable.

Quarterback Matthew Sluka marched Holy Cross 29 yards in 27 seconds.

With four seconds showing on the clock, Sluka dropped back to pass and heaved a Hail Mary into the end zone where a waiting Jalen Coker jumped and ripped the ball away from four UB defenders for a 46-yard touchdown with no time remaining on the clock as the defending Patriot League champions left UB Stadium with a 37-31 victory.

"You have to take (practice) seriously, whether it's special teams or the last play of the game … you have to take every situation seriously. You have to understand it and study it. In that situation, we didn't execute and we really didn't understand it," Bulls linebacker James Patterson said. "We had multiple guys jump. When we practice, only one guy is supposed to jump. When somebody is jumping on offense, we are supposed to get in their hip and budge them, trying to punch the ball out. … I think we didn't execute that. That's on us, not the coaches. They put the tools in our hands and we didn't use them correctly."

It was hard to blame the Bulls' offense.

Snyder finished 23-for-34 passing for 305 yards and three touchdowns. The Rutgers transfer also ran eight times for 51 yards. Justin Marshall caught five passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns while Quian Williams caught eight passes for 105 yards and a touchdown.

"We stressed explosive plays all week long," UB head coach Maurice Linguist said. "We knew we were going to be able to create some big chunk-yardage plays with the throw game with Justin Marshall and Quian Williams. We were able to do that pretty effectively and efficiently."

All told, UB gained 464 yards of offense and 25 first downs while going 6 of 12 on third-down opportunities.

"Coach did a great job of game planning this week and just dialing things up that exploited their defense," Snyder said. "Justin made some great plays out there today, but at the end of the day, it just wasn't enough."

As good as the offense was, the Bulls defense allowed Holy Cross to remain in the game.

The Crusaders gained an equally impressive 457 yards of offense and took advantage of 10 UB penalties totaling 91 yards. Two Holy Cross touchdown drives were extended by penalties, once on a fourth-down facemask and the other on a third-down pass interference.

"Ten penalties for 91 yards, that's just not our brand of football," Linguist said. "Multiple penalties in critical situations, not getting off the field when we should have been off the field."

The Bulls took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter on a 10-play, 92-yard drive. On first-and-15 from the 20-yard line, Snyder was nearly pulled down in the backfield, but threw up a jump ball toward the corner of the end zone that was caught by Marshall.

UB took a 14-0 lead on its next drive, which totaled nine plays and 85 yards. Snyder completed passes of 12, 10 and 16 yards in the middle of the drive before Mike Washington ran up the middle for 14 yards. On first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, Washington completed the drive with a touchdown run.

"We have a ton of weapons on this team like you saw today," Snyder said.

After the Crusaders made it 21-7, the Bulls struck quickly again. Snyder converted with a 6-yard completion on third-and-5 before finding Williams open for a career-long 59-yard touchdown reception on what was the wide receiver from Oklahoma City's birthday.

Holy Cross answered just before halftime and then tied the game with a 14-play, 75-yard drive after the break that took seven minutes and 35 seconds off the clock.

The long wait didn't seem to bother Snyder and the Bulls offense. On the first play from scrimmage, the 2018 Post-Journal Player of the Year found Marshall open at the Holy Cross 25-yard line and the 6-foot-3 wideout broke free from his tackler for a 69-yard touchdown to give the 28-21 lead back to UB.

"I thought the offensive line did a good job of just protecting when we got some of those longer-developing pass plays down the field," Linguist said. "We were able to push the ball over the top a little bit."

Three possessions later, on the first play of a Crusaders drive, Sluka found Coker for a 62-yard catch and run to make it 28-28.

Holy Cross kicker Derek Ng gave his team its first lead of the night with a 28-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter before McNulty's late kick looked like it would send the game into overtime.

Coker's catch ended that hope.

"We end every practice on Friday with that very last situation," Linguist said. "We didn't get the ball knocked down."

"I'm at a loss for words right now. I'm still processing everything," Snyder said. "Obviously, you don't want to see a finish like that. We just have to stick together as a team right now."

Holy Cross 37, Buffalo 31

Holy Cross 0 14 14 9 -- 37

Buffalo 7 14 7 3 -- 31

First Quarter

Buf--Marshall 20 pass from Snyder (McNulty kick), 3:11.

Second Quarter

Buf--Washington 5 run (McNulty kick), 10:56.

HC--Fuller 4 run (Ng kick), 4:58.

Buf--Williams 59 pass from Snyder (McNulty kick), 2:50.

HC--Asante 17 pass from Sluka (Ng kick), 0:17.

Third Quarter

HC--Fuller 2 run (Ng kick), 7:25.

Buf--Marshall 69 pass from Snyder (McNulty kick), 7:08.

HC--Coker 62 pass from Sluka (Ng kick), 2:32.

Fourth Quarter

HC--Ng 28 FG, 7:12.

Buf--McNulty 52 FG, 0:31.

HC--Coker 46 pass from Sluka, 0:00.

A--16,933.

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HC Buf

First downs 23 25

Total Net Yards 457 464

Rushes-yards 45-219 31-159

Passing 238 305

Punt Returns 0-0 1-14

Kickoff Returns 1-24 4-94

Interceptions Ret. 0-0 0-0

Comp-Att-Int 13-22-0 23-34-0

Sacked-Yards Lost 1-1 2-10

Punts 5-43.0 4-36

Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0

Penalties-Yards 4-25 10-91

Time of Possession 32:04 27:56

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Holy Cross, Sluka 25-146, Fuller 10-51, Oliver 8-18, Purdy 1-4, Coker 1-0. Buffalo, Washington 12-5, Snyder 8-51, Cook 6-33, Henderson 4-22.

PASSING--Holy Cross, Sluka 13-21-0-238. Buffalo, Snyder 23-34-0-305.

RECEIVING--Holy Cross, Coker 4-147, Shorter 3-30, Asante 3-28, Purdy 1-14, Thomas 1-11, Gilliam 1-8. Buffalo, Marshall 5-116, Williams 8-105, Mangas 2-32, Harrity 2-17, Gassett 4-14, Cook 1-11, Johnson 1-10.

MISSED FIELD GOALS--None.

Starting at /week.