By Owen Kutlu, Staff Writer
It was a lively afternoon on Family Weekend at Musselman Stadium for a battle between Gettysburg and Dickinson. The contest did not disappoint, as both teams competed for the treasured Little Brown Bucket.
The Red Devils got the ball to begin the game, and they did not waste any time scoring. Just over a minute into the affair, Dickinson hit an explosive 65-yard deep ball to take a seven-point lead early.
Under a new offensive coordinator, the Bullets looked to revamp their flow on offense. On their second possession, they did just that. The team used a mixture of runs and passes to methodically drive down the field. Gettysburg was left with a 4th and goal on the four-yard line. Sticking to their aggressive play calling, the offense stayed on the field and quarterback Rocco Abdinoor ’26 ran it in himself to tie the game at seven in the first quarter.
Dickinson had another good look at putting points on the board towards the end of the quarter but missed a 40-yard field goal after a long drive. The Bullets got the ball back at the beginning of the second quarter but their drive stalled as well.
Dickinson took advantage of a good field position and managed to move the ball well into the red zone. Then came the big play from the Bullets. Backs against the wall on their own ten-yard line, defensive back Matt Mikulka ’24 knocked the ball out of the Red Devils’ hands and Arthur Stubbs ’26 recovered it.
Gettysburg put the turnover to good use, and the length of the field to get in position to take the lead. Michael Zrelak ‘26 did most of the heavy lifting on the drive, as he accounted for 45 yards on six carries. Abdinoor then connected with Ryan Furey ’24 for a 25-yard touchdown, which put the Bullets up 14-7 with six minutes to go in the first half.
The Red Devils did not fade, however. They answered instantly with a quick five-play drive that ended in an 8-yard touchdown reception to even the score once again. Gettysburg went three-and-out on their next possession, which left Dickinson with just under two minutes before the half to try and put more points on the board.
The offense was starting to click for the Red Devils, as they constructed another surgical drive to end the half. Nine plays and 57 yards later, Dickinson capped off the drive with a 16-yard touchdown catch to go into the locker room up 21-14 with another half to play.
The third quarter was rather uneventful, with both teams trading punts for the entirety of it. However, toward the end of the quarter, Gettysburg was moving the ball down the field. They set up kicker Rob Meyer ’24 with a long field goal, which he drilled to cut the lead to four and also set a career-long (44 yards).
As was the case for the majority of the game, Dickinson had yet another answer. After six plays, the Red Devils were back in the end zone with a 7-yard touchdown rush to go up 28-17 with around ten minutes left in the game.
The Bullets did not go down without a fight. They used some trickery and were able to get a touchdown of their own by dialing up a reverse for receiver Aidan Feulner ‘24, where he threw a 39-yard pass to Ryan McAndrew ’24, who did the rest of the work. Abdnioor then hit Feulner on the two-point conversion to narrow it to a three-point Dickinson lead.
The Gettysburg defense came up big and forced the Red Devils to punt on the next possession. This gave the Bullets the ball with a chance to take the lead late in the game. Luke Denison ‘26 broke off the punt return deep into Dickinson territory, but the gain was brought back due to a brutal holding call.
The Bullets’ offense could not muster up a successful drive after the killer penalty halted their momentum. Dickinson then got the ball back with roughly four minutes to go and they ran out the clock the rest of the way to secure a 28-25 win over Gettysburg.
The Bullets continue their season at home against Ursinus on Sat., Nov. 4 at 1 p.m.
