It’s not uncommon for a blocked field goal to result in a touchdown — but not like this.
During the third quarter of Division III Wabash College’s home game against Ohio Wesleyan University on Saturday, kicker Schuyler Nehrig lined up for a 41-yard field goal looking to cut OWU’s lead to 13-9. Instead, he tied the score with a touchdown. Watch this:
After Nehrig’s try was blocked by OWU, he looked straight ahead and saw the loose ball sitting five yards in front of him. That’s when instincts took over. Nehrig scooped up the loose ball and sprinted 24 yards for a touchdown.
Because the ball was behind the line of scrimmage, Nehrig was allowed to advance the ball. His alert play cut the OWU lead to 13-12. Afterward, he tacked on the extra point to tie the score at 13.
Nehrig hit a 43-yard field goal in the first quarter and a 26-yarder earlier in the third, so he was actually responsible for all 13 points the Little Giants (yes, that’s what Wabash’s sports teams are called) scored on Saturday.
However, Ohio Wesleyan hit a field goal with 3:46 left in regulation and won 16-13 to hand Wabash (5-1) its first loss of the season. The Battling Bishops (D-III schools have the best nicknames, don’t they?) improved to 3-3 with the win.
Both schools participate in the North Coast Athletic Conference. The loss knocked Wabash behind DePauw and Wittenberg, both of which are undefeated, in the league standings.
This is the second crazy highlight from a D-III kicker this season, too. On Sept. 17, Texas Lutheran’s Tyler Hopkins had a field goal try blocked by a Belhaven University player. Like with Nehrig, the ball bounced back toward him. Instead of scooping the ball up, Hopkins kicked it off a bounce through the uprights for a field goal.
After the fact, it was determined that the field goal should not have been allowed, but the referees awarded the three points to Texas Lutheran. Hopkins told Yahoo Sports he had no idea if kicking his own blocked field goal through the uprights would count as three points.
“Once it got blocked, right when they blocked it, it hit my chest so I guess that made me look at the ball,” Hopkins told Yahoo Sports. “And once I saw the ball bouncing, it’s a live ball and I didn’t want them to return it or cause a change of momentum so I kicked it.
“I saw that it went in and I looked at my holder and I was like ‘does that count?’” And everyone was just confused and we just waited on the refs’ decision.”
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
