LEXINGTON, Va. – The Shenandoah University football team equaled its program record for victories in a season with a 16-14, triple overtime victory over Washington & Lee Saturday afternoon.
 
Shenandoah (8-2, 5-2 ODAC) matches the 2003 team for wins in a season with the ODAC triumph over W&L (5-5, 3-4).
 
IN DEPTH
The triple OT win is also the longest game in program history and marks the squad's third ever overtime victory over the Generals. SU is now 4-6 lifetime versus W&L with all but the 2021 win (which came down to the final possession) coming in overtime.
 
Shenandoah got the win in triple overtime after both teams were unsuccessful on field goal attempts in the first two overtimes. Getting the ball first, SU missed a 37-yarder before blocking 36-yard attempt by Washington & Lee.
 
The Generals then missed from 36 and then 25 before the Hornets completed the second OT by missing a 41-yarder.
 
In the third overtime, by rule two-point plays, SU quarterback broke a tackle, scrambled right and dove over the goal line to put the Hornets on top, 16-14.
 
The defense took the field and stopped an Alex Wertz rush up the middle to secure the victory.
 
The overtime heroics capped a comeback in which Shenandoah scored the final two touchdowns of the game, both in the fourth quarter, to force OT.
 
SU brought out the trick play for the first TD, capping a 12-play, 61-yard drive with the "Philly Special" to make it 14-7 five seconds into the fourth. On fourth-and-goal from the Generals 2, wide receiver Bryar Wheeler threw back to Hugney for the squad's initial TD.
 
It took another fourth-and-goal conversion, this one with 40 seconds left, to tie the game. Hugney, who finished the game 29-for-52 for 228 yards and one touchdown, found Andre Jackson on a slant play on 4^th-and-goal from the 5 to bring the Hornets within one. Scott Martin's PAT split the uprights to send the contest into overtime.
 
Washington & Lee scored its two touchdowns in the second and third periods.
 
W&L outgained SU, 344-315, and possessed the ball for 35:57 to the Hornets 24:03.
 
Graduate student Ben Burgan, who needed 18 tackles for a share of the program's all-time record, got the mark by making 22 stops. Burgan finishes his career with 352 tackles and breaks the mark of 348 previously held by Michael Messick '16.
 
Burgan was one of four players, along with David Agyei, Ethan Brown, and Corey Kidwell, to make double-digit stops for the victors.
 
UP NEXT
This completes the Hornets season. Shenandoah opens the 2023 season on Sep. 2 versus Methodist.
 
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