Multiple options were flooding through the headset Ed Hottle was wearing. Each of the Stevenson assistant coaches who had an idea of what the Mustangs could do on the final play of Saturday’s game against Lycoming shared it with Hottle, the head coach in charge of making the decision.

Holding a three-point lead on fourth down with only three seconds remaining in the game, Hottle put punter Brody Coleman on the field. Lycoming didn’t bother sending a return man back to field a potential kick since it desperately needed a blocked punt if it was going to complete a fourth-quarter comeback.

But Coleman never gave the Warriors the opportunity to block the kick. Instead, the senior caught the snap and ran backwards. He ran through his own end zone and across the end line for a safety. The play ran off the final seconds of the game and let the Mustangs escape David Person Field with a 33-32 win.

“We’ve been working on that play for eight years –an end-of-game safety — and we’ve never had to use it until (Saturday),” said Hottle, who has been the program’s head coach since its inception in 2011. “We never want to have to use that. But you can accomplish what you need to get out of here.”

Not much else had gone right for Stevenson over the final 9 minutes of Saturday’s game. At one point it had a 17-point lead over Lycoming. But Warriors freshman quarterback Elijah Shemory closed out his finest day as a collegiate quarterback by leading a pair of fourth-quarter scoring drives, the last of which cut the Mustangs’ lead to 33-30 with just 3:13 left in the game.

With a full complement of timeouts and Stevenson expecting the onside kick, Lycoming elected to kick deep and play defense. But the Mustangs picked up the final of its 22 first downs to be able to run out all but three seconds of the game clock. That’s when Hottle was forced to send his punter on a swift retreat in reverse, losing the battle to secure a win of the war.

Stevenson rushed for a deceiving 151 yards (it lost 28 on the final play) to open the door for some big plays on play-action, and the Mustangs took advantage of five crucial big-yardage plays to defeat the Warriors. Lycoming fell to 4-5, guaranteeing it won’t have a winning record for the fourth consecutive season despite a career-high 313 passing yards from Shemory and career highs in receptions and yards for Nick Costello.

Lycoming will close its season next week against 8-1 Misericordia, which will be playing for its first MAC title and potentially its first NCAA tournament berth.

“I think we can point to any number of plays that made a difference,” Lycoming head coach Mike Clark said. “But it’s no one person’s fault. If we score one more touchdown or we get the two-point conversion we missed, then they’re not taking the safety at the end of the game and maybe they have to at least punt it.”

Stevenson pushed its lead to 33-16 with 11:25 to play in the game on the most improbable and unbelievable of plays. The Mustangs were facing fourth-and-goal from the Lycoming 28-yard line. It was too far for a field goal attempt, so they were left with only letting quarterback Ty Crabb throw the ball up toward the end zone.

The Warriors had stopped a similar situation earlier in the game and was one of just two teams throughout all NCAA divisions to not allow a fourth-down conversion this season. Crabb did his part, floating a pass toward the end zone, but it was short of his receiver. Lycoming freshman cornerback Nasir Bowen jumped at the goalline with every intention of just batting down the football. But as he stretched to get his hands on the ball, he batted the ball in the air and it fell behind him into the waiting hands of Stevenson receiver Ryan Stango.

The 28-yard touchdown pass was the fifth play of at least 25 yards for the Stevenson offense yesterday, and the fourth which either directly or indirectly led to points for the Mustangs. But Stango’s catch was so inexplicable. Bowen’s intentions were correct. And nearly every second of the play, until the ball was tipped in the air, spelled doom for whatever Stevenson had drawn up.

But it ended up being the decisive score Saturday.

“It’s about understanding that until the ball is on the ground, you have a chance to make a play and you have to work to make it,” Hottle said. “I don’t think (Stango) had to work that hard to make that catch, but it’s one of the plays that can tip the balance of the game.”

“We have 100 percent faith in (Bowen). We believe in him,” said Lycoming cornerback D.J. Boyd, who recorded seven tackles and a sack. “We know what he was trying to do and it was the right thing. But he was falling backwards so it got batted up instead of batted down. Everybody makes mistakes, especially me. But it doesn’t matter how big the mistake is, it’s about finding a way to come back stronger.”

It seemed to be a rallying point for Lycoming’s offense, though. For a unit which had scored at least 30 points in a game just twice this year, the Warriors began marching down the field on the strength of Shemory’s right arm.

With the way Stevenson likes to play opponents’ running game Clark knew the bulk of the offense could rest on Shemory coming into Saturday. Shemory didn’t disappoint. He completed 8 of 10 passes in the fourth quarter for 131 yards.

He was 4 for 5 on a scoring drive which ended in an 8-yard TD pass to Costello. He completed four more on the Warriors’ next possession and rushed for his second 1-yard touchdown to get Lycoming within 33-30.

In all, Shemory completed a career high 24 passes for a career-high 313 yards. He accounted for 337 of Lycoming’s 359 yards of offense.

“We had a perfect gameplan. We absolutely killed them on out routes,” Costello said. “We had a gameplan and I think we played really well offensively.”

“Part of it comes down to what’s our best chance to win, what’s our best chance to move the sticks, and what’s our best chance to score?” Clark said. “And we felt that those chunks were there throwing it. I knew coming into the game we would probably push 40 throws.”