In front of a huge home opening crowd on Saturday night in St. Charles, the 2005 Lindenwood University football team finally arrived as expected - battling a tough Benedictine College team down to the final play in an emotional 34-30 win. The victory over the unbeaten and 13th-ranked Ravens was very, very big for LU, after a puzzling 0-2 start on the road had left the program's 2005 championship hopes on the brink.

"What a great college football game, from every standpoint," said LU head coach Patrick Ross. "Both teams played extremely hard right from the opening kickoff, the stands were packed, the band was great, under the lights in the new stadium ... you couldn't ask for a better atmosphere than that. We are proud of how our team reacted to some tough breaks in the first half and came back to dominate the second half."

Most of the scoring in this wild affair came before the intermission. Lindenwood jumped out to a quick 13-3 lead in the first quarter, on the strength of two Gerry Connell-to-George Mumphard TD passes, covering 36 and 68 yards. Connell, in his first collegiate start, was both very good and well, less than good in the first half, throwing for 211 yards on 11 of 17 accuracy ... and throwing four interceptions.

"Gerry did some great things throwing the ball downfield," said Ross. "He gives us that dimension of the home run ball because of his arm strength. Now we just have to convince him to throw it only to our guys."

Benedictine, well-coached and tough as always, bounced back from that early haymaker. A 74-yd. drive, capped by a Mike Steen one-yd. run on the first play of the second quarter, answered the Lions' early scores, making it 13-10. Lion sophomore Bobby Mason returned the ensuing kickoff 58 yards to the BC 41-yd. line, setting up star freshman Leonard Durant's first collegiate TD, an 18-yarder on which he made two Ravens miss dead in the hole before diving into the end zone. The Lions, continuing to struggle with the kicking game - actually, that's putting it nicely - missed the PAT, making it 19-10.

Sophomore punter Zac Atterberry, moonlighting as a place kicker for the first time as a Lion, banged home a 28-yd. field goal early in the second quarter following a fumble by Steen, making it 22-10. The rest of the quarter would turn into something resembling a bad horror movie for the Lions, however.

First, the Ravens answered Atterberry's field goal with a 53-yd. TD pass from Luke Krusemark to David Mulvany, off a ball that was tipped by LU freshman cornerback Brandon Gould. On the first play of Lindenwood's ensuing possession, BC linebacker Eddie Lamb picked off a Connell pass, setting up the Ravens at the LU 21-yd. line. Senior fullback Ian Thatcher, a load all night for the Ravens, scored from 12 yards out, suddenly giving BC a 23-22 lead. A two-point try by Steen was stopped short by LU linebacker Jake Sharp, in what would be a pivotal play as the game unfolded in the fourth quarter.

Pinned down by a special teams penalty on the following kickoff return, the Lions banged out a pair of first downs to seemingly move out from the danger zone. On second-and-10 from the 32, though, Connell was hit by BC linebacker Sean Manny while throwing, causing the ball to land squarely in the stomach of BC monster defensive lineman Tony Lolesio. Unblockable all night, Lolesio rolled in from 29 yards out to make the count 30-22 right before the half.

The Lions would actually drive deep into BC territory one more time before intermission, but Connell's fourth pick of the half ended that threat at the Raven 12-yd. line.

"To have all those things go wrong at the end of the first half, losing the lead and ending up behind at halftime, it's a great credit to our players that they came out and played the way they did in the second half," said Ross. "We showed some mental toughness and heart in that last 30 minutes."

The third quarter was all LU, as the Lions posted scoring drives of 85 and 53 yards, both capped by Brent Hodgkiss touchdown passes. The first, covering 16 yards to junior Steven Kennedy (outstanding on the night with eight receptions for 112 yards) brought the score to 30-28. A two-point try failed, but the fired-up LU defense, which inflicted five straight three-and-outs on the Raven offense to start the second half, set up a nine-yard Hodgkiss-to-De De Dorsey pass which put the Lions back in the lead at 34-30 near the end of the third quarter. That PAT also failed, one of three point-after kicks and a short field goal attempt the Lions missed on the night.

"Someone is going to have to step up and start converting some kicks for us," said Ross. "It's not like we're missing long attempts, either - we've just been flat-out terrible, and it's already cost us scoring opportunities. That's a priority this week."

After Dorsey's TD put the Lions on top, the Ravens were able to mount a pair of final challenges in the closing minutes. The first ended on a fourth-and-four incompletion from the LU 30-yd. line, a penetration which had been set up by a clutch 40-yd. pass from Krusemark to Zach Lane. The Ravens' last charge began from their own 28 with less than a minute remaining, and it played out with everyone in the house standing and roaring for what seemed like hours.

Aided by two pass interference calls on the Lion secondary, Benedictine advanced to the LU 31-yard line with a first down and 29 seconds remaining. The final salvo fired by the Ravens was a Hail Mary to the right corner of the end zone on the game's final play, where Mason and Mulvany went up for the ball - and Mulvany came down with it, but out of bounds. The official on the spot waved it off, and the LU sideline rushed the field as the home crowd erupted.

"A fantastic finish to a great football game," said Ross. "Everyone at that game got their money's worth and then some. Benedictine is a great team, and to beat them for a second year in a row is a nice accomplishment for our program. Now we just have to build on it and play even better next week."

Next up for the Lions is HAAC front-runner Graceland, standing atop the league standings and unbeaten at 4-0. Lindenwood blasted the Yellowjackets, 56-12, in last year's season opener, so it should be an interesting trip to Lamoni, Ia. - kickoff is set for 6:00 on Saturday evening.