BANGOR – Husson College had been billing Saturday afternoon’s home game against Plymouth State University as a “statement game” as the Eagles were looking to win a third straight game for the first time in the program’s history.

A statement was made, but it was the Panthers who were doing most of the talking after winning a 21-19 nail-biter over Husson and notching their first road victory in four years.

Exactly when was PSU’s last road win?

“When Moses was in high school,” PSU head coach Paul Castonia quipped. “Honestly, I’m not sure. It had to be at least 2001.”

Actually it was … November of 2001 to be precise. Since then, PSU has gone 1-28 the last three seasons, so it’s easy to see why Saturday’s win was so big for the 3-5 Panthers.

It was an unquestionably big day for PSU fullback John DeMarco, who gained 107 yards on 27 carries and scored all three touchdowns. The converted transfer quarterback had 72 of those yards and two of those touchdowns in the second half, when his Panthers scored 14 unanswered points to take a 21-12 lead.

“At halftime, we realized we could push their linemen off the ball and so we ran a lot of wedge formations, got low, and pushed them back,” said DeMarco, who had his first 100-yard game. “I give my linemen a lot of credit. We didn’t use as much option as we usually do. We just powered the ball up and went right at them.”

Husson’s defense finally started slowing the hard-running Panthers in the fourth quarter and drew within two points with six minutes to play in a penalty-riddled series that saw each team commit three.

After Husson defensive back Shane Rodgers recovered a fumbled handoff by PSU quarterback Tye Seastedt and returned it four yards, the Eagles took over on the PSU-30. Two penalties, an incomplete pass, and a 3-yard run later, quarterback David Chase found James Dobson in the right corner of the end zone.

Dobson gathered the ball in, after PSU defender Mike Chartrand barely tipped it, for a 32-yard TD reception. Darren Gauthier added the PAT kick – notable since his earlier two attempts were both blocked – and PSU’s lead was a tenuous two points.

Husson forced PSU to go three downs and out on the next series and got it back at the PSU-22 after a 15-yard personal foul forced the Panthers to re-kick and the Eagles returned the punt 19 yards with 3:12 left.

A 10-yard burst off left tackle by Julius Williams gave Husson a first-and-10 at the PSU-11. He followed that up with a 6-yard gain up the middle, but was stopped for no gain on a toss sweep to the right and then ridden down for a 5-yard loss by PSU’s Kynan Mello and Chartrand.

The Eagles lined up for a 27-yard field-goal attempt on fourth-and-9 with 43 seconds left. This time Gauthier got his kick off unblocked, but it hit the right upright and bounced backward.

“We already knew if we didn’t get a first down, we were going to kick the field goal,” said Husson head coach Gabby Price. “We wanted to score on third down. We didn’t really want to have to kick.”

That’s understandable after Price had seen the Panthers block two extra points and one punt as well as partially block another punt.

“I haven’t seen the film, so I don’t know where the leakage was, but we couldn’t close all the gaps and they did a great job on their special teams,” Price said.

“We worked hard this week on kicking and getting some pressure on special teams, and it paid off for us today being able to sneak some guys through there,” Castonia said.

PANTHERS 21, EAGLES 19

Plymouth State (3-5) 7 6 8 0 – 21

Husson (1-3) 12 0 0 7 – 19

PSU-DeMarco 7 run (Smith kick)

HUS-Charlton 1 run (kick blocked)

HUS-Williams 5 run (kick blocked)

PSU-DeMarco 4 run (kick failed)

PSU-DeMarco 1 run (Lampron rush)

HUS-Dobson 31 pass from Chase (Gauthier kick)

Plymouth State Husson

First downs 15 11

Rushing att.-yards 48-131 39-108

Passing comp.-att. 5-12 10-26

Passing yards 56 116

Total yards 187 224

Punts-avg. 5-33.8 5-20.2

Fumbles-lost 4-3 2-0

Intercepted by 3 1

Penalties-yards 4-57 8-118

Rushing

PSU: DeMarco 27-107, Clark 12-28, Seastedt 9-(minus 4); Husson: Charlton 18-63, Williams 18-44, Leon 1-6, Jack 1-0, Chase 1- (minus 5)

Passing

PSU: Seastedt 5-12-1-56; Husson: Chase 10-26-3-116

Receiving

PSU: Largy 2-38, Richardson 2-16, Long 1-2; Husson: Dobson 3-54, Poissionner 3-41, Jack 1-13, Williams 1-6, Shorey 1-4, Charlton 1-(minus 2)

A-250 (est.)