On the day of Guilford’s record-breaking comeback against Emory & Henry College, I was writing an English paper, or at least trying to.
My thinly paned window in Milner allowed the sporadic shouting and festivities of the game to filter through the glass, like sunlight but less conducive to school work.
Suddenly, the shouts that carried from the field began to swell in oceanic bulges of Quaker pride, and I put down my pencil and listened.
We had just won.
On Nov. 16, Guilford College’s football team pulled off the biggest comeback in school history.
“The game started off pretty terrible,” said sophomore quarterback Matt Pawlowski. “We couldn’t get anything going in offense, and the defense struggled a bit.”
After their first score in the third quarter, Guilford gained momentum and never looked back.
“The turning point was when we scored a touchdown, and then Satiir came up the next drive and got the interception and then we scored again,” said Pawlowski. “That was when everybody felt like we had a chance to come back and win.”
Pictures of a scoreboard that boasted a 35-31 score flooded social media sites seconds after the game.
First-year Emma Moreno uploaded an image of the final score to Instagram with the caption: “Yeah boys! Great final game! So proud!”
“For a team that’s not used to winning, historically, to come through and find that win definitely points to this being a year of change,” said Moreno in an interview with The Guilfordian.
Guilford trailed 31-0 with nine minutes left in the third quarter before scoring 35 unanswered points.
The entire team stormed the field when the clock hit 0:00.
“This is the stuff you see on ESPN,” said head football coach Chris Rusiewicz. “It’s very rare to see something like this live.”
This triumph finalized their first winning season since 2007.
“You can’t win miraculous games like this if it’s not a complete team effort,” said assistant football coach and offensive coordinator Chris Barnette. “I was proud of the relentless fight our team showed.
“We believed we could come back and win.”
The coaches, players and fans are still reeling from this milestone, and their energy is rippling across campus through social groups that typically do not attend sporting events.
“I’m a theatre kid who had never watched a day of sports in her life,” said sophomore Victoria Saraldi. “But now I go out to the games, and it’s fun to see all the plays and everyone riled up. It’s exciting.”
Players are hopeful that this monumental win has changed the student attitude towards football.
“The win boosted all of Guilford’s confidence in the team, without out a doubt,” said first-year long snapper Ben Winstead.
The evening after the win, Guilford College Confessions even featured a post that said “Way to do it, football team.”
There are so many difficult extracurricular activities available at Guilford, and part of the College’s charm is the opportunity to explore a whole gamut of activities that you find foreign.
“Anytime great things are happening at Guilford, everyone should show support of each other,” said Barnette. “Whether it’s academic related, community service related or athletics related. One of our core values is Community.
“At the end of the day, we are all on the same team: Guilford College.”
