Merrimack Holds Off Wagner 19-14 as AJ Hairston Jr. Scores Twice and a Late Fumble Seals It

Wagner was 22 yards from stealing a game on Halloween in North Andover. The Seahawks had the ball, a quarterback who had been sharp all half and 28 seconds to work with. Then Merrimack's A. Rufo got a hand on the ball, and that was the end of it.

Merrimack beat Wagner 19-14 on Saturday in North Andover. AJ Hairston Jr. ran for both Warriors touchdowns, including a 4-yard go-ahead score with 3:26 left, and A. Rufo forced and recovered a Jason Wiley fumble to end Wagner's final drive inside the red zone.

Merrimack improved to 4-5 and has won two in a row, following up its 24-17 win over New Hampshire a week ago with another one-score finish. Wagner fell to 1-8. It was the Seahawks' seventh straight loss.

A slow, strange first quarter

Neither offense scored in the first 15 minutes, and Merrimack had nobody to blame but itself. The Warriors' first real drive got all the way to the Wagner 1, where Matthias Latham was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-goal. A later trip reached the Wagner 22 before Mike Ryan's 39-yard field goal try missed.

Wagner gave the ball right back. Benjamin Newman, the redshirt freshman who was named NEC Rookie of the Week after last week's loss at Duquesne, hit Johans Bars for 18 yards and then threw an interception to Juice Ricks near midfield.

Merrimack finally broke through early in the second quarter, and it needed a flag to do it. Hairston converted a fourth-and-2 with a pass to Kenyon Massey, then was intercepted by Wagner's S. Williams at the Wagner 15. A roughing the passer call wiped out the return and gave Merrimack a first down at the 12. The drive stalled at the 8, and Ryan kicked a 25-yard field goal for a 3-0 lead with 11:56 left in the half.

Morad answers, Palmer goes deep

Wagner's response came on the ground. A roughing the passer call on Merrimack kept the next drive moving, and Matt Morad broke a 42-yard run to the Merrimack 27. Morad finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown, and Matthew Schwindt's extra point gave Wagner a 7-3 lead with 5:52 left in the half.

Merrimack needed one throw to flip it back. Hairston went deep down the left side for Austin Palmer, who hauled in a 52-yard catch to the Wagner 9. Hairston kept it and scored from 2 yards out with 2:29 left before the break, and the Warriors led 10-7 at halftime.

The Merrimack defense closed the half with a sack by Danny Simms that forced a Wagner punt from its own 35.

A touchdown that wasn't

The third quarter was a field position fight, and Merrimack wasted one more chance to take control. Hairston found Palmer again, this time for 28 yards, and Wagner helped by drawing a targeting flag and a pass interference call in the same sequence. Hairston then ran in from 2 yards out, but a holding penalty brought it back. Ryan settled for a 29-yard field goal and a 13-7 lead with 6:40 left in the third.

By then, Wagner had changed quarterbacks. Jason Wiley ran the offense in the second half and gave the Seahawks a spark. Early in the fourth quarter, Wiley hit Christopher Harris for 19 yards and then found Bars for a 19-yard touchdown. Schwindt's kick made it 14-13 Wagner, and for the first time all day, the visitors looked like the team in control.

The turning point

Merrimack's answer was the best drive of its afternoon, and it hinged on two fourth downs.

Facing fourth-and-1 at their own 44, the Warriors kept the offense on the field, and Hairston ran left for 10 yards. A few plays later, after a Merrimack false start and a Wagner offside flag cancelled each other out, the drive stalled at the Wagner 38 with fourth-and-2. Hairston found Cooper Lehman for 19 yards. Hairston then took off on a 15-yard run to the Wagner 4 and went right for the touchdown with 3:26 to go. The two-point try failed, which left the door open at 19-14.

Wagner tried to walk through it. Wiley converted a fourth-and-3 near midfield with an 11-yard pass to Jeremiah Colclough, hit Colclough again for 7, and Shawn James ran for a first down at the Merrimack 27. After an incompletion and a no-gain completion, Wiley kept it up the middle and got to the 22. That is where Rufo punched the ball loose and recovered it with 28 seconds left.

Hairston did a bit of everything

Hairston was not perfect through the air. The sophomore completed 17 of 32 passes for 199 yards, with no touchdowns, and nearly gave one away on the nullified pick. But Hairston was the most dangerous runner on the field when it mattered, finishing with 55 yards on 10 carries and both touchdowns, plus the fourth-down run that kept the winning drive alive.

Palmer turned three catches into 101 yards. Lehman had five catches for 46 yards, including the fourth-down conversion. Latham, who ran for 105 yards against New Hampshire, was held to 49 on 11 carries.

On defense, Will Claude had eight tackles, seven of them solo. Simms added seven tackles and a sack, and Dwayne Green Jr. had a sack and a half. Ricks had the interception, and Rufo made the play that decided the game.

Wagner's bright spots

Morad was the best player on the field for Wagner, with 91 yards on 13 carries and a touchdown. Wiley went 8-of-10 for 81 yards and the touchdown to Bars in relief, and Bars caught two passes for 37 yards. Newman finished 5-of-8 for 47 yards with the interception.

Freddie Camp led the Wagner defense with eight tackles, and Jaiden Brooks and Olanrewaju Adeyemi had six apiece. The Seahawks held Merrimack to 5-of-15 on third down and kept the Warriors off the scoreboard on two deep trips in the first quarter.

The stats that matter

This one was close on the stat sheet. Merrimack outgained Wagner 330 to 282 and had 20 first downs to 15. Wagner actually ran the ball better, with 154 rushing yards to Merrimack's 131, and converted 8 of 15 third downs.

The two numbers that decided it were fourth downs and turnovers. Merrimack went 3-for-4 on fourth down, and the two conversions on its last scoring drive were the difference. Wagner turned it over three times and Merrimack did not turn it over at all, once the roughing call erased the only interception Hairston threw. The full numbers are in the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab).

What it means

For Merrimack, back-to-back home wins have turned a rough October into a respectable season. Next up is the program's biggest stage of the year, a trip to Wake Forest on Nov. 7, followed by a visit to Monmouth on Nov. 14 and a home finale against Sacred Heart on Nov. 21.

For Wagner, the losing streak hits seven. The Seahawks were competitive for four quarters, which is more than they could say for the second half at Duquesne, but they are still looking for a way to finish. Next up is a trip to Mercyhurst on Nov. 7.

The last word

Merrimack missed a field goal, got stuffed at the 1 and had a touchdown called back. It still won, because Hairston made the plays on the drive that mattered and Rufo made the play on the snap that mattered. Wagner did a lot right on Saturday. It just could not hang onto the ball when the game was 22 yards away from being won.

Sources: ESPN box score and play-by-play, and Wagner Athletics releases. More college football coverage on Undrafted.

Photos: Wagner Athletics (file photo).