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Gutierrez Kicks Fighting Bees To Win Over Loras

DAVENPORT, Iowa – All it took was one look on the face of St. Ambrose freshman kicker Evan Gutierrez’s face to determine the outcome of Saturday’s contest between the Fighting Bees and archrival Loras.

Gutierrez had little pieces of turf imprinted on his face and he had a good size turf burn to the side of his left eye, which is uncommon for any player who has a helmet on.

But Gutierrez didn’t have a helmet on. He had good reason to take it off. With 4 seconds remaining in the game and St. Ambrose trailing 28-26, Gutierrez was sent out to kick a 47-yard field goal at a windy Brady Street Stadium. After a Loras timeout, Gutierrez drilled the 47-yarder through the center of the uprights to give the Fighting Bees a win, which allowed them to maintain the rights to the Victory Bell.

“I knew it was good once it left my foot,” Gutierrez said. “I just ripped the straps on my helmet and took it off.”

Something he wished he had not done.

“I should have left it on,” he said referring to the turf burn on his face. “I thought I was going to die when I was underneath the (celebration) pile. I was telling them to get off of me.”

“Being a freshman here, it feels good.”

Gutierrez did have a little preparation for the game-winning kick. In his first game of his senior year at Linn Mar High School, Gutierrez drilled a 44-yard game-winning field goal to break a 49-49 tie against Dubuque Senior.

“I guess you get to college and I just have to do it from three yards farther,” Gutierrez said. “I just thought back to how I practice it. I have 100 players out here that I have to do it for.”

There was no doubt from Fighting Bees coach Todd Sturdy when he sent the freshman kicker out to attempt the kick.

“He was the guy who won it. He has been the guy who has been the most consistent. Sturdy said of Gutierrez. “I am very proud of him. You would rather have a senior out there, but that’s why we brought him here.

“To be in that situation as a freshman…he did a great job.”

The kick was set up after the St. Ambrose defense forced a Loras punt. The Fighting Bees took over with :40 left on the clock at their own 21-yard line. Quarterback Jeff Kietzman started the drive with two incompletions, but found tight end Chris Burhans for 20 yards on third down. A 17-yard pass to Tim Turkowski, a 6-yarder to Burhans and a 7-yard completion to Tyler Driscoll put the Fighting Bees at the Loras 29 with six seconds left.

Kietzman spiked the ball and set up the game-winning field goal.

“We got an opportunity,” Sturdy said. “We made a lot of mistakes today

St. Ambrose cut the lead to 28-26 with 2:50 remaining when Kietzman pushed his way into the end zone from 1-yard out.

An onside kick attempt by St. Ambrose was recovered by Loras, but the Fighting Bees defense had back-to-back stops for negative yardage and forced the Duhawks to punt, setting up the final drive.

It was a hard fought battle by both teams, and definitely not the cleanest. The Fighting Bees and Duhawks combined for nine turnovers. St. Ambrose capitalized on some of those turnovers in the first half. After falling behind 7-0 early, St. Ambrose responded and took a 19-7 lead into halftime.

“That was the longest third quarter in the history of football,” Sturdy said of all the things that went wrong during the quarter.

Then Loras took control and forced three third quarter turnovers and turned them into 18 points to take a 25-19 lead. The Duhawks would add to that lead with 6:06 left in the game when kicker Joe Greenley connected from 34 yards out to push the lead to 28-19.

“Everything just came into place,” Sturdy said.

The Fighting Bees will hit the road for the first time of the 2005 season to take on Waldorf in Forest City, Iowa. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Saturday. On Saturday, Sept. 24, the Fighting Bees return home to take on Taylor (Ind.) at 1 p.m. at Brady Street Stadium.

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