College football team scores two touchdowns in final 1.7 seconds of game

There may not be a crazier finish in college football this weekend.

Richmond scored two touchdowns in 1.7 seconds on Thursday night in a 35-27 win over Saint Francis in Loretto, Pa. Yep, 1.7 seconds.

It was a wild game as Saint Francis led 20-12 after three quarters. The Spiders kicked a field goal and scored on a 40-yard pass from Kevin Johnson to Cortrelle Simpson in taking a 23-20 lead after a two-point conversion with 6 minutes, 42 seconds to play.

Saint Francis responded with a touchdown with 1:10 to play and went ahead 27-23.

However, Johnson threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Wilkins to give the Spiders a 29-27 lead with 1.7 seconds to play. Richmond didn’t try to score on the two-point conversion.

On the ensuing kickoff, Saint Francis called for a fair catch. Per the Richmond football site, the Red Flash then “tried to lateral the ball multiple times on the final play but fumbled and junior defensive end Maurice Jackson ... scooped up the ball and returned it 29 yards with the clock at zero for the second touchdown in the last 1.7 seconds.”

Again, Richmond didn’t try the extra point because it had wrapped up the 35-27 win.

“It was probably the sloppiest game we’ve played in a while, but we fought and we finished,” Richmond defensive tackle Andrew Clyde told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “That’s kind of our motto for the season. Regardless of the circumstances, we’re going to finish.”

Here was the go-ahead touchdown (and Richmond has some seriously cool helmets):

The school said the game was originally scheduled to be played Saturday in Richmond but was moved due to Hurricane Florence.

“Now that it’s over and we won, obviously it was worth coming up here,” Richmond coach Russ Huesman told the Times-Dispatch. “But it was tough.”

This story was originally published September 14, 2018 at 9:38 AM.