Presbyterian 'Strikes' Furman Again 11 Years Later

Presbyterian tight end Nathan Levicki snagged a football just before it hit the ground, making a diving catch in the corner of the end zone off a perfect offering from quarterback Collin Hurst on a game-winning two-point conversion, allowing the Blue Hose to escape with a 39-38 come-from-behind win in overtime over Furman in a game that started in the early afternoon and ended well after sundown at Paladin Stadium, thanks to a near two-hour lightning delay.

The old saying is that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, however, the past two meetings between Furman and PC separated by 11 years have seen the exact same bad experience for the Paladin football team, which like that September meeting back some 11 years ago, resulted in a long lightning delay that was followed by a loss to Presbyterian (L, 10-7) in Clinton in 2014, the Paladins would drop a 39-38 overtime decision at Paladin Stadium to Presbyterian the first Saturday night in September this time around.

There were a few differences. The 2025 meeting featured overtime before the game could be decided, as well as one team blowing a large lead that seemed like a game that Furman was going to comfortably coast in leading 28-7 in the second quarter, with sights set on a 2-0 start. But things quickly changed in the final minutes of the opening half of football. The game was also played in Greenville for the first time since 2013—an occasion that saw the Blue Hose lose by one point—21-20—following a blocked field goal by the Paladins on that occasion. The win marked PC’s first-ever triumph in Paladin Stadium, as well as being the first win in Greenville by the Blue Hose since 1979.

With the win, the Blue Hose improve to 2-0 overall and have now won six-straight games dating back to last season, while Furman drops to 1-1. It also marked the first-ever loss by a Furman team to a current member of the PFL.

PC, which is the only program to have ever defeated a team from the Southern Conference, defeated its second SoCon team to start the 2025 season, which also just happen to be the last two Southern Conference champions, having knocked of 2023 champion Mercer (W, 15-10) following a late 16-yard scoring run by Ryan Switzer last week.

After outgaining Mercer by 175 yards and out-possessing the Bears by roughly 11 minutes in last Saturday’s win in Macon, the Blue Hose posted a 444-370 edge in total yards in Saturday’s win over the Paladins, but had the ball five less plays (75-70) than Furman in the game, as well as seeing the Paladins hold possession of the football for a little over two more minutes than the Blue Hose in the game. 

Furman could muster just 96 yards of total offense and only two first downs in the latter 30 minutes and overtime period of football. That came on the heels of gaining 274 yards and racking up 17 first downs in the opening 30 minutes of football. 

Both quarterbacks were solid all afternoon, both also combined to throw five INTs, with the Paladins picking off Presbyterian’s Hurst three times in the game, while Trey Hedden was intercepted twice. Hedden started in flawless fashion, completing his first 13 throws of the game, and dating back to Furman’s season-opening win over William & Mary, had a streak of 16-straight completions before throwing an incompletion on his 14^th pass attempt of the day to bring an end to the streak. The 16-straight completions across two games were four shy of the school record, which was established by Chris Forcier across three games in 2011 against Coastal Carolina (2), The Citadel (9) and Presbyterian (11).

All told, Hedden finished his night by connecting on 29-of-40 passes for 263 yards, with a touchdown and two INTs. Hurst finished his afternoon for the Blue Hose by connecting   26-of-41 throws for 275 yards, with five touchdowns and three INTs. 

Levicki was easily Hurst's top target in the passing game for the Blue Hose, as he ended the evening by hauling in six passes for 60 yards and two touchdowns.  His diving catch in the corner of the end zone on a two-point conversion play allowed the Blue Hose to secure the winning points.

Hedden's top target in the Furman passing attack ended up being freshman Evan James, who hauled in eight passes for 89 yards, while East Carolina transfer Kerry King ended his evening by hauling in seven passes for 58 yards. 

Furman's lone receiving touchdown in the game was hauled in by Ja'Keith Hamilton, which was also the first of his Paladin career, finishing the afternoon with four catches for 38 yards. His 22-yard scoring catch with 9:31 remaining in the opening half staked the Paladins to their first two-score lead of the game, at 21-7.

The Blue Hose held a 169-107 edge in rushing yards. The Blue Hose would end up being led on the ground by Zach Switzer and Justin Montgomery, who both finished the afternoon with 67 yards rushing. Switzer rushed 16 times for 67 yards, while Montgomery rushed five times for 67 yards in the contest. 

Furman's ground game, which mustered just 58 yards in the opening, mustered a slightly better performance in the second game of the 2025 season, churning out 49 more yards this time out, however, much of the damage on the ground came in the opening half and on the opening drive of the game for the Paladins. Furman rushed for 71 yards in the first half, with 65 of those in the opening quarter of football. In the second half and overtime, Furman could muster a little over half that total, finishing with 36 yards.

Furman's leading ground-gainer would end up being Gavin Hall, who finished with 64 yards and two touchdowns on 15 carries. Jay'Quan Smith added 26 yards and two touchdowns on nine rush attempts. 

Defensively, the Paladins got two INTs from preseason All-SoCon safety Billy Lewis, while Taylen Blaylock added a pick for his third INT in two games as a Paladin defensive back. Lewis, a true sophomore and preseason first-team all-league selection, added six tackles to go with his fourth and fifth interceptions of his Furman career.  

Blaylock, who transferred in from Lindenwood, added five tackles to go with his INT. Defensive end Joshua Stoneking led Furman with eight tackles, a tackle-for-loss and a pass breakup, while preseason All-SoCon linebacker Ryan Earl added seven tackles and half-a-tackle for loss. 

After Furman was able to record three sacks in the opening season win over William & Mary, the Paladins were unable to record a sack in 41 pass attempts for the Blue Hose in Saturday's loss.

How It Happened:

For the second-straight week, it was the Furman secondary that came up with the big play early, with it coming on Collin Hurst’s very first pass of the game, as Billy Lewis picked off his fourth-career pass to set up the Paladin offense in great position just like it had last week.

Lewis’ INT led to Furman’s first rushing touchdown since Nov. 16, 2024, when the Paladins knocked off East Tennessee State in Johnson City and Myion Hicks scored on a 3-yard run in the second quarter of that 24-21 road win. On Sept. 6, 2025, Furman running back Gavin Hall found paydirt on a 13-yard run to give the Paladins an early 7-0 lead with 11:22 remaining in the opening quarter to end the rushing drought of roughly 10 quarters of football. 

On Presbyterian’s third series of the game, the Blue Hose got their biggest play of the afternoon when Justin Montgomery ripped off a 57-yard run to put the Blue Hose in excellent field position. Two plays later, the Blue Hose tied the game when PC backup quarterback Ty Englehart connected with wideout Cincere Gill for a 13-yard touchdown connection with 4:19 remaining in the opening quarter, tying the game, 7-7.

In the second quarter, Furman took an early lead when Hall found the end zone for his second score of the day when he scampered in from three yards out to give the Paladins a 14-7 lead with 13:21 remaining in the half. The play concluded a 12-play, 75-yard drive and would be the start of a string of 21-unanswered points from the Paladins, as they seemingly took command of the football game. 

After a defensive stop on PC’s first possession of the second quarter, Trey Hedden put Furman up by two scores for the first time in the game, as he hooked up with Ja’Keith Hamilton for a 21-yard scoring strike to make it a 21-7 Paladin lead with 9:31 remaining.

Furman’s third rushing touchdown of the game came with just over five minutes remaining in the half, as Jay’Quan Smith plunged in from a yard out to increase the Paladin lead to 28-7.

The Blue Hose would get a little momentum with time winding down in the opening half, as Terry Mikell picked off a tipped Trey Hedden pass to set the PC offense up inside Furman territory at the 42. From there, a 24-yard connection from Hurst to senior tight end Nathan Levicki gave the Blue Hose the ball at the Furman 17 with two minutes remaining in the half. 

On the next play, Hurst found  Levicki for a 17-yard scoring strike in the corner of the end zone to cut Furman’s lead in half, 28-14, with 1:51 remaining in the half.  That would remain the score as the two teams entered the halftime locker room.

On Furman’s opening drive of the second half, the Paladins committed their second turnover of the day, bringing what had been a promising drive to a close, after Jason Briones picked off a Hedden pass following heavy pressure from Carter Sydlowski, which forced the errant throw and the ball was plucked from the air by Blue Hose reserve middle linebacker Justin Briones at the PC 26 yard line. 

On PC’s first play of the second half, it suffered the same fate as it did in the first, however, as Hurst was picked off by Lewis at the 37 and returned to the PC 20, however, the Paladins had to settle for a 34-yard field goal from Ian Williams to increase Furman’s advantage to 31-14 with 9:43 remaining in the third quarter.

 PC would get on the board on its second drive of the second half, as Hurst tossed a three-yard scoring strike to Zach Switzer with 5:10 remaining in the third quarter, cutting Furman’s lead to 10, at 31-21. The scoring pass from Hurst-to-Switzer concluded an impressive 11-play, 75-yard scoring drive for the Blue Hose. 

With momentum in its favor and after the Blue Hose defense forced a Furman punt, Presbyterian would threaten to put more points on the board early in the fourth quarter, however, Jett Jackson’s 31-yard field goal attempt missed wide right.

Furman’s offense, however, continued to sputter and after another Paladin punt, the Blue Hose continued to gash the Paladin defense with big pass plays, and did so again on the first play of the ensuing series. Hurst found all-conference wideout  Cincere Gill for a gain of 31 yards  to get the Blue Hose to the Furman 24. However, after getting the ball down to the Furman 12, Hurst would be intercepted by Taylen Blaylock at the Furman five and he returned it 26 yards out to the Furman 31 with 10:38 remaining. 

The Paladin offense once again could find no success on the ground or through the air, and was forced to punt the ball back to PC less than two minutes after Blaylock's INT had turned back the Blue Hose deep in the red zone. 

After taking over the football at its own 45, Hurst completed passes of 14 and 12 yards to Switzer and Dominic Kirby to get the Blue Hose to the Furman 29. Then a 17-yard run by Hurst after he had been flushed from the pocket would get the Blue Hose to the Furman 12. On first down from the Furman 12, Antonio Wright rushed for four yards to the Paladin eight with 6:45 remaining and at 4:45 p.m. EST time in the afternoon. Time was called and the stadium was evacuated due to lightning. 

Play would resume at approximately 6:37 p.m. EST and after a pair of incompletions from Hurst, PC would have to settle for a 25-yard field goal from Jett Jackson to cut Furman’s lead to seven, at 31-24.

Following a fumble on a handoff exchange between Hedden and freshman running back CJ Nettles on a 3rd-and-4 play, it was recovered by PC defensive end Carter Sydlowski at the Furman at the Furman 26 and returned 14 yards to the 12. On the first play following the turnover, Hurst found wideout BJ Atkins for a diving grab in the corner of the end zone to make it a 31-31 game with 4:38 remaining.

After Furman couldn't generate anything offensively and punted the ball back to the Blue Hose, PC opted to run off the remaining three minutes off the clock, which included a couple of deliberate delay of game penalties to force overtime.

Furman won the toss and took the ball first in overtime at the PC 25. Furman got a six-yard run from Smith on the second play of the series, and that was followed by a six-yard completion from Hedden-to-Devin Hester Jr. to get the Paladins to the PC 13. Smith then gained 12 up the middle on the next play and then plunged in from a yard out for the go-ahead score, making it a 38-31 Furman lead.

On PC's first play of their first offensive series in the extra session, Hurst hooked up with Kirby for a gain of 22 all the way to the Furman 3.  A three-yard scoring strike from Hurst-to-Levicki tied made it a 38-37 game. 

After the Blue Hose took a timeout to decide on their potential game-winning two-point conversion play, the staff opted to go right back to the sure-handed Levicki, who didn't disappoint, as he hauled in a diving catch in the near corner of the fieldhouse end zone, delivering the win for PC. The play was briefly reviewed to make sure he made a secure catch, but there's was little doubt that even if it hadn't have been upheld, PC's dominance in the second half and overtime made it deserving of the win.

Postgame Press Conference: