Autistic Rutgers fan sets record for longest touchdown in spring game
Apr 15, 2018, 11:17 AM
A five-year-old autistic Rutgers football fan had the opportunity of a lifetime Saturday during the team’s Scarlet and White Spring Game.
Mordecai Carthy is a patient at the RWJBarnabas Health’s children’s hospital, a medical facility partnered with Rutgers University in New Jersey.
A huge fan of the Knights football team, Mordecai took the field with some of his favorite players at the end of the spring game.
Receiving pats on the back and words of encouragement, he entered the offensive huddle before lining up in the backfield with Rutgers running back Raheem Blackshear.
With the ball on his own seven-yard line, Mordecai took the handoff from quarterback Giovanni Rescigno, dodging tacklers on his way down the field.
Cheers erupted from the crowd as he crossed the goal line for the 93-yard score, the longest in Rutgers team history.
The rest of the Knights huddled around him in the endzone, lifting the new record holder onto their shoulders.
Mordecai was all smiles as he received high fives for his epic run from fellow Knights.
“Yeah, it was actually just some really good moves by the ballcarrier,” Rutgers coach Chris Ash said of Mordecai’s run after the spring game.
“He had some nifty feet, made some guys miss and then he had some breakaway speed there at the end to get into the end zone.”
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