From, pretty much, start to finish they played in a driving rainstorm — accompanied by occasional thunder and even lightning — that left even the synthetic turf under water.

When Brad Lantz lunged into the end zone in the second overtime, ending the epic battle, the field was drenched in a flood of emotions.

Kutztown players were strewn on the ground, lying in puddles, while the Marauders stormed Lantz near the goal post to celebrate their thrilling, 41-35 double-OT win over the Bears in PSAC East action Saturday afternoon at Biemesderfer Stadium.

"I've been involved in a couple other overtime games, but that may have been the craziest game ever," said Lantz, who rushed 25 times for 90 yards. "To come out here and win in double OT, means so much."

Lantz was only one of the offensive heroes for the Marauders, who are 2-4 in the PSAC East and 3-6 overall.

Quarterback Bill Shirk hooked up with Jamal Smith for a record-tying four touchdown passes. The last time a Marauder receiver had four TD catches was in 1995 when Kevin Cannon did it in a season-opening win over Shepherd.

"All I ever ask him is to give me a chance," Smith said of Shirk. "He gave me chances today and I made the best of it."

Smith hauled in five Shirk aerials for 133 yards, including two that went for TDs in the opening quarter, staking the Marauders to a 14-6 lead. His first, a 52-yarder three minutes into the game, marked the first time all season that Millersville scored a TD on its opening drive of a game and was only the second time the Marauders got on the scoreboard first.

Millersville, for only the second time this season, led at halftime, 14-9.

"We ran the ball, threw the ball and did what we need to do to win," Shirk said.

Midway through the third, Shirk's 23-yard TD pass to Smith extended the Marauder lead to 21-9.

It was arguably the best all-around game this season for Shirk, who completed 13-of-27 passes for 216 yards.

"He made some big plays, especially a couple scores where he avoided rushes and stepped out and hit Jamal down the field," MU coach Greg Colby said of Shirk. "That's a heady kid right there."

Kutztown (1-5, 3-6) cut the Marauder lead to 21-16 on a 21-yard TD run by Josh Mastromatto early in the fourth quarter. With 6:09 left in the game, Millersville pulled away when Dan McLellan blocked a KU punt and Matt Egenrider returned it five yards for a touchdown and a 28-16 lead.

"We talked all week about putting three phases of the game together, offense, defense and special teams which we haven't done all year," Colby said. "The kids did a great job of doing that. That win was, truly, all three phases."

With 4:40 to play and Kutztown facing a fourth-and-3 from the Marauder 45, lightning was spotted and the game was delayed for 38 minutes.

When play resumed, the Bears picked up the first down and three plays later scored on a nine-yard TD pass from Kevin Morton to Dominick Massey. Thanks to a bad snap, the PAT never got off the ground, making it a 28-22 game with 3:26 to play.

It wasn't the first time KU had trouble with the PAT and certainly wasn't the last.

After MU was forced to punt, the Bears went 79 yards in 13 plays and tied the game with 35.8 seconds left on another Morton-to-Massey connection, this time a two-yarder to the corner of the end zone. Poised to break the heart of the Marauders, disaster struck again for the Bears when another bad snap prevented kicker Matt Dineen from ever reaching the ball.

Following the kickoff, aided by a pair of 15-yard penalties on Kutztown, Millersville worked its way to the Bears 20 and with two seconds to play sent John Banzhof out to attempt a game-winning 37-yard field goal.

It went wide right, forcing OT.

The Marauders wasted no time in the OT, scoring on their first play on the fourth Shirk-to-Smith TD strike. The Bears answered with a 21-yard TD from Morton to Shane Martin (Garden Spot). Morton, who also had four TD passes on the day, threw for 324 yards as KU racked up 530 total yards.

In the second OT, when it was needed most, though, the Marauder defense held off the Bears, who had first crack this time around.

On their try, the Marauders made the most of two Kutztown penalties, including a facemask that set them up first-and-goal from the 2.

From there, just like it was the four plays before, the give was to Lantz, who plunged into the end zone for the game-winner.

"It was the same play we ran the past four times," Lantz said. "All it is in getting low and hitting hard. That time we just got lower and hit harder."