With thousands of Penn Staters filling Beaver Stadium each year, it’s no surprise some couples meet for the first time during a football game. But if alumna Alex Perry hadn’t accidentally gotten into the wrong admissions line before a game, she might never have met the love of her life.

While Perry and her friends were getting ready to have their tickets checked, Perry tried to find someone who would take a bottle of coconut rum off her hands before entering the stadium. However, the group unknowingly stood in a different line than usual.

“I drunkenly stumbled into the wrong line and ended up in the line with the blocked seating organizations,” she said.

A student standing near Perry in line, who came to the game with his fraternity brother John Sacharok, took the bottle from Perry. The student then struck up a conversation with Perry’s friend to talk about the year’s fraternity rush. Perry and Sacharok proceeded to have a brief conversation as well, and Perry even gave him her phone number. But before they knew it, they reached the front of the line and Perry realized they had to switch lines completely. As she carried on with the rest of the day, their brief introduction slipped her mind altogether.

“We cut across the lines into the right line and I forgot all about the meeting,” she said. “John texted me later that day and I was like ‘Who is this guy?’”

The two became friends on Facebook and started talking more regularly. Shortly after, they went on their first official date.

“He was trying for a Netflix and chill date but I wasn’t going for that,” she said. “Our first date was to the movies where we saw a really awful horror film.”

Despite the questionable film choice, Perry and Sacharok quickly hit it off and realized they actually had a lot in common. The two hung out consistently, and Sacharok asked Perry to his fraternity formal later in the semester. After a few months spent getting to know each other, the pair made their relationship official and have been inseparable since.

After graduating in the spring of 2015,  the couple moved in together. Just a few years later, Sacharok took their relationship to the next level with a proposal that coincidentally featured a special tribute from their fateful first meeting.

“…he proposed to me on a pontoon boat out on the lake in front of his grandmother’s lake house. I accepted with a red solo cup full of rum punch in hand,” Perry said. “His grandmother passed away a few weeks ago, so unfortunately will not be here for the wedding, but I am happy she got to see the engagement.”

The couple is currently planning their wedding for November and are grateful for that one fleeting moment that first brought them together.

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For information on how you can submit your own Penn State Love Story, contact student life editor Claire Fountas.