Football Hangs on Late for 42-39 Win over Stonehill
EASTON, MA – The Merrimack football team totaled 500 total
yards and forced four turnovers but barely hung on to defeat
Stonehill College 42-39 in its conference opener Friday night.
With the win, the Warriors improve to 8-0 lifetime at
Stonehill.
In a game that featured a combined eight turnovers, a fumble off
a punt in the end zone for a touchdown, a kickoff return for a
score and a halfback touchdown pass, Merrimack led virtually the
entire way, building a 24-7 lead before Stonehill came back nearly
every time the Warriors looked like they had the game locked
up.
Stonehill looked primed to take a 14-3 first quarter lead but
Shawn
Loiseau (Shrewsbury, MA) stripped Oscar Alvarez at the
Merrimack two-yard line, and Justin Marsan
(Methuen, MA) pounced on the fumble in the end zone,
giving the ball back to the Warriors.
On the ensuing drive, James Suozzo
(Everett, MA) hit Greg Abelli
(Billerica, MA) for a 26-yard touchdown catch to give the
visitors the lead. Abelli hauled in six catches for 62 yards in the
first quarter alone.
The Warriors extended their lead to 17-7 behind two fourth-down
conversions. With Suozzo out after being hit on a rush, Joe Clancy
(Newburyport, MA) hit Isaiah Voegeli
(Hyannis, MA) for a 12-yard gain on his first play of the
game, moving the ball to the Stonehill 19 after a
4th-and-6 conversion. Then, on 4th-and-12
from the 21-yard line, Suozzo hit Omari Mobley
(Baltimore, MD) in the end zone for the receiver's first
career touchdown.
Sixty-two seconds later, Tony Johnson (Lynn,
MA) recovered a fumble off a Skyhawk bad snap on a punt in
the end zone for the junior defender's second career score, pushing
the Merrimack lead to 24-7.
The Skyhawks kicked a field goal toward the end of the half,
before Logan Meyer hit Kyle Norwood for a 69-yard touchdown pass to
cut the Warrior lead to just one score.
But Merrimack responded on the next drive, as Suozzo found
Mobley on a 11-yard screen pass to complete an 11-play, 80-yard
drive and push the lead to 30-17 after the extra point was
blocked.
After Ryan McCarthy
(Newton, MA) picked off Meyer, the Warriors coughed the
ball up on the very next play, and Stonehill scored on a half back
pass as Eddie Vachon hit Alvarez in the end zone from 25 yards out,
cutting the lead to 30-24 late in the third.
Once again, the Warriors answered right back as Anthony Smalls
(Dorchester, MA) scampered in from four yards out at the
start of the fourth, pushing the lead to 12 after the
two-point conversion attempt failed.
Meyer rounded out a 12-play, 80-yard drive with a 1-yard sneak
on 3rd-and-goal, once again reducing Merrimack's lead to
one score at 36-31 with 4:45 remaining.
After the Skyhawks stymied Merrimack on 3rd-and-2,
the hosts got the ball back on their own 19 with 3:41 remaining
needing one score to take the lead. But the Warriors' defense held,
limiting Stonehill to just four plays that amassed five yards,
highlighted by a Johnson sack on first down and an incomplete pass
from Meyer on 4th-and-5.
From there, the Warriors thought they finally put the game away
as Smalls ran into the end zone from six yards out, with Suozzo
serving as the lead blocker on the junior tailback's second score
of the game. But Stephan Neville returned the ensuing kickoff
90-yards and combined with the two-point conversion, suddenly the
Skyhawks were right back in it, trailing by just three at 42-39
with 1:31 left.
But the onside kick did not travel the necessary 10 yards, and
the Warriors retained the ball and ran the clock down to 21-seconds
before punting it to the Skyhawk 10-yard line, giving the hosts one
last chance. The Warrior defense held as Stonehill ran out of time,
and the visitors escaped with their first victory of the
season.
Suozzo finished with 215 passing yards and three touchdowns on
19-of-33 to go with 89 rushing yards on 18 carries. Smalls (97
yards) and Jimon Hill (North
Chicago, IL) (87 yards) also posted strong days rushing,
as Merrimack racked up 273 total yards on the ground.
Abelli was over 100 yards for the second straight game, totaling
119 receiving yards on 12 catches. Mobley, who notched his first
two career scores, finished with three catches for 54 yards.
Defensively, Loiseau led the way for the third straight game
with a team-high 11 tackles to go with his first quarter forced
fumble, which completely changed the momentum of the game.
For the Skyhawks, Jonathan Poth recorded an incredible 20
tackles. Meyer threw for 268 yards on 17-of-35 passing and was
picked off twice. Vachon, the Northeast-10's leading rusher, ran
for 156 yards, while Alvarez totaled 108 yards receiving.
The two teams combined for 11 fumbles, forcing five fumbles and
eight overall turnovers.
Merrimack (1-2, 1-0 NE-10) hosts Saint Anselm on October 2 at 1
p.m. in its home opener at Warrior Field.
