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| The Saxons got a victory to celebrate on Friday night. Alfred athletics photo by Victoria Quintana |
Alfred beat Hobart for the first time since 1995, Juniata held on to defeat Gettysburg, Catholic won on a field goal with three seconds left and Randolph-Macon got five first-half takeaways to roll up a big lead before Dickinson scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns in Friday night's Division III football action.
Hobart had won 14 consecutive meetings in the series, including a 10-7 victory last season, before Friday night, when Thomas Welch returned an interception for a touchdown, recovered two fumbles and forced another in the win. Alfred led 28-10 in the fourth quarter before Hobart rallied with 13 consecutive points to make it a five-point game with fewer than three minutes remaining. The Saxons, however, ran out the clock with an eight-play drive to end the game.
"I am very proud of our team and how they performed in all three phases of the game tonight," coach Bob Rankl said. "I'm also really proud of the seniors that work so hard for this and all the leadership that they have provided in preparation for the season. We are definitely going to enjoy this victory, and we are ready to start preparing for Ithaca."
Juniata rallied from an eight-point fourth-quarter deficit and got a win against its former Centennial Conference foe, as the Eagles edged Gettysburg 31-30. Makih Hunt's second TD catch of the game came in the fourth quarter but the two-point conversion attempt was no good, leading the score 27-25. Isaac Parks-Gill answered with a 41-yard field goal to push the lead back out to five, but quarterback Isaiah Randall led the Eagles back down the field, including a 47-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Horm, to allow Juniata to take the lead. Gettysburg went three-and-out on its next possession, but got into Eagles territory on its last possession of the game, as Rocco Abdinoor hit Luke Dennison deep down the middle, only to have Caleb Hicks bring Dennison down at the 2 to seal the win.
Points were hard to come by in the two games played Friday night in Washington, D.C., as Catholic defeated McDaniel 10-7 on a field goal with three seconds left and Albright edged Gallaudet 9-7 in a game between two people making their collegiate head coaching debut. Catholic overcame three turnovers from freshman quarterback Brady McBride, and drove 78 yards on 14 plays, burning off all but three seconds of the last 6:09 of the game before Fardette's kick. Chris Smith had some tough carries for the Cardinals (1-0) early in the drive, which started at the 4-yard line. Starter Daequan Harvin came back into the game after recovering from cramping, and gashed the gassed McDaniel defense, including consecutive runs of 10, 8 and 11 yards after the two-minute timeout to get Catholic into field goal range. The Cardinals had a bad snap that pushed them back to the 20 and caused them to burn their final timeout, but McBride found Andrew Tabor for a short gain. Catholic committed a false start on its attempt to spike the ball, but Fardette and the special teams unit rushed onto the field and Fardette drilled the game-winner.
Gallaudet took a 7-6 lead on Albright as JeVaughn Sargent found Marcus Gabriel for a 22-yard TD pass early in the second quarter. Albright retook the lead in the third after a long drive ended in a 31-yard Colin Schaeffer field goal. Gallaudet had a chance to take the lead late in the fourth quarter but sophomore kicker Adem Mahassini pushed his 29-yard field goal left with 3:42 left in the game. The Bison got the ball back one final time under two minutes but a costly personal foul penalty and dropped pass ended the threat.
No. 21 Randolph-Macon forced five turnovers from Dickinson in the first half to carry the Yellow Jackets to a 48-34 victory. Macon ran up 28 points in the second quarter, including two Mitchel Johnson touchdown runs on short drives aided by the R-MC takeaways. The Yellow Jackets outrushed Dickinson 325-to-146 in the game, which was the sixth consecutive season opening win for Randolph-Macon.
Muhlenberg won its rivalry game 38-19 vs. Moravian in part fueled by intercepting three Jared Jenkins passes. Dante Mahaffey ran for a TD and threw for one for Muhlenberg. ... Montie Quinn ran for 171 yards and three touchdowns, with all of the scores coming in the fourth quarter as Curry ran past Bridgewater State 35-28. Bridgewater State led 14-7 after the third quarter before the teams combined for 42 fourth-quarter points. ... SUNY-Maritime won the Chowder Bowl, as Will Pickett ran for two touchdowns and threw for the other in a 21-14 win vs. Massachusetts Maritime.