BEVERLY, Mass. – The Endicott football team remains one of two unbeaten in the NEFC as the Gulls captured a 33-7 home victory over Coast Guard at Endicott Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Endicott benefited from 157 rushing yards and two touchdowns from sophomore tailback Spencer Walsh (Malden, Mass.) and 14 points from senior kicker Dylan Rushe (Palos Verdes, Calif.) who converted four of five field goal attempts.
Endicott (5-2, 4-0 NEFC) continues their challenging end to the 2013 regular season with a road game at MIT on November 2nd at 5:00 pm under the lights of Roberts Field in Steinbrenner Stadium. The Gulls are 10-0 against the Engineers which includes a 49-14 victory at home last November, a game in which Endicott ran for nearly 300 yards and five touchdowns with another two coming from the arm of quarterback Drew Frenette (New Bedford, Mass.).
Coast Guard (3-5, 3-2 NEFC) will be on bye next week as the Bears prepare for a November 9th showdown with NEFC power Salve Regina. That game will be played down in Middletown, Rhode Island with a 12:00 pm kickoff.
Endicott showcased a balanced offensive attack against Coast Guard with Walsh accumulating his 157 yards on 30 carries while Frenette connected with his receivers on 29-of-43 attempts for 302 yards and a score. Frenette's touchdown pass came at the start of the second quarter with the Gulls trailing 7-3 as he connected with sophomore wide out Alec Matys(Woburn, Mass.) 35 yards down the middle of the field for his team-leading seventh touchdown grab of the season.
The touchdown put the home team up 10-7 after Coast Guard had shocked the Gulls on the previous drive that ended in a Jake Wawrzyniak (Sylvania, Ohio) five-yard run to the end zone. Wawrzyniak, after posting an eight-yard run on 2nd-and-4 to get to the Coast Guard 33, took a pitch from freshman quarterback Derek Victory (Weston, Fla.) on first down and heaved a pass downfield to junior Collis Brown (Kingwood, Texas) for a 57-yard gain down to the Endicott 10. Two plays later, the Bears were in the end zone with a 7-3 lead.
With the Blue and Green on top 10-7 after Matys' touchdown reception, Gulls senior linebacker Andrew Holfinger (Sterling, Mass.) led a strong defensive stand with a quarterback hurry and a tackle for a loss with lineman Brian Kalosky(Plymouth, Conn.) to help force a Coast Guard punt. On Endicott's ensuing possession, the Gulls reached the Coast Guard 37-yard line and put in the kicking unit on fourth down to attempt the 54-yard field goal. Rushe, who made a 50+ yard attempts in both the 2011 and 2012 seasons, improved to 3-for-5 from that range as a split the uprights.
Coast Guard bounced right back and thanks to a long completion of 63 yards to Brown, who ended up with 166 yards on eight receptions in the game, the Bears found themselves on the Endicott 16-yard-line on first down. Gulls senior linebacker Nick Kozlowski (Beverly, Mass.), however, bailed Endicott out of a jam with an interception on Victory to thwart Coast Guard's offensive momentum.
With the ball and 10:26 on the clock in the second quarter, Endicott added to their 13-7 lead as Walsh rushed for 50 yards on a 10-play, 91 yard drive that resulted in the sophomore scoring for the fourth straight game. Walsh found the end zone from five yards out but it was a 34-yard run down to the Coast Guard six-yard-line that set up the touchdown. Rush would add on his second 32-yard field goal of the game with just under two minutes remaining in the half to give Endicott a 23-7 lead at the break.
In the third quarter, Rushe made his fourth field goal of the game, a 28-yard attempt, with 6:05 left in the period to make it 26-7. Coast Guard looked to make a late push to cut into the Endicott lead, but the defense stopped Coast Guard on fourth down and long situations inside the Endicott 40 to force turnovers, Walsh added another touchdown, and Holfinger intercepted Bears substitute quarterback Drew Londo (Sylva, N.C.) to put a cap on the Gulls victory.
Frenette finished with completions to eight different receivers with six going to Matys for a team-high 84 yards, senior Greg Dellorco (Franklin, Mass.) hauling in seven passes for a season-high 65 yards, and freshman Chris Lipscomb (WestSpringfield, Mass.) added five catches for 58 yards.
Defensively, defensive backs Andrew Lawson (Framingham, Mass.) and Tyler Calitri (West Hartford, Conn.) totaled a team-high six tackles with both players recording pass break ups. Holfinger finished with five tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss, an interception, two break ups, and a hurry.
For Coast Guard, sophomore defensive back Joe Rizzardi (Ashburn, Va.) had a game-high 11 tackles, seven of which were solo. Mark Behne (Clifton, Va.) and Aaron Black (Edmond, Ok.) each added 10 takedowns with Behne breaking up two passes and Black hurrying the quarterback twice.
Victory finished the game 21-of-42 for 193 yards and an interception while Wawrzyniak amassed 39 rushing yards and 31 receiving yards with a touchdown.