By Christopher Boulay
SMITHFIELD, R.I.- CCSU held off a late rally, and a missed extra point by Chris Bird with nine seconds left sealed the win for the Blue Devils, as they held off Bryant 24-23, on a blustery day at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday.
Senior running back James Mallory scored on a one-yard run with 47 seconds left in the game to put the Blue Devils up 24-17, and would prove to be the game winner.
“Love it. Six-one sounds great,” Mallory said. “That effort shows that we are not a one man team. We have multiple people that can make plays at any given time. You gotta love it. It’s a team effort, and we stuck it out and got a win.”
Bryant received the ensuing kickoff and started with good field position, as they drove down the field with time ticking away. The drive would be capped off when quarterback Matt Tracey threw a seven-yard pass that would seemingly tie the game, with barely any time left on the clock.
“Our kicker didn’t kick it as far as far as I would have liked. But you still have to defend. With 47 seconds and one timeout, you gotta think that they weren’t gonna get down there,” Coach Jeff McInerney said. “They made a great play, you gotta give them all of the credit in the world.”
But what is usually an afterthought became something of a nightmare for Bryant. Bird kicked the ball wide right, and CCSU would hold on to the win by the slimmest of margins.
“I probably would have went for two and called it a day,” McInerney said. “The last time [Bird] was down there, he almost missed it. It was a boomerang. [He missed it], and you hate it for him. But that’s football. I’ve been on that side of it. I went down to Robert Morris with a freshman kicker, with the ball right in the middle [of the field] and he missed it, and it cost us a nine-win season.”
Mallory ran for 89 yards on 25 carries, nearly half of the 240 yards the Blue Devils gained on the ground during the game.
“They really just wanted to take me out of the game. If you watch film, we have a lot of quarterbacks that can run. So if you want to take me out and let our quarterbacks run, then go ahead,” Mallory said.
Quarterback Hunter Wanket put the Blue Devils on the board first when he ran for a 16 yard touchdown, just over five minutes into the first quarter.
The Blue Devils gave up three sacks, one that knocked Wanket out of the game with a non-throwing arm injury.
Aubrey Norris entered the game, and turned the heat up on the Bulldogs, going 4-for-9 passing for 65 yards, including a 17-yard touchdown pass to Rob Fisher, with 58 seconds left in the first half to make the score 17-10 at halftime.
“We run that route all the time. I tried to just step up,” Norris said. “[Fisher] made a great catch, the o-line had perfect protection, and I just tried to throw it in there. He came up with the ball.”
Bryant’s running back Jerell Smith knotted the score at 17-17 with 12:22 left in the game. Smith finished with 81 yards on 14 carries.
Bryant scored their lone touchdown in the first half when Michael Croce connected with Mike Canfora for a six-yard touchdown, with 5:22 left in the opening quarter.
On the defensive side, Lawton Arnold had 10 tackles, two sacks and four tackles for a loss. Dominique Rose had five solo tackles, and Marcus Dorsey added three solo tackles.
For Bryant, Aaron White had 13 tackles, one sack and three tackles for a loss. Andre White had eight tackles, and Jason Riffe added six.
CCSU returns home on Saturday to play the University of Albany. The Great Danes are 5-0 in the conference, and the game will decide who will be alone in first place in the NEC.
Notes: Both teams were 4-4 in the red zone. CCSU had 314 yards of total offense compared to Bryant’s 208. CCSU dominated time of possession, 38:14 to 21:37. The Blue Devils are 2-0 all time against the Bulldogs, their last meeting was last season, where CCSU won 45-37. Both teams had one turnover, an interception by Wanket by Samad Wagstaff, and a fumble by Bryant running back Kevin Monawanu.
