THROGGS NECK, N.Y. – The Maritime Football Team defeated the Merchant Marine Mariners on Friday evening on Reinhart Field by the score of 20-16 in their final tune-up for Eastern Collegiate Football Conference play.
The Privateers were led by junior quarterback Thomas Wright (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh), who had 173 yards passing with a pair of touchdown scores, while also leading the team in the running game with 33 yards on 14 carries. Senior Brett McKinney (Westernville, N.Y./Rome Free Academy) got the bulk of the carries out of the backfield and registered 29 yards on the game.
McKinney also led the team in receiving with five catches out of the backfield, including one of Wright's two touchdown scores. Junior Matt Ward (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) recorded 40 yards on five catches, while sophomore Christian Castle (Felton, Pa./Red Lion) added 39 yards on three catches with one touchdown. Seniors Andrew Short (Covington, La./St. Paul's) and Nick Fischetti (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) also had double-figures in yards receiving.
Defensively, senior Eric Wallace (West Point, N.Y./James O'Neill) put together a strong performance with a career-best 17 tackles on the game, followed closely by classmate Brian Price (New York, N.Y./Wadleigh) with 12 while also collecting the game-clinching interception late in the fourth quarter.
Junior Wesley Joseph (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood) had a career-best 10 tackles, and also recorded a sack for a loss in four yards. Junior Paul LaMarca (Franklin Square, N.Y./Holy Trinity) had seven tackles and a fumble recovery, while sophomore Karl Riek (Sweetwater, N.J./Cedar Creek) had two stops and came up with a huge pass breakup in the end zone to keep the Mariners off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter to hold Merchant Marine to a field goal.
Senior John Arny (Metuchen, N.J./Metuchen) continues to use his leg as a key weapon for the Privateer special teams unit with his five punts averaging 42 yards, with two landing inside the opponent 20-yard line. Senior Krystian Cardinal-Charles (Brooklyn, N.Y./Boys and Girls) and Price had kickoff returns that went at least 20 yards apiece, with Cardinal-Charles' going for a game-high 32.
Junior Matthew Murphy (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) was 2-for-2 on field goal attempts, with his conversions coming from 26 and 32 yards each. Murphy also kicked the ball off five times for a 64-yard average, and had one touchback.
After Maritime's initial drive was a quick three-and-out, the Mariners got the ball and drove 67 yards to put points on the board with a 7-0 lead with 6:40 left in the opening period and took that lead into the second quarter.
On the first Privateer possession of the second quarter, Maritime drove 74 yards and needed 16 plays as the drive ended with Murphy kicking a 26-yard field goal to put point on the board. The big play of the drive was a pass that Wright completed to Short for a 16-yard gain on the second play of the series.
Later in the half, Maritime got the ball back as LaMarca short-circuited the Mariner drive with a fumble recovery. Five plays later, Murphy kicked the ball through the uprights to trim the deficit to one at 7-6 in favor of the Mariners.
With play switching over to the second half, Merchant Marine got the ball second in the stanza and drove 68 yards to score its second touchdown of the game with 5:07 left in the third quarter. The hold was botched on the extra point attempt and a toss into the end zone was uncatchable as the Mariners had a 13-6 lead.
On the very next drive, Maritime needed 12 plays to go 72 yards as Wright found Castle for a 19-yard touchdown score to tie the game at 13. Earlier on the drive, Wright found Castle for a 17-yard strike as Wright spread out the offense on the drive and converted on four pass attempts.
The game was tied at 13 going into the final quarter, as Maritime had the ball and was driving deep inside Merchant Marine territory. On the first play of the quarter, Wright found McKinney out of the backfield for an 11-yard touchdown as the Privateers had their first lead of the game.
Merchant Marine tried to drive on the next series, but settled for a field goal to cut the Privateer lead to 20-16 with exactly 11 minutes remaining.
Maritime punted on their next series, which was followed up by a key defensive stand by the Privateer defensive unit as Joseph, Wallace, and Riek, along with juniors Billy Silke (Carmel, N.Y./Carmel) and Garrett Stryzs (Wilmington, Del./Delaware Military Academy), sophomore Payton Campbell (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Knolls), and freshman Liam Bailey (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville) all came up with big stops on the series.
Two series later, Merchant Marine got the ball back with less than three minutes to go in the game. With the Mariners needing to break from tradition and throw the ball, Price picked off the ball on 2nd and 10, and virtually iced the game in favor of the Privateers.
After a few kneel downs, Maritime clinched their second win of the season by the 20-16 score.
Maritime (2-1) will have a bye week next weekend, and will put all of their focus to October 1, when the Privateers play host to the Husson Eagles as Eastern Collegiate Football Conference play opens at 1 p.m.
Merchant Marine (1-1) will have their home opener next weekend, when Liberty League play opens as the Mariners host the Yellowjackets of Rochester in their final Liberty League opener before switching to a new league in 2017.
Second Half Comeback Propels Privateers past Merchant Marine, 20-16
/seasons/2016/boxscores/20160916_pmdb.xml
2016
Merchant Marine
16
SUNY-Maritime
20
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant Marine (1-1) | 7 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 16 |
| SUNY-Maritime (2-1) | 0 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 20 |
Sep 16, 2016