NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College earned their first win of the season and opened up their Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) schedule in style with a 43-12 victory over visiting Gallaudet University on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field.
Mount Ida pitched a shutout into the fourth quarter and outgained the Bison 335-73, and freshman quarterback Jack Sheehan (St. Petersburg, Fla.) three threw touchdowns to earn his first collegiate win under center.
Freshman Ramon Johnson (Sylmar, Calif.) tossed two touchdowns in the loss for Gallaudet, who fall to 0-3 on the season (0-1 ECFC).
The Mustangs (1-3) took the lead with five minutes to play in the opening period when Sheehan hit fullback Travis O'Brien (Portsmouth, R.I.) for a 14 yard slant pass which O'Brien took in for the score. After a missed extra point, the score remained 6-0 for much of the second quarter, but Mount Ida took advantage of a strip-sack by senior Dom Spaulding (W. Hartford, Conn.), which was scooped up by Chris Toyloy (Yonkers, N.Y.) at the Gallaudet four yard line.
Just one play later, Melquawn Pinkney (Springfield, Mass.) ran the ball in for the touchdown and Matt Greenman (Portsmouth, R.I.) ran in a two-point conversion to make it 14-0.
Greenman ended the day with six catches for 100 yards and two touchdowns, while Pinkney gained 51 yards on the ground and paired with Darius Jemmott (Central Islip, N.Y.), who had 65 yards on 12 carries, to eclipse the 100-yard rushing mark.
The Mustang defense struck again just two plays after Pinkney's score when Armand Rivera (Warwick, R.I.) picked off Johnson at the Gallaudet 27 yard line with 2:23 to play in the half.
Mount Ida took eight plays and Sheehan hit Greenman for a four-yard pass with two seconds left on the clock to extend the lead to 20-0 at the break.
On the Mustang's opening drive of the third quarter, Jemmott ran in a 10-yard touchdown pass, set up by two big plays, a 23-yard completion to Josh David (Sandown, N.H.) and a 12-yard scamper by Sheehan.
Fumbles plagued the Bison throughout the day, as on back to back possesions in the third quarter they had snaps go over the head of Johnson. One of them landed in the back of the end zone for a safety, while another set the Mustangs up a the one yard-line, and quarterback Junior Smith (Windsor, Conn.) punched in a score at 3:23 left in the third which made the score 43-0 after Sheehan had hit Greenman for a 15-yard TD pass in between the Gallaudet possessions.
The Bison avoided the shutout in the fourth quarter with the only two touchdowns, a five yard pass from Johnson to Lawrence Watson (Fayetteville, N.C.) and a nine yard pass to Austin Hundley (McKee, Ky.), though the two-point attempts after both scores failed.
The Mustang defense had four sacks, two of them by Spaulding and one by Sean Chinova (Watertwon, Conn.), who led the team with nine tackles, two pass breakups and an interception. Toyloy had the other sack and two tackles for a loss for Mount Ida, who racked up 11 tackles for a loss of 36 yards in the game.
Shawn Benavente (Fremont, Calif.) paced Gallaudet with eight tackles and had two of their three sacks. Carneilus Smith (Chesapeake, Va.) broke up two passes and had five tackles in the losing effort.
O'Brien finished the day with three recepetions for 46 yards and another 20 yards on the ground for Mount Ida, while Braxton Baker (Webb City, Mo.) led the Bison receivers with five catches for 24 yards and John Anderson (Clarksville, Tenn.) rushed for 30 yards on nine carries.
Mount Ida continues ECFC play next weekend on the road at Castleton, with game time in Vermont set for 1:00 pm.
Gallaudet heads home for their ECFC home opener which will feature Norwich at 12:00 pm.