NEWTON, Mass. – A 23 yard field goal by Matthew Murphy (Seaford, N.Y.) broke a 14-14 tie and led SUNY Maritime to a 17-14 win over Mount Ida College, breaking the Mustang's three-game Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) win streak on Saturday afternoon at Alumni Field.
Mount Ida had rallied to tie the game with a touchdown in the fourth quarter, but couldn't cash in on several changes to take the lead, and the Privateers pulled off a 74-yard drive that took 3:18 to put them in position for the game-winning score.
Senior Faouzi Talabi (Brewster, Mass.) caught his first touchdown pass of the year and junior running back Travis O'Brien (Portsmouth, R.I.) went over 100-yards rushing for the second straight game. The Mustangs took a 7-0 lead on their opening possession when Jack Sheehan (St. Petersburg, Fla.) hit Talabi from 7 yards out to cap an eight play, sixty-eight yard drive.
The home team had a chance to add more points when senior Sean Chinova (Watertown, Conn.) intercepted SUNY Maritime quarterback Joseph Butterworth (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) at the Privateer's 17 yard line, but Tyler Rogers (Bridgewater, Mass.) pushed a 31-yard field goal attempt wide left. Chinova also blocked a field goal by Murphy late in the first half, which kept the game at 14-7 as the teams went to the break.
Butterworth had 142 yards passing and one touchdown, as well as 69 yards on the ground, where he accounted for the other Maritime score when he rushed in from three yards with 1:30 left in the first quarter to tie the game.
Sheehan threw for 170 yards on 18-39 passing with two interceptions, both of them by Brian Price (New York, N.Y.), and both of them in the SUNY Maritime end zone, which killed potential scoring drives.
SUNY Maritime took the lead on a three yard pass from Butterworth to Matt Ward (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), the only scoring play of the second quarter. Mount Ida was finally able to tie the game in the fourth quarter thanks to a long snap on a Maritime punt that bounced off of a leg in the backfield and was recovered by Josh David (Sandown, N.H.) and returned to the Maritime seven-yard line. Three plays later, Sheehan snuck in from two yards out and Rogers added his second extra point of the day.
Murphy missed another field goal from 37 yards out halfway through the quarter, and Mount Ida had two possessions to potentially win the game, but after a 23-yard pass from Sheehan to Mike Elsey (Killingly, Conn.), Sheehan was picked off in the end zone by Price, who also had a team-high eight tackles.
Brett McKinney (Westernville, N.Y.), who rushed for 98 yards on 18 carries, started the final Maritime drive with rushes of 6, 11, and 17 yards, sandwiched around a Butterworth 22-yard scamper. The Privateers got down to the Mustang six yard-line, and while the Mount Ida defense held them out of the end zone, the 23-yard chip shot was easy enough for Murphy to win the game.
Freshman Theodore Campbell (Boston, Mass.) had a strong defensive day as he got the start for Mount Ida, leading the team with 12.5 tackles, 3.5 of them for a loss. David had 9.5 stuffs and two pass breakups to go with his fumble recovery and an interception. Jonathan Cistrunk (Milton, Ga.) also made several big plays on defense, with 9 tackles, a breakup and a quarterback hurry, while Privateers junior Wesley Joseph (Brooklyn, N.Y.) pressured Sheehan three times and had 2.5 tackles for loss.
The loss unfortunately knocks Mount Ida (4-5, 4-2 ECFC) out of contention for this year's conference title, which was clinched today by Husson University with their win over Norwich. The Mustangs will host the Eagles next Saturday at 12:00 pm to close out their season and celebrate Senior Day.
SUNY Maritime (5-4, 3-3 ECFC) finish their season next Saturday at Gallaudet with a 12:00 pm kickoff in our nation's capital.