Holmes’ catch seals win
Ualbany generates 503 yards of offense with balanced attack to top St. Francis
University at Albany junior running back Elijah Ibitokunhanks scored his first touchdown of the season on Saturday night, a 31-yard score that had him smiling when asked about it afterward.
“It felt good,” said Ibitokunhanks, who missed all but one game last year with a knee injury. “I almost forgot how it felt in a minute. But now that I’m back, I’m ready to go. Let’s get some more going.”
Meanwhile, freshman wide receiver Dev Holmes of Troy is getting used to scoring winning touchdowns in the fourth quarter. He did it for the second straight week, a 24-yard catch set up by a play-action fake to Ibitokun-hanks that gave the Great Danes a 35-28 victory over Saint Francis (Pa.) before 3,840 fans at Casey Stadium.
Holmes caught a short pass from Vince Testaverde against a Saint Francis defense bracing
for another Ibitokun-hanks run. Holmes broke a tackle at the 10 and took it into the end zone to snap a 2828 tie with 7:50 remaining.
“I saw the free safety, he was in the middle of the field and came down blitzing to tackle Ibi with the play-action fake,” Holmes said. “I ran a slant and was one-on-one with the linebacker and I know I’m faster than him.”
Holmes also beat Morgan State last week with an 88-yard catch-and-run from Testaverde in the fourth quarter.
“You’re gonna have to wait and see,” said a smiling Holmes, asked if he plans on doing this every week. “You’re going to have to come to the games.”
The Great Danes won for the second straight week and improved to 2-2 overall entering their bye. They’re off until Oct. 6, when they return to Colonial Athletic Association play with a game at William & Mary.
“This was best-case scenario for us after two losses,” wide receiver Jerah Reeves said. “I think that we took care of business and this was really important. You don’t want to ever go into a bye week unsure about what kind of team you’ll be having. I think coming off on a high note we’ll have some time to reconvene and get back in our playbooks and understand our next opponent and I think we’ll be ready for it.”
Ualbany goes into the off week after displaying a balanced offense that put up a season-high 503 yards.
Testaverde bounced back from his four-interception performance against Morgan State to complete 21 of 28 passes for 331 yards, tied for sixth-most in program history, with three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Testaverde had been limited in practice last week with an injured left (non-throwing) hand that had head coach Greg Gattuso doubting if he would even play.
“Until Friday at 3 o’clock, I was going to not play him,” Gattuso said. “But the medical report, his attitude, how he worked through it, I just decided these games are so precious and so hard to win, you’ve got to put your group out, and he’s our starting quarterback, so we put him out.”
He threw two scoring passes to Holmes, the freshman prodigy who had seven receptions for 128 yards. He also fired a 65-yard touchdown pass to Reeves to put Ualbany ahead 28-21 with 7:14 left in the third quarter.
“For me, I would just say it’s a lot of fun,” Testaverde said. “All I’ve got to do is throw them the ball, and I get to watch them make moves on other guys and make the big plays.”
The Great Danes also unleashed their running game for the first time this season. Ibitokun-hanks finished with 19 carries for 92 yards and backup Karl Mofor had a 74-yard run that set up Ethan Stark’s 21-yard field goal on the final play of the second quarter for a 20-14 halftime lead.
“I think the best part about it, we were able to get both backs going,” Ibitokun-hanks said. “It showed the full potential of our run game. Like Coach said, we wanted to emphasize that at the beginning of the week.”
Bear Fenimore threw for 286 yards and three touchdowns for Saint Francis, which fell to 1-3.
Ualbany linebacker Eli Mencer had a fourth-down sack of Fenimore with 1:23 to play to seal the win.