Loss at Zable Stadium
Ahead by 12 points with 7 minutes to go, Danes fall to William & Mary
Danes give up two late scoring drives and suffer loss to William & Mary.
Williamsburg, Va. University of Albany running back Elijah Ibitokun-hanks topped the 200-yard mark for the third time in his career.
The Great Danes gave up just 38 yards rushing. They held a 12-point lead with seven minutes to go.
But Ualbany, playing William & Mary for the first time in program history despite joining the CAA in 2013, gave up two late scoring drives and suffered a 25-22 loss Saturday at Zable Stadium.
“We were undisciplined. We’re not going to win any games if we play like this,” said Ualbany coach Greg Gattuso.
William & Mary (2-3, 1-1) was averaging just 7.8 points per game, which ranked 123rd out of 124 FCS teams. The Tribe had put together just two scoring drives all day, on their first possession of the game and their last of the first half. But their final two drives of the game ended in touchdowns, snapping their nine-game CAA losing streak.
On the first of those two late drives, the Tribe covered 73 on four plays, scoring on a 17-yard
pass from quarterback Shon Mitchell to wide receiver Devonte Dedmon. That cut Ualbany’s lead to 22-17. After the Great Danes (2-3, 0-2) went three-andout, the Tribe took over at their own 34-yard-line. Seven plays and 66 yards later, they had the lead for the first time since the second quarter.
The drive, which was aided by a roughing-the-quarterback penalty on the Great Danes, was capped by Mitchell’s 6-yard run. The two-point conversion gave the Tribe a three-point lead.
“We played well all day. We just got undisciplined,” said Ualbany defensive lineman Brian Dolce. “The last couple drives we just fell apart, and weren’t doing what we were doing all game . ... That’s very unlike us.”
Gattuso, in his fifth season with the Great Danes, wasn’t too pleased with those final drives by the Tribe.
“The last drive was a joke,” he said. “It should have never happened. We give up an easy defended play for a long gain. Then we get a very bogus quarterback roughing-the-passer (penalty), and then they’re on the goal line. We’ve got to play better. We can’t be undisciplined.”
The Great Danes, who entered on a two-game winning streak, built their lead in large part to junior running back Ibitokunhanks, who finished the game with 221 yards and one touchdown on 25 carries. Karl Mofor added 47 yards on 10 carries.
But the Great Danes struggled with their passing game. Quarterback Vincent Testaverde, coming off two consecutive 300yard games, was 9-for-24 for 131 yards. He was intercepted twice. Junior Jerah Reeves had 111 yards on six receptions. Freshman Dev Holmes, the nation’s leading receiver at 148.7 yards a game, was shut out.
“We thought we could run on them,” Gattuso said. “If we would have thrown the ball at all decently, it would have been a totally different game. We didn’t throw the ball for anything.”
Ibitokun-hanks gave credit to the Tribe for taking away the passing game.
“That was just on their part,” he said. “They wanted to stop the pass, and (make) us win with the run game.”
For William & Mary, Mitchell finished 24-for-32 for 263 yards and two TDS. Dedmon had 138 yards on seven catches and was on the end of both of Mitchell’s TD throws, the first of which went for 50 yards on the opening drive. The Tribe rushed for 38 yards on 30 carries.
Ualbany returns home next Saturday to face Richmond.
“We will see what type of team we are. They just got yelled at,” Gattuso said. “We will see if they can rally and come back and try to win a game.”