Resilient defense helps SHU to NEC final

One bad week in a normal football season can spell disaster, and when that season is cut by more than half, a series of errors in Game 1 can end things before they even really start.

What Sacred Heart defensive coordinator Mike Cooke saw from his players instead was resilience.

“The players did a great job not panicking,” Cooke said. “They realized a lot of the mistakes were selfinflicted, especially thirddown situations. Third downs were very poor for us that first game.”

The Pioneers (2-1) have a chance to redeem themselves against the same opponent that victimized them in the opener. They’ll visit Duquesne (4-0) on Sunday at 2 p.m. (ESPN3) in the Northeast Conference championship game with an FCS playoff spot on the line.

After Duquesne was 10-for-15 on third down in the season opener Sacred Heart held Merrimack and LIU to a combined 3-for-22, plus 0-for-3 on fourth down, in the next two games (COVID-19 protocols at Wagner canceled a fourth game). Duquesne took that first game 30-27, but Sacred Heart has allowed 16 points in two games since, holding both opponents to 181 yards’ offense.

“Being brutally honest, there hasn’t been one particular person standing out. It has been the entire defense,” Cooke said. “It’s been a one-game playoff every week. The guys are dedicated.” He ran through practically the whole defense one-by-one. “They’ve elevated their game. They didn’t point fingers, not one person.”

Head coach Mark Nofri said not to pin that loss only on the defense. Penalties played a factor: The defense took four for 50 yards, but the rest of the team had seven for 75.

“Between Game 1 and Game 2 we’ve done a much better job communicating overall on defense,” Nofri said, “doing what the coaches have asked them to

do, executing the game plan.”

That third-down percentage pops in the first game, but of those 15 third-down attempts for Duquesne, nine were for five yards or fewer. The Dukes converted seven of those.

“One of our main goals is to win on first down. A drive’s a lot easier when there’s a minus-yard, even a 2-yard gain on first down,” Cooke said. “A lot of guys have a lot of calls for thirdand-1, third-and-2 . ... (With third-and-long) you give an offensive coordinator fewer options to call.”

Options, the Dukes have. Nofri likes what he sees in Duquesne transfer sophomore quarterback Joe Mischler, who threw for 231 yards against the Pioneers and ran for another 63. He sees something familiar in Mischler, in fact.

“To me,” Nofri said, “he’s a bigger version of what I had two years ago in Kevin Duke,” the quarterback who led the Pioneers to a share of the conference title (with Duquesne) in 2018. “He’s athletic, can throw, can run, makes good decisions.

“You’ve got a 6-4 receiver in Cyrus (Holder), that helps too.”

Garrett Owens, a 6-3 graduate transfer, had been the Dukes’ top running back through the first three weeks; Billy Lucas ran 26 times last weekend against Bryant, “a pretty good 1-2 punch,” Nofri said.

Sunday’s winner will learn its playoff opponent on April 18. (There are six at-large spots in the 16team tournament, too.) The Pioneers qualified in 2013 and 2014 but have not been back to the FCS playoffs since.

Nofri is already happy with the sacrifices players have made to keep themselves on the field, with only one positive case, he said, since workouts started on Jan. 25.

They’ve given themselves a chance at redemption.

“It’ll be a great challenge, Cooke said, “to right some of those wrongs from the first game.”