Panther’s football came up with a great performance and dominated the game with a crushing defense display against the Bears of Coast Guard with a 26-7 victory in a New England Football Conference cross division match-up at Cadet Memorial Field.
From start to finish, PSU came up with big plays and made sure the offense couldn’t get much on the board with a strong performance by the defense. Senior quarterback John Demarco put the first points on the board late in the first quarter with a two-yard run, and later throwing a 40-yard touchdown pass to sophomore J.J. Brooks that closed out the first half at 13-0.
The rushing attack provided most of the offense, as they ran the ball 60 out of the 67 plays on the day and dominated time of possession against Coast Guard. Senior running back Jeff Mack was one of the key elements in the victory against Coast Guard, rushing for 124 yards and scoring a touchdown. “Well, as usual, we kept to the game plan and had a strong rushing attack. We did however distribute the ball a lot better this time,” said Mack, “While I still had like 26 carries, we threw the ball better and at more appropriate times.”
Coast Guard came into the second half determined to rally back in the game when senior quarterback Niles Pierson ran for a one-yard run in the end-zone with 8:25 left in the third quarter. On the Bears next possession, the offense tried to run a trick play that resulted in sophomore Kevin Whalen intercepting the option pass and ran 30 yards down field. Mack would eventually cap off the drive resulting in a comfortable lead heading into the fourth quarter. PSU then closed out the fourth quarter and took the game 26-7 on a great run by sophomore Steve Campbell.
PSU got back on track this week week and eliminated any doubts that the team had after last week’s performance. “I thought we made significant changes from the Mt. Ida game to the Coast Guard game. As much as the loss to Mt. Ida was a heartbreaker for us, we did manage to get some good things out of the loss,” said Mack, “We realized that we’re not unstoppable and that we need to bring our A game every time we step onto the game field.”
PSU is now 2-1 overall and will head back home to face UMass in the NEFC Boyd Division opener Sat. Sept. 27 at 1:00 p.m. Coast Guard dropped another game and is 0-2 for the first time since the 2001 season. They will be set to play Westfield State Sat. 27 at 1:00 p.m.