PSU Football Stops MIT, Secures Win

SCORE BOX:

Plymouth             30

MIT                       27

Plymouth, N.H.— On a sunny and clear Saturday afternoon (10/8) at Currier Field, the Plymouth State University Football team gained a lead early on against MIT and held off a comeback attempt by the Engineers to take the victory, 30-27.

With the NEFC Boyd Division win, the Panthers improve to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in NEFC, while MIT drops to 1-4 (0-3 in NEFC).

The Panther's attacked on all sides of the ball on Saturday, beginning with an early offensive eruption, along with another strong outing from both the defense and special teams. For the second consecutive week, senior Christian Mulcahy (Norwich, Conn.) made his presence felt in a big way with two interceptions and a 42-yard field goal, the longest of his career. With the pair of picks, Mulcahy has recorded four interceptions in the past two weeks. Also helping the cause on defense was junior defensive lineman Peter LaBreck (Thorton, N.H.) who collected back-to-back sacks of MIT quarterback sophomore John Wenzel at the start of the second half. Senior Bobby Lombardo (Stow, Mass.) blocked an important extra point kick in the fourth quarter that kept the Engineers down by a touchdown (27-20).

On the offensive side of things, first year Joey Avila (Gloucester, Mass.) fired a touchdown pass to senior James Liddel (Shelton, Conn.) to score the first points of the game, and give PSU the lead. The Panthers were propelled by both junior Andrew Foglia (Montauk, N.Y.) and senior Dustin Matthews (Eliot, Maine), who drove down the field all game. Matthews finished the game with two scores while Foglia caught a seven-yard pass from Avila to contribute to the scoreboard in the early moments of the second quarter.

"The line blocked real well all game long which made it easy for myself and our running backs to take advantage of the big holes and the time in the pocket that is needed," said Avila, who remains unbeaten as PSU's starting quarterback in two appearances.

With the final two minutes of the game ticking away, MIT reserve quarterback Peter Williams ran nine yards into the end zone, putting the Engineers within striking distance. But when the Panthers recovered a well-executed on-side kick from the visiting team, the game was over, much to the relief of PSU and Avila. "I'm just happy we came out with a W and are back on a nice 2 game winning streak, but we have a big game this week against Endicott so we have to take the MIT game, learn from it, polish our mistakes, then put it in the past."

Plymouth State faces a tough challenge when they return to the gridiron tomorrow to face Endicott College, the current leader of the Boyd Division.