Corsairs shut down Mariners Passing game is key for UMass-Dartmouth

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CASTINE – With its primary running threat sidelined by an injury, the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth opted to rely a bit more heavily on its passing game Saturday afternoon.

Sophomore quarterback John Falcone responded to the challenge, completing 15 of 28 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns as the Corsairs spoiled Maine Maritime Academy’s homecoming with a 21-0 New England Football Conference victory at Ritchie Field.

Falcone took advantage of a speedy receiver corps and the Mariners’ secondary, connecting with junior wideout Joe Sabina (7 receptions, 166 yards) on scoring passes of 50 and 60 yards, to spearhead the attack.

“[We did] a little more throwing today, but that’s one of our strong points this year is our receiving corps,” Sabina said.

UMass-Dartmouth (2-1) did most of its offensive damage in the first 31 minutes, but the Corsairs’ stingy defense made the effort stand up. The visitors afforded the 0-3 Mariners only 185 total yards.

“We have a good defense,” said UMass-Dartmouth coach Bill Kavanaugh. “We’re not big, but we run like crazy and they played big again today.”

MMA was unable to move the ball consistently, netting only 58 yards on the ground. The hosts were equally as stymied when trying to throw as sophomore quarterback Pat Bard of Winslow was sacked nine times for minus-41 yards.

“When we had to pass, [Bard] was running around a little bit and wasn’t really able to focus on the open receivers,” said first-year MMA coach Chris McKenney. “Overall, their defense is pretty quick and they ran to the ball pretty well.”

The Corsairs benefited from a season-opening win against Springfield, which runs essentially the same offense as the Mariners as McKenney last coached at Springfield.

“We did some good things on offense, but we kept making too many mistakes,” McKenney said. “We’re young, but we’ll get better.”

The Corsairs got on the scoreboard on their second possession after having had a short field goal attempt blocked by MMA’s Alger Yanush on their first series.

On a 3rd-and-10 play, Falcone dropped back, pump-faked to the right, then turned and lofted a strike to Sabina, who got behind the defense for a 50-yard scoring play down the left sideline.

The Mariners mounted their best offensive threat of the afternoon on a seven-minute drive beginning at 10:32 of the second quarter. Bard’s 26-yard completion to Justin Cummings was the key play of the march.

On 4th-and-5 from the UMD-11, Bard’s short pass fell incomplete and the Corsairs took over.

UMass-Dartmouth needed only six plays to cover the 89 yards as Falcone completed five consecutive passes after a 14-yard run by Franz Philogene. The last two were a 25-yarder and a 16-yarder, both to tight end Cameron Barker on an identical seam pass play.

“They made a big stop there in the second period, then we went down and scored that touchdown [with 1:42 left],” Kavanaugh said.

Marco Angelo’s interception at the UMD-36 gave the visitors another chance to score, but Ryan Myers missed a 37-yard field-goal try with 13 seconds remaining.

The Corsairs put a hurt on MMA’s psyche on the first play of the second half when Sabina took Falcone’s quick out and raced 60 yards down the right sideline with only 20 seconds gone in the quarter.

However, the Mariners shut out UMD the rest of the way, forcing a fumble and getting interceptions from Vance Gray and Andrew Sprague, who had two in the game.

“It was just a few mental mistakes you’re going to get with a young team,” said Old Town’s Yanush. “I think we just shut them down and they had to resort to the passes.”

Yanush paced the MMA defense with 10 tackles, while Old Town’s Justin Brown and John Botellio were in on seven hits each.

CORSAIRS 21, MARINERS 0

UMass-Dartmouth (2-1) 7 7 7 0?21

Maine Maritime (0-3) 0 0 0 0? 0

UMD?Sabina 50 pass from Falcone (Myers kick)

UMD?Barker 16 pass from Falcone (Myers kick)

UMD?Sabina 60 pass from Falcone (Myers kick)

UMass-Dartmouth Maine

First downs 12 12

Rushing att.-yards 24-68 52-58

Passing comp.-att. 15-28 9-20

Passing yards 278 129

Total yards 346 185

Punts-avg. 5-32.4 9-29.1

Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-2

Intercepted by 1 3

Penalties-yards 11-85 5-41

Rushing

UMD: Philogene 15-46, Theriault 5-26, Falcone 3-3, Sabina 1-(-7); MMA: Thibodeau 14-47, Casavant 5-12, Cummings 6-12, Bard 23-1, Brown 1-(-3), McCaslin 2-(-4), Kopes 1-(-7)

Passing

UMD: Falcone 15-26-3-278; Teixeira 0-2-0-0; MMA: Bard 8-15-1-107, Kopes 1-5-0-22

Receiving

UMD: Sabina 7-166, Barker 3-55, O’Day 3-37, Marino 1-17, Walter 1-3; MMA: Brown 5-74, Cummings 1-26, Thibodeau 1-12, Casavant 1-10, Montagne 1-7

A?1,000 (est.)