Manchester, N.H. (October 12, 2002) - Saint Anselm, on the strength of its first defensive shutout in the school's modern era, rolled past Pace University by a score of 31-0 in a Northeast-10 Football game played in Manchester, N.H. in front of a sparse crowd.
Saint Anselm (2-4, 2-4 NE-10) took a 31-0 lead into halftime in winning its second straight game. Pace has now lost three straight in falling to 2-3 both overall and in conference play.
Amidst a steady rainfall, Saint Anselm established a solid ground game early and held a 14-0 lead on touchdown runs by Kevin Ridgley (Amesbury, Mass./ Amesbury) and Derek DiMartino (Amherst, N.H./ UMass Amherst) in the first quarter. Ridgley opened up the scoring with a one-yard plunge capping a 3-play, 11-yard drive set up by a David Heiner (Farmington, Conn./ Farmington) blocked punt.
Sophomore cornerback Michael DeMasi (New Canaan, Conn./ New Canaan) then recorded his conference-leading fifth interception to give the ball back to the Hawks late in the quarter.
After three straight penalties moved Saint Anselm to a first down and 32 at its own 22-yardline, DiMartino recorded the longest run in school history when he broke two tackles and busted down the left sideline 78 yards to find the end zone on the last play of the quarter.
A personal foul after the extra point put the ball at midfield and the Hawks took advantage by recovering an onside kick at the Pace 30-yardline. One play later, senior quarterback Keith Comeau (Marblehead, Mass./ Marblehead) found wideout Travis Pelletier (Deerfield, N.H./ Central) for a 30-yard scoring play to put the hawks ahead, 21-0.
Pace continued to unravel as Mike Bombardier (Kingston, Mass./ Silver Lake Reg.) forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff with a bruising hit to give the Hawks the ball at the Pace 33 yardline. The series ended in a 45-yard field goal by All-New England kicker Erol Senel (S. Euclid, Ohio/ Benedictine) to give the Hawks 24 points in a span of 4:43.
Saint Anselm put the game's final points on the board with 14 seconds remaining in the second quarter as Comeau found Pelletier for a 6-yard touchdown pass to cap a 7-play, 62-yard drive.
All told, Saint Anselm recorded three sacks, forced seven fumbles, recovered four of them, and had two interceptions to bring their conference lead to 10 on the season. The performance marked the second consecutive game that the defense has recorded six takeaways.
Ridgley paced the ground game with 15 carries for 98 yards while DiMartino, on the strength of his big run, registered 93 yards on seven carries.
Leading the Hawk defense was senior All-New England standout Lance Flagg (Simsbury, Conn./ Bridgton Acad.) and junior linebacker James Ward (Westerly, R.I./ Westerly). Ward paced the Hawks with 13 tackles, one sack and two forced fumbles. Flagg, who leads the NE-10 in tackles for a loss, had nine total tackles, one sack (giving him seven for the season), one forced fumble and four quarterback pressures.
For Pace, Jason Ali (Keasby, N.J.) led the defense with nine tackles and one quarterback pressure while Dan Khahaifa (Middletown, N.Y.) ran 10 times for 70 yards.
Saint Anselm will return to action next Saturday when the Hawks travel to Smithfield, R.I. to take on the Bulldogs of Bryant College in a 1:00 PM start.
