North Andover, Mass. (October 13) -- On
Saturday afternoon, the Saint Anselm football team fell to
Merrimack by a 55-14 final in the Second Annual Merrimack River
Shootout at Warrior Field in North Andover, Mass.
The Hawks came out firing early as Kevin Flynn
(Wakefield, Mass.) forced a Merrimack fumble on the first
play from scrimmage and the Hawks took over at the Merrimack
37-yard line. Just 2:54 into the game, senior Nick Barese
(Braintree, Mass.) found Ryan Drago (Plymouth,
Mass.) for a 26-yard scoring strike and a 7-0 Saint Anselm
lead. On the ensuing possession for Merrimack, the Warriors
found the equalizer almost immediately as standout quarterback
Colin Temple connected with Chris
Laham for a 45-yard TD and the game was tied at 7-7. The
Hawks nearly had a chance to take a 14-7 lead in the first quarter,
but Barese was picked off deep in Merrimack territory to end the
drive.
The Hawks found the end zone again in the second quarter on a
scoring play that was set up by a 41-yard run down the home
sideline from junior running back Conor Cahill (Salem,
Mass.). After an incomplete pass on first and goal, Barese
took the ball in himself from the nine-yard line and the Hawks had
a 14-7 advantage. The Warriors had no intention of going away
though as they engineered a 10-play, 63-yard drive that was capped
by a 42-yard strike from Temple to Sean McFee and
the two teams headed into halftime knotted up at 14-14.
In the second half, it was Merrimack taking an advantage of an
early turnover as the Hawks fumbled the kickoff and recovered deep
inside Saint Anselm territory. Temple again found Laham just 1:05
into the half on a 27-yard reception to give the Warriors the lead
for good at 21-14. The Warriors pushed the lead to 48-14 after the
third quarter and added another score with just three minutes
remaining in the game for the 55-14 final.
Offensively, Cahill narrowly missed out on his first 100-yard
game of his career with a career-best 95-yard performance. Barese
enjoyed his best afternoon of the season as he was 29-of-45 for 256
yards and one passing touchdown, along with a rushing TD. For just
the second time in Saint Anselm history, the Hawks had two
receivers surpass the 100-yard mark on the afternoon. Drago ended
the afternoon with 107 yards on nine receptions and was joined in
the 100-yard club by senior Corey Williams (Billerica,
Mass.). Williams finished with a game-high 10 catches for
102 yards.
For Merrimack, Temple finished 15-of-25 for 326 yards and four
touchdowns. Richard Johnson had 135 yards on the
ground in 23 rushing attempts, while Laham was the teams' leading
receiver with 132 yards on four catches and three touchdowns.
Defensively for the Hawks, senior Nate Munzing
(Gardiner, Maine) led the team with 11 total tackles,
followed closely by Flynn with 10 stops. JD Wild
led Merrimack with 13 tackles, including seven solo stops.
With the loss, the Hawks fall to 0-6 overall and 0-5 in league
play, while Merrimack improves to 2-4 overall and 2-3 in the
Northeast-10. Saint Anselm is back in action on Saturday, October
20th as the team hosts Bryant University in the Second Annual
Granite Cup. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Grappone Stadium.
