Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
PAXTON, MA – The Anna Maria AMCATS Football team fell to the Privateers of Maritime College 42-21 in Saturday's Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) matchup. The AMCATS bounced back from an early 14-0 deficit, but the Privateers resilient composure and discipline proved to be the deciding factors in the game.
With the loss the AMCATS' record drops to 1-5 (0-3 ECFC), while the Privateers improve to 3-3 (1-1 ECFC) on the season.
Maritime College wasted no time in scoring. Their first drive ended with an eight yard rushing touchdown by junior Quarterback Tyler Trodden (Putnam Valley, NY), who kept the ball on an option play. Trodden closed out the first quarter with another six yard touchdown on the ground, giving the Privateers a 14 – 0 lead.
The AMCATS received a lucky break early on in the second half when Maritime picked up a penalty for roughing the kicker. Capitalizing on the second chance, the AMCATS drove the ball down field and senior QB Santino Simone (Worcester, Mass.) capped off the drive with a 31 yard rushing touchdown.
The Privateers would bounce back however, scoring at the 4:47 mark in the second after moving the ball 72 yards. Gary Bigham (Jacksonville, FL), a junior fullback, found a hole and ran three yards for the score and a 21-7 advantage.
Not to be outdone, AMCATS junior running back Robert Small (Sleepy Hollow, NY) narrowed the gap with a 3 yard rushing TD to close out the half trailing 21-14.
The AMCATS defense came out of the locker room revitalized after halftime. They forced the Privateers to go four and out, and gave the AMCATS offense the ball at midfield. Small evened up the score at 21 points with a 1 yard punch into the end zone.
Unfortunately for the AMCATS, the Maritime College Privateers offense and defense both kicked it up another notch.
The Privateers started their next drive on the AMCATS' 29 yard line. The option play made another red zone appearance, and a rather successful one at that as Trodder pitched the ball to junior RB Andrew LaLonde (Grand Island, NY), who carried it five yards in to the end zone to make the score 28-21.
On the following AMCATS drive, sophomore linebacker Duke Alvora (Harrison, NY) picked off Simone's pass and ran it 19 yards for the touchdown. This put the Privateers up 35-21 going in to the fourth quarter.
The Privateers kept their momentum going in the 4th quarter, scoring off of Bigham's 4 yard touchdown four seconds in to the fourth quarter. Bigham's second TD of the day gave the Privateers a commanding 42-21 lead late in the game.
Santino Simone ended the game with 229 yards total offense, 155 being through the air and 74 on the ground. He also had one rushing touchdown, and threw one interception. Robert Small rushed for 86 yards and two scores.
Jordan Koehler (West Warwick, RI), a junior linebacker, led the AMCATS defense with 17 tackles. Freshman Defensive Back A.J. Huber (Exeter, RI), forced and recovered a fumble.
The AMCATS will go back to the drawing board to prepare for a home game against the Spartans of Castleton State College on the 27th of October at 3:00 PM.