By Brittany Burke
Keeping a game close isn’t anything new for Head Coach Jeff McInerney and his football team. Whether it’s maintaining an early lead, coming back late in the fourth, or even in overtime, chances are McInerney has seen it on the field and coached his team through it. Saturday’s away game against Wagner College was no different, with the Blue Devils topping the Seahawks 28-24.
In their opening Northeast Conference game, the Blue Devils traveled to Staten Island for the second road game in as many weeks. Last week’s game saw CCSU falling to the nationally ranked James Madison University football team, while the Seahawks dropped a game to Richmond. Both teams entered the game looking to improve its records to 2-1 overall. While this was CCSU’s first game of conference play, it was Wagner’s second with a win over St. Francis (PA) already under its wings.
“Any time I win on the road in the NEC I’m happy, and you got to be a road warrior,” said McInerney. “We just came off the bus, we played down at JMU, 16 hours [away], [Wagner] probably had the same deal we did but they got to stay at home and we had to travel again, and that’s an advantage [for them]…”
The opening kickoff helped get the game’s momentum in favor of CCSU immediately. The Blue Devils might have deferred possession until after the half, but a forced fumble had the ball in the hands of Gunnar Jespersen on the opening kick return.
A handoff to Brian Fowler put CCSU on the board with over 10 minutes to still play in the quarter. Midway through the second, Jespersen found the end zone on two-yard rush following a set of big downs made by Fowler. All signs pointed to CCSU taking a substantial lead going into the half, but the momentum quickly swung back into Wagner’s favor.
An interception thrown by Jespersen right before the half led to the Seahawks getting points on the board while a fumble, also made by Jespersen, at the start of the third helped Wagner quickly tie the game at 14 all.
“They were all self conflicted errors early,” said Jespersen. “It shouldn’t have been as close as it was. We got a lot to work on this week, we can’t keep turning the ball over like that. Two turnovers is two turnovers too many, we cut that down it’s not as close of a ball game.”
Wagner not only had the game all tied up, but the team also has a star running back, Dominique Williams, who managed to run all over the CCSU defense. Williams was a player that McInerney had his eye on going into Saturday’s game. With 142-yards the Blue Devils defense held him to fewer yardages than his first game, but McInerney was still disappointed with his final total.
“He had a 142 [yards], he’s a great player and I was not pleased with our run defense,” said McInerney. “I’ll sit here and tell you that I thought we could hold him to 110 and that would be a win … he’s a great player I’ve said arguably all along he’s the best running back in the league, and I give him a lot of respect … [the yardage is] less than the 184 he got against St. Francis so it was good enough to win today, but we’ve got to get better on our run defense.”
Both teams swapped touchdowns and found themselves tied at 21 rather than 14 before CCSU’s Denzell Jones caught a pass from Jespersen, running the ball 36-yards before finding the end zone.
In true CCSU fashion, the fans could never count on the game being won. On a march down field the Blue Devils defense managed to put a halt to the Seahawks and force the team to settle on a 41-yard field goal, leaving them four shy of the tie.
Soon enough the Seahawks had the ball in their possession once again, although this time the Blue Devils forced the team into a fourth and eight situation. With the time clock under the four minute mark Wagner went for the down.
The ball was snapped and at 2:19 when CCSU Blue Devil Chris Linares ran the route intended for the Wagner receiver and picked off Nick Doscher, essentially ending the game.
Once again CCSU brought a game down to the wire, and once again the team proved why they are known as the team to beat.
“We came in here thinking we were going to win the game,” said Jespersen. “We didn’t win it in the fashion that we’d like to, but we won nonetheless. Our heart rates were all up; it was a nail biter toward the end … if we start saying we’re relieved to get out with a win then we’re not the guys to hunt down anymore.”
The Blue Devils are back at home for the next two weeks, facing Monmouth on Sept. 24 at 12 p.m. and Sacred Heart on Oct. 1, for CCSU homecoming.