By Brittany Burke
Fireworks literally lit the night sky as the CCSU football team (5-2, 4-0 NEC) team broke out into celebration following a 30-27 overtime win to remain undefeated in the NEC against division opponents, the University of Albany Great Danes.
The Blue Devils managed to stage a second half comeback after heading into the locker rooms trailing the Great Danes 24-6.
“We always preach one heartbeat and yea it was my kick that won the game but it’s everybody. Everybody won the game for us everyone counts everyone matters, def, off, special teams, it was a group effort,” said Joe Izzo.
Albany was held to a field goal in the second half as defense stepped up and was finally able to contain red shirted quarterback, Buddy Leathley.
With 2:07 left to play in the fourth quarter CCSU was still down by eight. The Blue Devils managed to set up a strong scoring drive, but was helped by 25-yards in Albany penalties, which resulted in two automatic first downs to keep the drive alive.
Thirty-six seconds remained on the clock when quarterback Gunnar Jespersen connected with PJ Borawski for a 9-yard touchdown, cutting Albany’s lead to two. CCSU made the necessary decision to go for the two point conversion, which would tie the score and force a possible overtime situation.
At that point CCSU had already had a failed conversion attempt in the third quarter, making the next try critical. The Blue Devils chose the option as Jespersen dropped back and got the ball in the hands of his go-to man, Everette Benjamin, who found his way into the end zone to tie the game 27-27.
Benjamin left Saturday’s win with his fifth straight game rushing for over 100 yards. In the match against the Great Danes Benjamin posted 161 yards with two touchdowns.
“Their defense was solid, they were actually pretty good but up front o line kept pushing they were giving me creases to hit and I hit them I just found them today,” said Benjamin.
The Blue Devils defense put up a big stop against Albany’s offense, sacking Leathley in the final 36 seconds of the quarter forcing the game into overtime for the first time since 2000, and the first time under Coach McInerney.
CCSU’s luck carried into overtime, as the referees signaled that the team had won the toss, opting to give the Great Danes the first opportunity to score.
On the second play of Albany’s overtime drive Leathley, seeing no other options kept the ball and ran for nine yards before fumbling it. The ball was recovered by CCSU’s Lorenzo Baker, giving the Blue Devils the chance to get on the board first.
Three rushing plays put CCSU in field goal position, 32-yards out. Joe Izzo took to the field and placed the ball through the uprights for the win.
Izzo had a perfect game in Albany and is now 10-for-10 on the year. The good attempt kept his streak alive, giving him a record of 12 straight field goals made.
The win wasn’t out of the question for a fourth quarter team, such as CCSU, but if first half play had been an indication of the second, things would have been bleak. CCSU began the game struggling against Albany, especially in the run defense.
“Were gonna have to stop the qb run and were gonna have to tackle better were gonna have to keep workin on offense,” said Coach McInerney.
Leathley managed to gain 112 of the teams 215 net rushing yards, the majority of yardage acquired after an initial tackle.
“The take play, the quarterback run hurt us, we were trying. They changed the quarterback, they changed some of the things they were doin,” said Coach McInerney. “We didn’t make a fast enough adjustment, that was on me and once we did make the adjustment to base we stopped that play. But a hunk of their yards in the first half were on the take play by the quarterback.”
The Blue Devils managed to turn the game around and come out on top of a difficult NEC match up. The team will come back to Arute on Oct. 30 to take on Wagner at 12 p.m.