Lafayette College football team earns first win of season over Stony Brook

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

EASTON | Lafayette had to run the football.

Every one of the 6,036 fans in Fisher Stadium knew it. Everybody on the Stony Brook bench knew it.

The Leopards owned the ball at their own 29 with 10:31 left in the game. Momentum had swung to the visitors who had just scored a touchdown to pull within three points.

Lafayette's starting quarterback, junior Ryan O'Neil, whose two touchdown passes put the Leopards in position to win their first game of 2010, was sidelined after taking a knee to the head on a scramble.

More than any other time this season, the Leopards needed to run the ball.

Lafayette did so, holding on for a 28-21 victory over the Seawolves -- the first of this season.

"We needed to ground and pound there to run time off the clock and I felt confident in our rushing game," Leopard head coach Frank Tavani said.

Freshman Patrick Mputu, the Leopards' fourth-string running back, gained 49 of his team-high 102 yards on 10 physical carries on the decisive march behind an offensive line that swept the Seawolves defense as if it was a pack of puppies.

"That was all thanks to the offensive line," said Mputu, a 5-10, 185-pounder from Orlando, Fla., who entered the game with 11 carries for 38 yards. "They did the job and then some. All I had to do was hit the holes hard and get the first downs."

Manning the yeoman Lafayette (1-5) line were senior center Mike Eck, senior Zach Schleimer and junior Scott Biel at guard, and juniors Anthony Buffolino and Matt Welch, who was filling in for Jake Crooks, at tackles.


Mputu, who had 23 carries, and the line put the Leopards in position 14 plays, 60 yards and 7:52 later, to get a 29-yard Davis Rodriguez field goal and a 20-14 lead with 2:43 remaining.

Then two units that have struggled -- Lafayette's kickoff return team and its pass rush -- took over.

Superb kick coverage by freshmen Jet Kollie and Tyler Robinson plus senior Gregory Mandile pinned the all-scholarship Seawolves (2-4) at their 15. The Leopards held Stony Brook to just 30 yards on five kick returns.

"We spent extra time on kickoff returns and auditioned some new guys there," Tavani said. "We got in their face and challenged them and those kids on the kickoff team showed a lot of heart."

Then the Leopard defensive line, led by junior end Mike Grimaldi, senior tackle Mike Phillips and junior tackle Andrew Holmes, came with two sacks and a hurry and stopped Stony Brook on downs at its own 1. From there backup quarterback Marc Quilling scored on a 1-yard run before the Seawolves tacked on a consolation score.

"We had talked all week about stressing emotion," Grimaldi said. "We'd been physical but playing with a lack of emotion. When we played with the emotion that just lifted us to coming up with the big play."

"We knew they needed a touchdown," said Phillips, who had a blocked field goal, two passes batted down and a tackle for loss. "We turned it on to go get to the quarterback. Mike did a really good job."

Lafayette took a 17-7 lead with 6:37 left in the third quarter when O'Neil (15-for-24, 142 yards, two TDs) found Bennett for his second TD catch -- this one on a juggling grab on an improvised over-the-middle route with Stony Brook's Dominick Reyes draped all over Lafayette's senior co-captain.

"It was supposed to be an outside route but I broke it inside," said Bennett, who caught four passes for 42 yards. "Ryan put it in the perfect spot for me to just go up and get it."

Stony Brook, which hurt itself with 119 yards on 11 penalties, never got its power ground game going. The Seawolves came in averaging 216 yards per game, but had just 159 yards against Lafayette.

Cornerback Brandon Ellis made a game-high 16 tackles, most in run support, for the Leopards and senior linebacker Mike Schmidlein, despite playing with an injured shoulder, made 12 stops supporting the Leopards' somewhat unusual use of a four-man front all game.

"The emphasis all week was to stop the run, get them third-and-longs and make them throw," Phillips said.

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