Bengals notch homecoming win

A back-and-forth affair saw the Buffalo State Bengals emerge victorious over William Paterson on Saturday by a score of 42-27.

The Bengals, originally trailing 17-14 halfway through the game, were able to take advantage of some key defensive plays to score the next 21 points and eventually win Buffalo State's homecoming game.

"It was a big win for the team, especially since we were coming off a tough loss to Montclair State," said junior quarterback Casey Kacz.

Kacz, who made his first career start for the Bengals, completed nine of 18 passes for 86 yards and rushed eight times for 69 yards and a touchdown to lead the team to victory.

"I thought I played well enough to win the game, but not as good as I could have played," Kacz said. "I made some smart decisions and some bad decisions. Hopefully I can come back next week and I can fix some of the mistakes I made."

Head coach Jerry Boyes agreed.

"(Kacz) did a lot of good things out there," Boyes said. "He made some mistakes, but I thought he did a very good job overall. He's going to be better next week because of the experience he had this week."

Neither team looked up to the task of taking a commanding lead early in the game. Sophomore running back Ismail Brooks' first rushing score of the contest was quickly answered by a rushing touchdown from the Pioneers. After the Pioneers took the lead on a 69-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, the Bengals responded with another rushing touchdown from 11 yards out courtesy of freshman tailback Rich Pete.

After a 43-yard field goal from the Pioneers, the game still looked as if it would continue to be a slugfest at halftime. But the Bengals swung the momentum in their favor when junior linebacker Pasquale Vacchio returned an interception 33 yards for a score to give the team the lead for good.

"They lined up their receivers out pretty wide earlier in the game, and they were running a lot of slant routes," Vacchio said. "I knew they were going to run the same play so I just jumped the slant as quickly as I could."

Vacchio finished with 11 tackles and two sacks to go along with his aforementioned interception and was named Buffalo State Athlete of the Week as well as a member of D3football.com's National Team of the week.

Senior safety Kevin Healy added 10 tackles and an interception. Brooks led the team with three rushing touchdowns and was a major contributor to a backfield that racked up 285 yards rushing.

One factor that led to the Bengals' victory was the team's preparation throughout the week, Kacz explained.

"(William Paterson) did pretty much what we expected them to do," he said. "They had some 3-4 looks on defense and they would blitz one guy from each side, and we were ready for it.

"There were a couple of plays where I saw a safety replace a guy that was blitzing, and it would be man-to-man coverage, so I audibled to some deeper passes," he continued. "It keeps them honest, and that way they'll know we'll go over the top more, so it will make them use it a little less."

The Bengals and Pioneers also confronted an unlikely opponent on Saturday ­— the officials. 23 combined penalties were handed out to the teams throughout the game.

"I've never gotten an official report after the game that was two pages long," Boyes said. "They were throwing the flags an awful lot today. We will get the chance to rate the officials and evaluate them, which is good."

The Bengals' next opponent, Kean University, will present a major challenge. The Cougars are currently ranked tenth in Division III with a record of 4-0.

"(Kean's) always been near the top of our conference, so we've got to be ready for them," Kacz said. "I know they're a big, fast team, and we should have a good gameplan for them."

Tony Fiorello can be reached at fiorello.record@live.com