Football falls short in final seconds

Buffalo State lost a close game to Rowan University over the weekend, falling by a score of 36-29.

Despite posting over 500 yards of total offense, the Bengals held the lead just twice in the game, 7-0 early in the first quarter and by a one-point margin in the fourth quarter. The team did have a chance to win near the end of the game, but wasn't  able to pull out the victory.

The loss was the Bengals' (3-5, 3-4 NJAC) third in which they were defeated by a touchdown or less.

"The way we're losing games is like an old record that's playing over and over again," said junior guard Josh Jesonowski. "It's similar to how we would lose games last year, and it happened again today."

The Bengals opened the scoring in the first quarter when freshman running back Rich Pete took a screen pass from junior quarterback Casey Kacz and raced 97 yards for a touchdown. The play was one yard short of tying Buffalo State's record for the longest passing play in school history.

The second quarter saw a huge swing in momentum, as Rowan scored three touchdowns to give the team a 21-7 lead. Bengals senior kicker Nick Debbins kicked a 33-yard field goal to cut the lead to 11 points going into halftime.

After a 37-yard touchdown pass from Kacz to sophomore wide receiver Mike Doherty in the third quarter, Rowan answered quickly. Debbins then added another field goal to put the Bengals within eight points heading into the fourth quarter.

Debbins kicked his third field goal of the contest early in the final quarter, a 21-yarder that tied a school record for most field goals in one game.

"Debbins was excellend. Every kick that he took, there wasn't any doubt he would make it," said assistant coach Eugene Lewis. "When we send him out on the field, he's got to score points, and he did a nice job Saturday."

Another touchdown scored by Pete briefly gave the Bengals a 29-28 advantage, but Rowan sophomore quarterback Louie Bianchini threw his fourth touchdown of the game just 39 seconds later to regain the lead.

"Both offenses moved the ball relatively well," Lewis said. "Their quarterback had a good game."

After an exchange of punts, the Bengals had one last chance to escape with a victory, but Kacz was sacked at Rowan's 3-yard line to end the game.

Statistically, the Bengals seemed to overwhelm Rowan. Kacz completed 23 of 36 passes for 379 yards and two scores, while junior linebacker Pasquale Vacchio led the team with 10 tackles. The team also dominated time of possession, holding onto the ball for over 35 minutes.

Even though the Bengals weren't able to record a win, the team was able to re-learn how to deal with adversity, head coach Jerry Boyes said.

"Adversity is going to happen during a season. That's a given," Boyes said. "Win or lose, we'll learn from it and we'll move on."

Another area in which the team has seen growth is at the quarterback position. Since taking over the starting position, Kacz has completed 58 percent of his passes with four passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns.

"You'll see some mistakes from him because he is a first-year starter, but what I haven't seen is him making the same mistake twice," Boyes said. "Casey's doing some great things and is also doing a very good job from a leadership standpoint as well."

Buffalo State's annual meeting with Brockport, the I-90 Bowl, on Saturday, will be the Bengals' final home game of the regular season, and, therefore, the final home game for the team's senior players.

"Brockport is a big rival of ours," Lewis said. "A lot of these kids have played against each other in high school and over the last four years. I wouldn't expect anything but their best efforts."

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