Post Classifieds
Bengals fall to defending conference champions, No. 7 Salisbury
By A.J. Speier
On October 2, 2012
After dropping its Empire 8 Conference debut last week, the Buffalo State football team (2-3, 0-2)
followed up with another loss - this time to the defending conference champion, Salisbury.
The Sea Gulls, who came into the game ranked seventh in the D3Football.com poll and 11th in the
American Football Coaches Association, held the Bengals to just 158 yards of total offense en route to
a 20-7 victory. Salisbury had 319 yards of offense with just three pass attempts. They did a majority
of their damage on the ground, finishing with 250 yards on 68 carries, while more than doubling the
Bengals' time of possession (40:16-19:44).
"It's a triple option offense and you know that they're going to grind the ball," head coach Jerry Boyes
said. "Defensively, what you have to do is try to set them off par. If they stay on par, it's going to be for
a long day and we did at times. First of all, I credit our defense. They played extremely hard today and
gave us a chance, but offensively we just didn't answer."
Buffalo State took the opening kickoff and drove down the field after two completed passes from
quarterback Casey Kacz to wide receiver Caesarae Lewis for 34 and 16 yards, but failed to convert on a
fourth-and-9 at the Salisbury 24. The Sea Gulls responded with a 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped
off by a four-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dan Griffin to take an early 7-0 lead.
"It was something different," said defensive end Sean Littlejohn, who had a career-high 13
tackles. "They run the double wing which we've never seen in any of our prior games. They had four
backs that could run the ball - two wings, a fullback and a quarterback.
"You had to watch all four to see where the ball was going. That's how they keep everybody's legs fresh.
You have four ball carriers that can do explosive things with the ball."
Neither team could get much going offensively for the rest of the first quarter. Griffin had to leave the
game early in the second quarter after sustaining an injury and was replaced by backup John Dunbar.
The Sea Gulls were able to extend their lead late in the second quarter after a blocked punt by Joey
Buckley, who picked it up and ran three yards for a touchdown. The extra point attempt was missed by
Jack Molloy, leaving Salisbury up 13-0 with 3:58 left in the second quarter.
"It's disappointing we get another punt blocked for a touchdown," Boyes said. "You take that away, it's
a six point game and we're right there, but we just didn't."
The Bengals started to find a rhythm in their passing game on the ensuing possession, but the drive
ended at the Salisbury 40 after they failed to convert on fourth-and-3, ending the half.
Salisbury went the entire first half without attempting a pass, racking up 117 yards on 30 carries. Buffalo
State struggled to run the ball with -7 yards on 12 carries and just 104 yards of total offense.
The Sea Gulls opened the third quarter with nine straight running plays before attempting their first pass
of the game to set up a fourth-and-4 at the Buffalo State 32. Dunbar tried a quarterback keeper, but
Littlejohn stopped him two yards short of the first down.
"I read my read and came through," Littlejohn said. "The tackle came down and I was coming down. I
got a free release. Somebody was supposed to come and kick on me and I got a free hit on the back.
Maybe it was their mistake. Maybe I got lucky, but all in all, it worked out great and got them off the
field."
Buffalo State running back Rich Pete ripped off a 16-yard run on the next possession, but a 15-yard
personal foul call killed the Bengals' momentum. They went three-and-out.
Salisbury's offense fooled the Bengals with a 59-yard play-action touchdown pass from Dunbar to
running back Michael Copenhaver to take a 20-0 lead with 5:53 left in the third quarter.
Buffalo State followed up with another three-and out, but was setup in better field position after
cornerback Jeff Moore blocked a 42-yard Molloy field goal attempt and linebacker/safety Jordan Boser
returned it to the Salisbury 10. Kacz scored on the next play on a 10- yard quarterback keeper to cut the
deficit to 20-7 with 11:16 left in the game.
Neither team could do much on offense the rest of the game as the Sea Gulls worked the clock with
their ground attack. Kacz was picked-off by linebacker Kevin Costello with 3:02 left to seemingly end the
game.
"The middle linebacker made a great play and he jumped up and tipped it," Kacz said. "When the ball
floats in the air like that, it's always dangerous and it was bound to happen eventually. That was the
second pass they tipped that drive."
Kacz finished the game completing 13-of-30 for 143 yards with an interception and a rushing
touchdown. Linebacker Pasquale Vacchio led the defense with 15 tackles, followed by Littlejohn's 13
and Tyler Krempa's 12.
"We need to come out next week and score on our first drive because that sets the tone for the game,
Kacz said. "If we go behind, offensively we feel like we're battling back and that starts with us. We got
the ball the first two times the last two games and we didn't capitalize by scoring first.
"Our defense played a great game today only allowing 14 points. Offensively, 7 points isn't going to get
it done. We need a lot more points than that."
The Bengals will try to avoid a three-game losing streak when they host Utica at noon on Saturday.
A.J. Speier can be reached by email at speier.record@live.com.
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