Football falls to Central Connecticut State

The snap and hold were good, but Central Connecticut State University blasting off the left side of the line hit Greg Guttas’ low, slow point after attempt. The ricochet bounced into Central Connecticut’s Dominique Rose’s arms, and he ran the ball 97 yards back for the two points.

Suddenly, the point most taken for granted swung the momentum from Columbia (1-1) to CCSU (2-1), even though the Lions still led the game, 13-2. The Lions would go on to lose the game, 22-13, and dropped to 1-1.

“I think we needed to have done a better job of not letting it get to us like it did,” senior quarterback Millicent Olawale said, referring to the point.
The Lions exploded in the first quarter against the Blue Devils on Saturday. Their first drive took just a little over a minute, as they went 41 yards, capping off the drive with a one-yard touchdown by Ray Rangel to give Columbia a 7-0 lead.

“If I had to guess, in the first quarter they had a lot more energy and they outhustled us,” Blue Devils head coach Jeff McInerney said.
A defensive stop gave the ball back to the Lions, but it was on their own two-yard line. Rangel got the ball again, this time rushing for 49 yards and bringing the Lions out beyond midfield. Another 32-yard run by the senior running back brought Columbia into the red zone, but the Lions’ field goal attempt was blocked in what would be the first of many special team errors.

Rangel gained 102 yards in the first quarter as the Lions led 7-0. Another drive jump-started by Olawale’s 35-yard pass to senior wide receiver Austin Knowlin finished with two connecting again, this time on an 11-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone. Olawale ended the day 12-for-21 for 149 yards, with Knowlin hauling in eight of those passes for 73 yards.

After Knowlin’s touchdown, the blocked extra point factored in and what should have been a 14-0 lead turned into a 13-2 score. The Lions would end up having an extra point attempt, a punt, and a field goal blocked.

“You don’t deserve to win. You get three kicks blocked? It’s hard enough to win when you get one kick blocked,” Lions head coach Norries Wilson said. “It changed the complexion of the football game. It should’ve been 14-0, and ended up 13-2.”

Then came the real deciding factor of the game: McInerney’s decision to put in Aubrey Norris in place of starting quarterback Hunter Wanket. Norris entered with 3:51 left in the half and spent all but 30 seconds of that time engineering a drive that ended with a 28-yard scramble for a touchdown. Their point went off without a hitch, and the Lions’ lead was cut to 13-9.

“I made the smart decision to make a quarterback switch,” McInerney said. “I thought Aubrey was the difference in the game.”
CCSU was then able to implement its game plan in the second half, which involved getting the previously contained rushing attack off the ground. The Lions had held senior running back James Mallory to 42 yards in the first half, excluding the last drive by Norris. In the second half, the Blue Devils gave the ball to seven different backs, plus Norris, for a combined 183 yards on the ground.

“Sometimes you just have to be patient,” Mallory said. “It’s not always going to be there. It’s not always going to be roses in the beginning. You’ve just got to keep chopping and keep chopping and keep chopping and hopefully something will open up for you.”

The Blue Devils had the ball for 21:30 minutes in the second half, and after returning the point in the second quarter, they scored 22 unanswered points.
“We couldn’t tackle them,” senior linebacker Corey Cameron said. “It’s kind of hard to stop the run when you can’t tackle, so it’s something we’ve got to work on.”

CCSU effectively contained Olawale, as coach McInerney had two guys spying the usually elusive quarterback. They did their job, keeping Olawale to negative five yards on nine carries, while recording three sacks on the senior.

Game changer Aubrey Norris finished the day with an amazing 8-8-0 and 75 yards on the ground.

“He did a fantastic job, all credit to Central Connecticut,” Wilson said. “They came out in the second half and just stuck it right in our faces. The kid [Norris] did a great job. We didn’t deserve to win, and we didn’t do anything to deserve to win. It could’ve been more lopsided than it was.”