SCHENECTADY - The Utica College football team turned in a valiant effort on Saturday in a non-conference game against Union College. While playing the No. 14 team in the country, the Pioneers hung tough with the Liberty League champions from Union and turned in a one-possession game with the tournament bound Dutchmen in a 13-7 loss at Frank Bailey Field in Schenectady.
The Pioneers fell to 4-5 overall, and will need a win in next week's regular season finale against Hartwick to finish the year with a .500 record. The game was just the latest portion of a challenging schedule for Utica that has pitted the Pioneers against five teams to be ranked or receiving votes in the latest D3Football.com Top 25. Union is now 9-0, and this marked their first win over the Pioneers.
The surging Utica defense held Union to just 329 yards and a season-low 13 points. They held one of the nation's top running backs to just 63 net yards of rushing. Union was just 4-of-15 on third down.
Kwasi Addo (Menands, NY/Shaker) tied a season-high in tackles with fourteen on the day to pace the Utica defense. Defensive Back
Anthony Beaubrun (West Hempstead, NY/West Hempstead) had 13 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss, and linebacker
Antonio Scala (Coram, NY/Longwood) had eleven tackles.
Elijah Belle (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield) had five pass breakups to crack the top ten in school history in that category.
The Utica defense has limited the opposition to a single touchdown for a second consecutive week.
The Utica offense got its strongest performance from wide receiver
Keegan Wright (Cicero, NY/Cicero North Syracuse), who had four catches for 71 yards and Utica's lone touchdown of the day. Quarterback
Ryan VanGalen (Clifton Park, NY/Shenedehowa) made his fourth career start and was 13-of-33 for 138 yards and a touchdown. The Utica ground game was led by
Brad Dougherty (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy), who had 52 net rushing yards.
The teams played to a scoreless opening quarter, but they did each threaten to put up points after putting together drives of over 50 yards. Both teams elected to kick a field goal, with a 21-yard attempt by Union getting blocked by defensive end
Jack Derby (Fonda, NY/Fultonville Fonda), and
Maki Medici (Watervliet, NY/Shaker) recording just his second miss of the season on the ensuing drive as a 45 yard attempt rang off the crossbar and out.
Union strung together two scoring plays late in the second quarter to assume a halftime lead. Will Halpin kicked a 35 yard field goal, and Joseph Ferreira scored on a three yard touchdown run in the waning minutes to put the Dutchmen up 10-0.
The Pioneer defense made its biggest stand of the day in the third quarter. Union got the ball at its own two yard line and embarked on a 98 yard drive. The Pioneers bent, but certainly didn't break as they held four straight times on a goal-to-go situation that ended with a turnover on downs at the two yard line. Utica then turned that momentum into points on a 98 yard drive of its own, as VanGalen hooked up with Wright from 40 yards out to cap an 11 play series and cut the Dutchmen lead to a field goal. Union re-opened the lead to six points on another field goal, and there the score remained as the Pioneers had two late drives stall out shy of midfield, and the Dutchmen held off a remarkable effort to remain undefeated.
The Pioneers will host Senior Day on Saturday, November 16th against Hartwick College.
