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Hawks earn first victory

MANCHESTER – The Saint Anselm College football team limited American International College to 5 yards rushing during Saturday’s 29-21 victory at Grappone Stadium.

The Hawks improved to 1-2 and won their first Northeast-10 Conference contest of the season. The Yellow Jackets dropped to 0-3 (0-1 NE-10).

The Hawks churned out 406 total yards of offense (311 passing). Sophomore Tariq-Ali Felton recorded the first touchdown of his career, joining senior Eric Fairweather (Londonderry) on the ledger with rushing scores for the Hawks. Junior Shawn Donovan  joined freshman Christian Matthews-Byrd with touchdown receptions.

Saint Anselm scored first off of a 25-yard field goal from senior Daniel Parisi.

Thanks to a lengthy kick-off return by Fabian Thames, American International answered right back with a 25-yard touchdown reception by Lennox Green, Jr. to hand the hosts a 7-3 lead only nine seconds after Parisi put his team in front. On the very first play of a later drive, Green, Jr. hauled in a 70-yard catch for a touchdown to create a 14-3 lead for the Yellow Jackets.

Felton’s first collegiate touchdown was a 1-yard sprint with 4:06 left to go in the first quarter, capping a 12-play, 75-yard drive by the Hawks that was highlighted by a 23-yard catch by junior Nicholas Fiorillo to keep the offensive momentum going. Despite a failed point-after, Saint Anselm shrunk the visitors lead to 14-9 near the end of the first quarter.

Fairweather threw for his first touchdown of the game with 7:45 to go in the first half, connecting with Donovan on his first career touchdown reception (50 yards) to put the Hawks ahead by a 15-14 margin. Matthews-Byrd racked up 26 rushing yards on the scoring drive alone and was aided by a key first-down catch by senior Kyle Hill.

Matthews-Byrd put the Hawks on the scoreboard once again, catching a 30-yard touchdown pass from Fairweather with 1:18 left in the first half. Falling back to the Hawks 37-yard line, Fairweather picked up huge chunks of yardage with completions to Fiorillo and Hill before the lengthy pass to Matthews-Byrd to give his team a 22-14 lead following Parisi’s 50th career point after.

Following a 65-yard kick by Parisi after the scoring play, the Yellow Jackets threw an interception with 1:04 left in the first half as senior Nick Giordano  picked off his first career pass and returned it seven yards to set up yet another Hawks score. With only 40 yards to go, back-to-back Matthews-Byrd rushes preceded a 21-yard catch by freshman Andrew Duval (Goffstown) to set up a 5-yard rushing score by Fairweather.

Ahead by a 29-14 lead at the break, neither team found the end zone in a third quarter that saw only 96 yards of combined offense. The Hawks were only 2-for-14 through the air coming out of halftime and both teams had to punt four times.

American International made things interesting with 10:52 to go in regulation time, capping a 12-play, 85-yard drive with a 17-yard touchdown pass by Prince Olubakinda to Olivier Georges.

Each team had one final offensive drive in the game’s final 10 minutes. The Yellow Jackets drained 5:59 off the clock and ended up turning the ball over on downs at the Hawks 30-yard line after gaining only 27 net yards.

Saint Anselm entered clock-draining mode on offense, never relinquishing possession with Hill, Donovan, Fiorillo and Matthews-Byrd hauling in short passes while keeping the chains moving. The Hawks picked up two much-needed first downs and in the game’s final eight seconds, Fairweather sprinted around the field and threw the ball out of bounds as time expired.

Junior CJ Miller led Saint Anselm with 12 tackles while senior Zack Mercer had nine tackles, including two-and-a-half for a combined loss of 14 yards. In total, the Hawks had 12 tackles for a net loss of 58 yards. Giordano finished with three pass breakups and had his team’s lone interception. Sophomore Ryan Sullivan had seven tackles, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

Olubakinda finished the game with 298 passing yards, completing 22-of-46 passes and throwing for three touchdowns. Samad Davila, an All-Rookie team selection by the NE10, was limited to only 23 yards on eight carries. Christian Dargan had a game-long kick return of 38 yards for the Yellow Jackets.

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