FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 22, 2001

HAWKS FOOTBALL MOVES TO 2-0 FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Monmouth University reaped the benefits of two long plays as the Hawks defeated Central Connecticut State University 20-14 Saturday afternoon at Arute Field in New Britain, Conn.

The victory gave Monmouth a 2-0 record for the first time in the history of the program and gave the Hawks its fourth consecutive win.

“It is good to be 2-0,” head coach Kevin Callahan said. “It was a hard fought victory. We didn’t take advantage of a lot of opportunities and you can never be happy about turning the ball over four times in the opponents’ territory, but we played hard on all sides of the ball and we were able to overcome the mistakes. It is easy to win the games in which you don’t make any mistakes, but ever now and then you have to find a way to win games like this one, where you do make some mistakes.”

Monmouth got on the board first as Bill Rankin hit Matt Sosnovik for a 16-yard touchdown pass to cap off an eight-play, 65-yard drive with 7:55 remaining in the first quarter.

The Blue Devils appeared to have a partial answer for the score on the next drive, but Brian Frederick’s 36-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right. Both teams’ exchanged three-and-out series before Monmouth’s next scoring strike. The Hawks started the drive at their own 19-yard line and a 22-yard pass to from Rankin to Jay Roach and a loss of one yard by Kenneth Edmundson set up a 60-yard touchdown scamper by Chad Smith with six seconds left in the opening stanza. Ryan Peterson missed the extra-point giving the Hawks a 13-0 lead. Smith finished the day with a team-high 78 yards rushing on just six carries.

Central Connecticut State closed the gap to six points as the Blue Devils went on a six-play, 76-yard drive. The drive featured four runs by Major Cole and an 18-yard pass from Scott Dolch to Michael Ewart. Dolch completed the drive with a 46-yard TD strike to Nick Dresko with 12:10 left in the first half to cut the margin to 13-7.

Both teams struggled on their next couple of possessions as both defenses began to apply pressure to the run and the pass. With 5:02 left in the first half, the Hawks took advantage of the Blue Devils intense pass rush as Rankin dumped a screen pass to Matt Merklinger who followed a convoy of blockers 73 yards for a touchdown to give Monmouth a 20-7 cushion heading into the intermission.

“The screen pass to Matt (Merklinger) was a big play for us,” Callahan said. “We ran a similar play to that last year against Central Connecticut and he scored on a 53-yard play. They were really coming at us with the pressure which set up an ideal situation to run the play again.”

The Hawks had opportunities to add points in the second half, but a Merklinger fumble at the Blue Devils’ 4-yard line and a pair of interceptions thrown by Rankin in CCSU territory defused the Hawks’ arsenal.

Central tried to make a game of it down the stretch as Dolch hit Mike Malone for a 14-yard TD pass with 2:56 remaininto trim the lead to 20-14 with 2:56 remaining in the contest. Merklinger recovered the on-side kick attempt, but Monmouth’s offense failed to get a first down and was forced to punt with 1:51 remaining. Four consecutive pass attempts by Dolch led to three incompletions and a three yard pass, giving the Hawks the ball for the final 1:12.

Monmouth returns to action on Saturday, September 29 as the Hawks host Canisius College in a 1 p.m. contest at Kessler Field.