Miscues tell the tale in Aquinas loss to Friendship Collegiate, 34-27 in OT

By PAUL LIOTTI

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In an uncharacteristic afternoon, mistakes, miscues in the kicking game, and lack of ball security conspired to sink Aquinas in a 34-27 overtime loss to Friendship Collegiate Academy of Washington DC.

The Irish, who had turned the ball over just 2 times in its previous 4 games, turned over the ball 4 times to the opportunistic Eagle squad, including fumbling away the ball on their first play in overtime to end the game.

“You want to play well in every game, but we made too many mistakes,” AQ coach Derek Annechino said. “I made too many mistakes; I owe it to these kids to be better. We were ready in some facets of the game but not others.”

The game turned in the third quarter. Three FCA series started inside the AQ 15 yard line due to Irish miscues, and all three ended in touchdowns for the Knights which flipped a 20-7 deficit into a 27-27 tie.

On the first series of the second half, AQ mishandled a punt and FCA recovered on the 14. Three plays later QB Dyson Smith hit Jaiden Riddick from 7 yards out on the first of 3 TD fade passes between the two. FCA held on the next Irish possession and when the Irish punt snap sailed over Szalkowski’s head, the Knights were back in business on the 8. Two plays later it was another Smith-Riddick fade for another score. Kobe McNair blocked the point-after try and the Li’l Irish were clinging to a 20-19 lead.

AQ stole some of the momentum back by answering with a 4-play drive covering 71 yards, 51 coming through the air on Szalkowski to McNair, the last 12 for the score pushing the lead back to 8 at 27-19.

“That’s just a kid who can make plays and we knew that coming in,” Annechino said. “We adjusted and double-covered him, but their quarterback put the ball in the only place they could catch it all three times.”

After AQ held FCA, the Knights regained the edge when Szalkowski threw his 2^nd interception of the year which was returned 30 yards to the Irish 12-yard line. JaQuan Blake found the end zone moments later, then ran in the 2-point conversion to tie the game at 27-all with less than a minute left in the third quarter.

Aquinas (4-1) slowly took over the game with their longest drive of the year. After FCA tied the game, the Irish embarked on an 18-play drive starting on their own 27. Two huge plays in the drive were connections from Szalkowski to McNair on third down. The rest of the drive was all on the ground. But facing 3^rd-and-goal from inside the 1-yard line, AQ fumbled the ball just as it got near the end zone. The long drive which consumed 9 minutes came up empty with 3:19 left in the game.

“We knew they were good and weren’t going to lay down especially when we took the lead at halftime,” Annechino said. “They made plays when they had to and we didn’t. But this is on me. We didn’t prepare the kids well-enough. We will learn from this and move on. We have a big game against McQuaid coming up and can’t dwell on this one.”

In overtime, FCA scored on the third fade pass from Smith to Riddick, this time from 10 yards out.

Aquinas could not answer and fumbled away the game on the first play of their overtime possession.

“For the first time in a long time we ran into a team that could out-athlete us,” Annechinno said. “There isn’t a team around here as good as that team. Give them all the credit, but we didn’t help ourselves.”

Friendship, which hails out of the nation’s capital, has speed and size and plays a schedule that includes national powerhouse Dematha out of Baltimore, a team FCA narrowly lost to last week, 27-18.

Aquinas took a quick 14-0 lead, as the opening drive of the game covered 71 yards in 7 plays. It ended when Szalkowski’s perfect floater dropped into Ulysees Russell’s hands from 30-yards out. On the next series, the Irish took a 14-0 lead scored as Rueben Torres cut back at the line of scrimmage and scampered 19 yards for the score late in the first quarter.

Torres, the top tailback in the Irish attack while Caron Robinson is out injured, found tough running all afternoon. But by halftime his day was over after carrying the ball 4 times for 35 yards with an unspecified injury.

“Rueben got a little dinged up and we decided to sit him,” Annechino said.

It’s unclear when he will return, which will put pressure on the young Irish running crew. Robinson may not be back until Sectionals.

FCA finally got on the board midway through the second half on a Blake 17-yard run as he powered through several broken tackles.

But AQ engineered a text-book just before halftime. It took over with 1:29 left at its own 15. Szalkowski completed his last 4-of-5 passes for 90 yards to 4 different receivers, the last pass connecting with James Jones for 12 yards. But the PAT was off the mark and AQ took the 20-7 lead into halftime.

For the game, Szalkowski finished 15-of-32 for 246 yards and 3 scores. Damon Montgomery led the ground attack with 14 carries for 51 yards. McNair finished with another 100-yard receiving game, snaring 6 balls for 141 yards.

The Irish defense limited the Eagles to just 219 yards – 121 through the air and 98 on the ground (3.0 yards per carry).

 

FCA	0	6	21	0	7	34
Aquinas	14	6	7	0	0	27

 

Scoring
Aquinas	Ulysees Russell 30 pass from Tyler Szalkowski (Joe Bronco kick)
Aquinas	Rueben Torres 19 run (Joe Bronco kick)
FCA	JaQuan Blake 17 run (kick failed)
Aquinas	James Jones 12 pass from Tyler Szalkowski (kick blocked)
FCA	Jaiden Riddick 7 pass from Dyson Smith (Brandon Chase kick)
FCA	Jaiden Riddick 8 pass from Dyson Smith (kick blocked)
Aquinas	Kobe McNair 12 pass from Tyler Szalkowski (Joe Bronco kick)
FCA	JaQuan Blake 10 run (Blake run)
FCA	Jaiden Riddick 10 pass from Dyson Smith (Brandon Chase kick)
Rushing
FCA	JaQuan Blake 9-64, Kevon Campbell 13-43, Hasan Mosley 1-10, Jaiden Riddick 1-4, Dyson Smith 6-(-5), Donald Monroe 1-(-5), Brandon Chase 1-(-13)
Aquinas	Damon Montomgery 14-51, Rueben Torres 4-35, Will Benjamin 7-19, Tyler Szalkowski 7-(-30)
Passing
FCA	Dyson Smith 14-24-121-3-0
Aquinas	Tyler Szalkowski 15-32-246-3-1
Receiving
FCA	Jaiden Riddick 5-45, Rezin Richardson 4-36, Hasan Mosley 3-22, Donald Monroe 2-18
Aquinas	Kobe McNair 6-141, Ulysees Russell 2-66, James Jones 4-40, Rueben Torres 3-(-1)