District College Football Recap for Saturday, August 30th

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, September 1, 2013 | 12:31 AM

The college football season opened in Western Pennsylvania with a light schedule as teams in the PSAC and PAC open up next week.

The NEC opened play this weekend, Duquesne picked up a home victory and Robert Morris went on the road to meet a nationally ranked team.

Here are recaps from both games:

Duquesne 35 – Albany 24
It was a pair of former Montour stars helping to lead the Dukes to a home field victory on Saturday on the Bluff. Redshirt freshman linebacker Aaron Reed opened the scoring with a safety and fellow freshman Dillon Buechel threw for 309 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Dukes.

Reed’s safety came on the first play from scrimmage when Kevin Chillis was tackled for a 13 yards loss. After the free kick, Duquesne scored on a Ryan Ho two yard run.

Leading 9-3 late in the second quarter, Ho scored on a 24 yard run, capping a 74 yard drive. But Albany QB Will Fiacchi found Chillis for a 35 yard touchdown with 22 seconds left in the half to cut the Duquesne lead to 16-10 at the break.

Duquesne blew the game open early in the third quarter, as Sean Brady made a leaping one handed catch for a 27 yard touchdown, the Dukes forced a turnover and Buechel took advantage, nailing Gianni Carter for a 29 yard scoring strike and a 29-10 lead. Fiacchi hit Chillis for a 35 yard score. Austin Crimmins kicked his first career field goal, a 30 yarder  to extend the lead again to 15.

Omar Osbourne scored on a two yard run with 6:33 remaining, making a one-possession game. The Dukes were able to run over three minutes off the clock before punting to the Albany 8 yard line. Five plays later, Rich Piekarski stepped in front of a Fiacchi pass and returned the pick to the Albany 10. Crimmins kicked a 22 yard field goal for the final margin.

Buechel was 21 of 28 and two touchdowns in his NCAA debut. Carter had six catches for 103 yards, Dave Thomas grabbed five passes for 107 yards. Ho carried 23 times for 76 yards and the two scores. Fiacchi threw for 346 yards on 27 of 45, Chillis had nine catches for 135 yards.

Eastern Kentucky 38 – Robert Morris 6
Number 19 Eastern Kentucky rolled to the home win on Thursday night over the Colonials. QB Jared McClain ran for two touchdowns and threw for two more as EKU racked up 401 yards of offense.

The Colonels scored on four of their first five possessions to lead 28-6 at the half. McClain tossed a 10 yard td pass to Ike Ariguzo and ran for a one yard touchdown in the first quarter. EKU capped a 7 play 76 yard drive with a McClain td pass of 2 yards to Nathan Watts. Robert Morris used a long drive of their own, going 12 plays and 75 yards in over six minutes as former Sto-Rox star Paul Jones hit freshman Alex Caratelli for a 20 yard touchdown with 1:56 left in the half. But Eastern Kentucky scored with just two seconds left on a Caleb Watkins two yard run to go up 28-6 at the half.

McClain tacked on a six yard run in the fourth and the Colonels added a field goal to end the scoring. Jones turned the ball over twice in the second half, ending RMU drives.

Robert Morris was held to just 55 yards on the ground. Jones was 16 of 28 in his Robert Morris debut for 177 yards, Dontae Jeter and Duane Mitchell each caught five passes. McClain was 16 of 21 for 155 yards.