Football Has Another Offensive Day In 34-30 Win At East Stroudsburg
Box Score
EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. (Oct. 15, 2011) – C.W. Post rallied to win its fourth straight game as it pushed aside East Stroudsburg, 34-30, in a Saturday afternoon PSAC East matchup at Eiler-Martin Stadium.
C.W. Post improves to 4-3 overall and 4-0 in the PSAC East, tying with Bloomsburg, who defeated Shippensburg, 38-18, for the lead in the division. East Stroudsburg drops its sixth straight loss and falls to 1-6 overall and 0-4 in division play.
Redshirt freshman
Steven Laurino (Boise, Idaho) had a career day as he completed 23 of 31 pass attempts for 332 yards and three touchdowns and ran for an additional 131 yards to lead the Pioneer offense.
The Warriors got on the board first with 11:57 to play in the first quarter when Taylor Groff's 43-yard field goal attempt sailed through the uprights.
The Pioneers answered back when with a 37-yard completed pass from Laurino to sophomore wide receiver
Kyle Hardy (Matawan, N.J.) with 6:12 to play in the quarter. The drive started when
Rob Bright intercepted a pass from quarterback Ray Wagner and returned it to ESU's 30-yard line.
The Warriors were back on top in their next drive as Ray Wagner completed a 73-yard pass to Jordan Hallman with 4:47 to play.
The Pioneers were close to scoring their second touchdown at the end of the first but the Warrior D-line held up and kept them out of the endzone.
The missed opportunity proved costly as the Warriors scored another touchdown early in the second quarter as Robert Bleiler caught a 61-yard pass and dodged the tackle and coasted into the endzone.
The offense kept rolling for East Stroudsburg as the hosts furthered their lead to 23-7 when Hallman caught his second TD of the day for 75 yards.
C.W. Post regained its composure midway through the second and reeled off three straight scores, beginning with a 33-yard completion from sophomore
Joe Botti (Holtsville, N.Y.) at 8:56.
Then, with 1:58 left to play, sophomore running back
Jeff Mack (Bronx, N.Y.) rushed in from the 18-yard line to cut the lead down to 23-21 in favor of the Warriors.
The final touchdown of the half was scored with seven seconds remaining on the game clock and Laurino zipped and dodged tackles and scrambled to let loose a hail mary pass from the 44-yard line that fell into the steady hands of Botti in the endzone, causing an eruption of celebrating on the Pioneer sidelines as the clock wound down. C.W. Post had a 28-23 lead.
At the half, Laurino had 198 passing yards on 14 completions. Botti caught three of those for 89 yards and two touchdowns while Kyle also had three passes for 59 yards. Mack amassed 65 rushing yards and one touchdown.
In the third quarter, the Pioneers added three more as freshman
Marc Montana (East Amherst, N.Y.) kicked a 21-yard field goal at 10:19 to increase the Pioneers' lead to 31-23.
The game went without a score for the next eight minutes of play before ESU scored a touchdown on a Thomas Tippett 1-yard run at 2:13 that slimmed C.W. Post's lead down to 31-30.
In the fourth quarter, the Pioneer defense, who had already made three interceptions for 85 yards that included a 50-yard return from senior defensive tackle
Lou Scala (Coram, N.Y.), forced another turnover when junior cornerback
Ciwan McCoy (North Babylon, N.Y.) intercepted another pass attempt from Wagner at the CWP42 that started up another Post drive. The Pioneers brought the ball down to the ESU before Montana kicked his second field goal of the day to record the game's final score.
C.W. Post totaled 536 yards of offense on 86 plays and maintained possession for 38:33 minutes on the game clock. East Stroudsburg amassed 527 yards on 55 plays.
Aside from Laurino, other Pioneers had terrific game stats. Botti finished with eight catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns while Mack finished with 102 yards on 23 rushes.
The Pioneer defense finished with five interceptions totaling 85 yards. Senior inside linebacker
Billy O'Connor (Sayville, N.Y.) led with six tackles.
ESU's Hallman led the game in receiving yards with five catches for 239 yards. Wagner completed 24 of 40 pass attempts for 503 yards and three touchdowns. Thomas Chesko led the Warrior defense with a game-high 14 tackles, including a six-yard sack.
The loss to the Pioneers was as spoiler of sorts to East Stroudsburg head coach Denny Dowds, tied the all-time record for games coached in Division II at 393 games. Likewise, C.W. Post head coach
Bryan Collins coached in his 150th career game.
C.W. Post returns home next Saturday to host Kutztown at 1 p.m. The game will coincide with C.W. Post's “Homecoming” weekend festivities.