Manchester, NH – For the night cap of our DIII/D2 New England Double-header, the Hawks of St. Anselm’s defeated their Granite State rivals Ravens of Franklin pierce, 21-0. The Hawks led in early in the second, 7-0. The turning point took place when Raven QB Parker had to be carried off the field with a leg injury. He never returned. Despite this, credit the FPU defense with keeping the game close. They blocked a field goal and made a goal line stand.
St. Anslem QB Drew Forkner threw for 191 yards and a TD. Alternate QB Ronan Noke carried the ball over twice for scores. Forkner’s pass went 20 yards to Domingo Meade for a score, Anthony Almeida of the Hawks led all rushers on the day with 86 yards on 18 carries. This was out first trip ever to At. Anselm’s Grappone Stadium. Nice bucolic trip from Vermont to New Hampshire. Saw a lot of dried out riverbeds exposing large stones due to the lack of rain in New England. Not as colorful this Fall as usual as told by locals
At the stadium, I ran into the typical technology issues – buying a ticket digitally. Needed to add credit card and personal information into my mobile phone to buy one ticket. Something so simple is now so complicated. People were helpful and understanding as I’m an old, tech-challenged senior citizen now. Got it done. Got a chair-backed seat in a nice small school venue. However, I miss paper tickets and actual programs with rosters I can read and collect. Don’t get me started on the benefits of A.I. Dread it.
St. Anslem’s gets quick break
Franklin Pierce took the first kickoff. On their second play, they fumbled the ball away. DB Thomas Hoffman recovered on the Raven 35. Two plays later, Ronan Noke took it in from five tor the 7-0 Hawk lead. Later in the period, Franklin Pierced fumbled again at the St. Anselm 11. The Hawks took over on their 10.
Into the second period they drove into scoring position. However, the Ravens blocked Michael Guarnieri’s 43-yard FG attempt and took over on their 29. On this subsequent possession, Raven QB Aidan Parker got carried off the field. Keving Leal (7 of 18, 70 yards, 2 INTs) replaced him. He looked inexperienced. FPU punted from its 29.
Starting from the 28, Forkner moved the Hawks down field mostly through the air to the Raven 20. There, he connected with Meade. They widened the lead 14-0 with 8:28 left in the half. Leal started the next FPU with a no-huddle, but they couldn’t sustain it. At the 20, St. Anselm’s took over on downs. SAU moved the ball for a fourth and two at the 28. Forkner picked up four for a first, A sack by Geno Fachetti and a holding call moved the Hawks back. Eventually they got back to the 29. With one second left, Guarieni’s field goal attempt went wide as the first half came to a close.
Defenses battle to keep game close
It looked like St. Anselm’s fumbled the ball away to open the second half. However, the call was surprisingly reversed for an incomplete forward pass. Franklin Pierce started its next possession on the 29. DB Dev Lee picked off a Leal pass to put St. Anselm’s back in business on their 34. They drove all the way to the FPU six. The Hawks tried to crack through the line on four consecutive plays: 3 yards, 1 yard, no yards and then, -2. Goal line stand by the Ravens. The defense kept them in this game while their offense endured a learning curve with an inexperienced quarterback.
In the final period, the Ravens punted away again for their 16. The Raven defense recovered a hawk fumble at the 20. Of course, they went nowhere from there. Funny thing at this point: a St. Anslem fan nearby commented, “Our defense is keeping us in this game.” If he hadn’t noticed, the Franklin Pierce D did exactly that as well.
Sure enough, sack by Hawk LB Nick Darling. The two teams exchanged the ball again on an interception, two fumbles on the same play, and an eventual turnover on downs by Franklin Pierce. This started the next Hawk drive at the Raven 33. Ayden Jones’ run to the 15 followed by an FPU personal foul put the Hawks at the eight. Franklin Pierce stiffened. On third and goal, Noke came in to finish the drive to extend the lead to 21-0 with 1:54 left. St. Anselm’s moved on to 4-2, 3-1 and Franklin Pierce fell to 3-3, 2-2 respectively. Both teams compete in the D2 NorthEast 10 Conference.
Coming up in Week Eight
St. Anselm’s’ remains home at the friendly confines of Grappone Stadium next week to take on NE 10 foe Assumption (0-5, 0-4). Franklin Pierce heads back on the road to farther reaches in Frankfort, Kentucky. There, they meet the Thorobreds of Kentucky State (5-2, 5-1), a member of The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic association.
For Collegefootballfan.com: A tribute and on to see FBS Team # 136
The following Tuesday, we attended Arkansas State at South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. However, that’s not the only reason we want to visit Mobile. We intend to pay tribute to our late, great friend and all-time San Diego State Aztec fan and Alum, Tom Ables. He served aboard the USS Alabama in the US Navy in WWII. Since his discharge after the war, starting in 1946, he attended 788 SDSU games up until the week before he passed away at the age of 91 in 2017. Have to go down and visit his old engine room on board his ship. He visited his old station at the Battleship Memorial he went on board to visit it again when his Aztecs played at South Alabama in 2016. Looking forward to that visit.
After Mobile, we travel north from there to add the University Delaware as team # 136 in Jacksonville, Alabama against those “copy-cat” Gamecocks as my South Carolina grad daughter refers to them. And on Saturday, we’ll be at Auburn for some SEC action when the AU Tigers host the Missouri Tigers currently ranked no. 14 in the nation. With our friends the Murrens and many of their still close college friends and family, we’ll be cheering for their Auburn Tigers to spring the upset.
Finishing up136 teams – there’s a lot of history to share on how this was done
Click on the title of my book about this life-long adventure: Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun, and the Ugly on Amazon.com. Read the reviews on the book page and get your copy today! If you’re trying to follow NILs and transfer portals, read what we predicted in 2023 and more. You’ll see we know what we’re talking about. In addition, we offered solutions to issues occurring that we anticipated when we wrote this book. Based on our game story above, this fun, unique life-long Journey continues. Catch up on the last 45 years, and then please submit a review. We hope you will get a kick out of our great adventure having seen almost every FBS team play over the years!
