The football team’s threegame winning streak came to an end Saturday when they lost 55- 24 to Albany.
“I think Albany proved they are an outstanding football team and they proved why they are getting votes for the top 25,” head coach Kevin Callahan said. “This game was completely onesided, they were in control of the game from the start.”
Kyle Frazier completed 33 of 51 passes for 289 yards including two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Hawks (3-2, 2-1) were never able to establish a running game. Julian Hayes was the team’s leading rusher. The sophomore running back carried the ball 12 times for 23 yards and a touchdown. As a team, MU ran the ball 27 times for 51 yards.
Tyler George led the receiving group with seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. George has 111 career receptions, which places him fourth all-time in the University’s history.
Neal Sterling caught MU’s other touchdown. He had three catches for 48 yards.
Lamar Davenport tallied five catches for 30 yards. Tristan Roberts added four catches for 55 yards.
The defense was able to bring down Will Flacchi for one sack. Eric Macik dropped him for a 15-yard loss.
Dave Damirgian led the Hawks in tackles with eight. Colin Cooper accounted for five tackles on the day and also forced a fumble.
The Blue and White jumped out to a 7-0 lead over The Great Danes (4-1, 2-0) early in the first quarter. A 12-play 82-yard drive finished with a 24-yard touchdown pass from Frazier to George. This would be MU’s only lead of the day.
Albany didn’t do anything with the first three plays of their first drive, but trickery on fourth-and-10 changed the game. Kevin Chillis ran the fake punt 77 yards for a touchdown to tie the game at seven. From here on, Albany dominated.
Flacchi completed 15 of 28 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns. His long of the day was an 81-yard touchdown strike to Ryan Kirchner to put The Great Danes ahead 14-7.
Kirchner caught five passes on the day for 121 yards and the touchdown.
Later in the first quarter, Drew Smith put Albany ahead 21-7 with a 61-yard touchdown run. He had 16 carries in the game for 102 yards and three touchdowns.
The Northeast Conference (NEC) rivals traded field goals in the second quarter to go into halftime with Albany leading 24-10.
Eric Spillane’s 38-yard field goal set the record for all-time kicks made at the University. Spillane has connected on 32 kicks so far in his career. The Hawks were able to get within 10 points at the end of the third quarter.
Frazier hit Sterling for a 38- yard touchdown with 4:10 left in the third to make the score 34-17.
On the ensuing kickoff, Cooper was able to force a fumble and give the Hawks the ball back when Tyler Verga recovered at the Albany 25-yard line.
Less than three minutes later, Hayes ran in from one-yard away to make the score 34-24 with 1:19 remaining before the fourth quarter.
This was as far as the Monmouth comeback would go.
“We made a little bit of a push to get ourselves back in there in the beginning of the fourth quarter but after closing to within 10 we weren’t able to capitalize on anything after that,” Callahan said.
Early in the fourth, Flacchi hit Chillis for a 44-yard touchdown to put Albany ahead 41-24.
In addition to the 77-yard fake punt, Chillis caught three passes for 63 yards and a touchdown.
The Great Danes added two more touchdowns later in the fourth quarter. Smith ran for a seven-yard touchdown and Presley Beauvais scored on a 67-yard run with just over a minute remaining in the game to give Albany 55 points.
The Hawks have a week off to try and right the ship. They travel to Cornell for their next game on October 13 at 12:30 pm. Their next home game is October 20 for Homecoming.
Albany is tied with Duquesne atop the NEC. The Great Danes travel to Bryant next week.
