Albany, N.Y. - Junior Dean Mercuris finished with four tackles, a sack for a four-yard loss and one forced fumble to lead the defense to a 69-24 over the offense in UAlbany football's annual Spring Game, held on Saturday afternoon at University Field. The squad completed 102 plays in the controlled scrimmage.
On the defensive side of the ball, freshman Nick Beach finished with a 25-yard interception return and recorded a tackle, while sophomore safety Justinian Mason added one tackle and an interception with a 26-yard return. Junior linebacker Dave Plungas recorded one sack for a 10-yard loss, and finished with one tackle, while freshman safety Ian Blair recorded two tackles and a 10-yard fumble recovery. Freshman defensive lineman Mike Smith finished with three of the defensive squad's 10 sacks. The Great Danes totaled 56 tackles and four interceptions.
Buddy Leathly led the quarterbacks, going 6-of-13 for 62 total yards, including a long pass of 49 yards to wide receiver Kevin Chillis. Will Fiacchi went 6-of-16 for 46 yards, with a long of 15 yards, also to Chillis. Freshman Ryan Smith completed four passes for 43 yards, as he ended the scrimmage with back-to-back passes of 12 and 30 yards, respectively. Ryan Spelman went 2-of-7 on the day for 13 yards, with a long of eight yards to Nate Papso.
Chillis led the UAlbany receivers with 72 yards on four receptions on the day. Ryan Kirchner picked up seven yards on two catches, while Cole King totaled 23 yards on two receptions, including a 12-yard pass from Leathly. Seven other players had catches for the offense, including freshman Pat O'Connor, who caught Smith's 30-yard pass at the end of the game. Omar Osbourne and Karl Allison led the UAlbany rushers, with 78 and 41 total yards, respectively. Osbourne posted a long run of 12 yards, while Allison had two runs of 10 yards. King had one rushing attempt for 30 yards, while Fiacchi had the longest run of the quarterback corps with a five-yard rush.
The UAlbany kickers were led by Paul Layton, who totaled 134 punting yards on three attempts. Layton also went 1-for-1 on field goal attempts. Sean Kenney punted twice for 105 yards and went 1-for-2 on field goal attempts. Freshman Tom O'Riordan connected on a 30-yard field goal as well.
"I think we made too many mistakes," said UAlbany head coach Bob Ford, who will be entering his 40th varsity season this fall. "There were some simple interceptions and turnovers, mostly on balls we shouldn't have thrown. The defense played well overall, but I am a bit concerned with our pass protection. We answered some questions, but not all of them. The rest we will have to answer in preseason. We came out healthy, which is our number one priority."
