Football Strikes First But Falls In First FBS Game, 51-14, At Buffalo
GAME STATS
BUFFALO, N.Y. – Taking on the program's first FBS opponent, the University at Albany football team marched down the gridiron in its opening drive Saturday afternoon at UB Stadium, taking a quick 7-0 lead in front of 20,872 fans. However, the hosting University at Buffalo Bulls responded with 38 straight points, stealing a 51-14 win over the Great Danes in the season-opener.
Making his debut with the Great Danes, redshirt sophomore quarterback DJ Crook steered UAlbany down the field, converting four times on third down, including a 30-yard pass to sophomore Josh Gontarek. From the UB-29, Crook tucked and ran for eight yards on 3rd-and-3 to keep the drive alive. Again on third down, Crook connected an 11-yard pass to freshman Zee Roberson, setting up Crook's 4-yard touchdown toss to Gontarek to cap the 14-play, 82-yard drive. Patrick Toole's point-after gave the Great Danes a 7-0 advantage with 6:27 remaining in the first quarter.
“We had a good start, but we didn't play very smart,” said Head Coach Greg Gattuso. “Our discipline I thought hurt us a lot. When you're playing up you can't afford penalties, you can't afford turnovers.”
With two interceptions and a lost fumble in the game, UAlbany gave up 13 points off turnovers, while sacrificing 56 yards on penalties.
The Bulls turned up the pace after UAlbany's quick score, driving 60 yards on eight plays, capped by quarterback Joe Licata's 9-yard touchdown pass to Marcus McGill, tying the score, 7-7, with 3:39 left in the first.
Buffalo took the lead for good on Adam Micheson's 40-yard field goal to make it 10-7 at the 14:30 mark in the second quarter.
In the midst of trying to slow down the UB offense, the Great Danes lost redshirt junior linebacker Michael Nicastro for the rest of the game to a knee injury.
With the Great Danes' captain sidelined, Anthone Taylor scampered 21-yards into the end zone with 7:19 left in the half. Forcing UAlbany to punt, the Bulls took a 24-7 advantage after Jordan Johnson's 1-yard touchdown run at the 2:28 mark.
“They're good. They have a good system,” said Gattuso of the UB hurry-up offense. “I thought we had a decent plan, but we lost the heart and soul of our defense and that was a hard thing to overcome. At that point is when we really started to lose control.”
UAlbany looked to get a touchdown back going into the break, as Crook led the Danes down to the UB-30. But, Nick Gilbo picked off Crook's pass at the 20 and returned it 11-yards to give the Bulls a 17-point advantage at halftime.
Out of the break, Buffalo quickly set the tone, as Boise Ross intercepted the Danes' second play of the drive at the UAlbany 22 yard line. Three plays and 54 seconds later, Taylor gave UB a 31-7 lead on a 1-yard push across the goal line.
In their next possession, the Bulls tacked on another score, driving 80 yards on five plays, capped by Licata's 20-yard pass to Jacob Martinez with 9:08 remaining in the third quarter.
“When we play up, we need to play all in,” added Gattuso. “We're not good enough to go out there and play just with talent. If we can play a team game, we can be pretty good. “
UAlbany broke back onto the board at the start of the fourth quarter as freshman Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks rushed six times to cap the 12-play 89 yard drive with a 1-yard push into the end zone. With Toole's PAT, the Great Danes made the score 38-14.
However, the Bulls made the final two marks on the board, as Buffalo forced and recovered a fumble at the UAlbany-46 yard line. Tony Daniel finished off the six-minute possession with a 1-yard run with 4:01 remaining, and Martinez ran back an 86-yard punt return with 1:32 to go, giving Buffalo a 51-14 final advantage.
In the game, UAlbany totaled 269 yards of offense, led by Crook's 11-for-22 passing effort for 104 yards and a touchdown. In the second half, freshman Neven Sussman connected 2-of-3 passes for 24 yards.
Gontarek piloted the receiving corps with five receptions for a total of 66 yards. In the ground game, Ibitokun-Hanks logged 74 rushing yards and a touchdown on 11 carries in the second half. Redshirt freshman Elliot Croskey rushed the ball 12 times for a total of 29 yards and also had a 10-yard reception.
Defensively, Colin Cooper led the Great Danes with 11 tackles (5 solo) followed by Julian Cox's seven (4 solo).
Meanwhile, the Bulls tallied up 467 yards of offense, as Taylor rushed for 104 yards on 17 carries and Licata threw for 246 yards, going 20-for-26 with two touchdown tosses.
UAlbany looks to bounce back on Sept. 12 when the Great Danes host CAA foe Rhode Island at Bob Ford Field for the team's home opener.
“Ultimately, I feel good about our future,” said Gattuso. “There's going to be bumps in the road when you're building a program. We hit a bump, and now we'll see how we respond. We have a big game next week against a conference opponent, we're going to break out some new uniforms, and we're going to forget about this one and try and get a win next week.”
Kickoff versus the Rams is set for 3:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live on the American Sports Network.
