Second Quarter Woes Sting Cardinals
Randolph-Macon intercepts six passes in the 27-17 contest

9/22/2007

WASHINGTON - Despite a valiant effort in the second half, the Catholic University football team (3-1, 0-1 ODAC) couldn't bounce back from early mistakes and fell to the Randolph-Macon Yellow Jackets (3-1, 1-0 ODAC) 27-17 Saturday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium in their first contest of Old Dominion Athletic Conference play.  Six interceptions and 24 unanswered points in the second quarter were the two key stats for the Cards who came into the game undefeated.

After a defense-laden first quarter that saw a combined seven punts and two interceptions, the Yellow Jacket offense exploded in the second.  RMC scored its first seven on a takeaway as quarterback John Jacobs (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) passed an out route directly into the hands of Adam Maclauchlan who returned it for a touchdown.  This would be the first seven of fourteen Yellow Jacket points given up by the Cardinal offense.

After two good defensive series CUA QB Keith Ricca (Poolesville, Md./St. John's Prospect Hall) threw his second interception of the day to Kyle Wiggins who returned it to put seven more on the board after Scott Shope's PAT.  What looked like a bad quarter for the Cards just kept getting worse as Ricca threw two more INT's on CUA's final two drives of the half one resulting in a touchdown and the other in an extra point to make the score 24-0 at the break.

After such a horrific second quarter the Cards came out of the locker room fired up despite a solid RMC return on the kickoff.  After just four plays the Yellow Jackets attempted the field goal on fourth down but block-expert Dean Petrone (Hamilton, N.J./The Hun School) was one point getting a hand on the ball keeping the deficit at 24.  From this point on the Cards played beat the clock as they tried to make up the huge difference.

On the next series Chris Daley (Olney, Md./Good Counsel) found open field on the ground with a 29-yard rush to start things off.  Ricca methodically moved the ball down the field and found Noah Rogers (Lorton, Va./Bishop O'Connell) in the end zone to give CUA their first score of the day.  RMC answered with a field goal but on the next drive it was Jacobs who orchestrated the score with a 19-yards pass to Andrew Buis (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) ore getting it into field goal range for Brendan Deluca (Gambrills, Md./St. Mary's (Md.) who hit his first FG of the season from 34 yards to make the score 27-10.

As Yellow Jacket running back Zak Thornton continued to eat away the clock finding hole after hole in the Cardinal line, CUA was still 17 points down.  The Cards' first drive of the fourth quarter started out shaky with a sack and some incomplete passes.  Looking at fourth and six, Ricca tried to get it to Ryan McManus (Malvern, Pa./Malvern Prep) who wasn't able to hold on but a pass interference call gave CUA the first down and award the Cardinals one more chance.  Ricca took in and once again marched CUA down the field hitting pass after pass including a 28-yard gain for Miles Sabrick (Douglassville, Pa./Reading Central Catholic) and then a 21-yard toss to McManus in the end zone to make it 27-17.

With time running short the Cards had three remaining drives but after notching CUA's sixth interception of the game it was over making the final 27-17 in favor of Randolph-Macon. 

With the exception of the six turnovers, the Cards dominated the game with 25 first downs to RMC's 16 and 411 passing yards to their 189.  Ricca led CUA with two touchdowns and 353 yards on 28-54 passing but five INT's, Jacobs was 5-9 for 58 yards with an interception. For RMC, Brandon Braner was 10-27 with an interception and one touchdown.  Thornton led all rushers with 118 yards on 34 carries, Daley topped the CUA running game with 70 yards on 19 carries.  On the defensive side Anthony DelBorrell (Laurel, Md./DeMatha)  Bill Gross (Southampton, Pa./Archbishop Wood) each had 12 tackles for the Cards.

CUA travels to Franklin and Marshall (1-2) next weekend for a contest versus the Diplomats starting at 1 p.m.  The game is the Cardinals' final non-conference contest of the season.