Defense Shines In Monmouth's 24-21 Win Over Lafayette

Photos courtesy on Monmouth University

WEST LONG BRANCH – The much maligned Monmouth University defense took a huge step forward in its push towards respectability with a dominating performance in the Hawks 24-21 victory over Lafayette Saturday at Kessler Stadium.

The Hawks defense held Lafayette to one sustained scoring drive all day, 11 first downs and 244 yards of total offense, including minus 12-yards rushing on 23 attempts.

Of Lafayette’s 256 passing yards, 80 of them came on one play when the Leopards Nick Person appeared to be down after a 20-yard reception but somehow managed to roll over the defender without touching the ground before regaining his balance and running an additional 60 yards for the score.

“Overall I thought they played very well,” said Monmouth head coach Kevin Callahan when asked to access the play of his defense. “We had that long 80-yard play where our guys assumed he was down and there’s a lesson there - you can’t let that happen.”

Monmouth pressured Lafayette freshman quarterback Keegan Shoemaker all afternoon with a relentless pass rush resulting in 11 tackles for loss and four sacks. By comparison, the Hawks finished with just 11 sacks and 61 tackles for loss a year ago in 11 games.

“Our defensive front did a really good job of pressuring them,” said Callahan. “And that was without all-out blitzes. There was some line stunts we were doing and I thought the guys did a good job getting up the field. We had the quarterback on the run, several knock downs and forced the quarterback to throw it away several times and we did a really good job at that.”

Four different Hawks recorded sacks including seniors Russel Davidson, Lowell Kelly-Gamble and Evan Powell and sophomore Nick Shoemaker. Senior linebacker Da’Quan Grimes led the team with seven total tackles – all solo.

Late in the third quarter, with the Hawks clinging to a 21-14 lead, junior free safety Anthony Budd tracked a Shoemaker pass into the end zone and made an acrobatic interception to thwart a Lafayette drive helping Monmouth to keep the lead.

“We definitely talked about needing to step up defensively,” Budd said. “This week we came out and put a lot of pressure on the quarterback and just tried to make some plays on the ball. I saw the ball come off his hand and I just tried to get there.”

After putting up 21 points and 280-yards of total offense in the first half, Monmouth’s offense sputtered in the second half. They continually shot itself in the foot with penalty’s and turnovers finishing with just 137 yards and three points after intermission.

In the second half, a fumble, four costly penalty’s and a blocked punt deep in Monmouth territory kept Lafayette in the game and within striking distance, but with the game on the line the offense did what it needed to do to preserve the win.

“The penalty’s were the things that hurt us,” Callahan said. “We were victimized by them (penalty’s) a week ago in the opener and that’s something our team is very aware of and we addressed this week. We can’t make mistakes where we hurt ourselves. Today it didn’t cost us the game but it held us back. On one drive we had three big penalty’s on three consecutive plays and then you’re always playing behind the chains. That’s something we have to do a better job as a coaching staff and as a team of overcoming.”

Junior wide receiver Lonnie Moore IV had a career-best 122 receiving yards with 100 of those yards coming in the first half.

Big South Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, Kenji Bahar, had a rather pedestrian game completing 15-of-29 passes for 194 yards with one touchdown and an interception but was just 3-of-10 for 25 yards in the second half.

The offense as a whole gained just 137 total yards in the second half.

“I thought going into halftime that we had the game in control,” said Callahan. “Up until that point we had it in control. We went out and started the third quarter and I thought we were going to add to

the lead. Lafayette did a good job and hung around, we didn’t seem to click in the third quarter the same way we did in the first half and that allowed them to get back in the game.”

Meanwhile, junior running back Pete Guerriero was again a workhorse for the Hawks running the ball 26 times for 152 yards and a touchdown. In the third quarter, Guerriero broke free for a 38-yard run down to the Lafayette 25-yard line but two plays later with Monmouth looking to go up by two touchdowns they turned the ball over on a Devell Jones fumble.

“Awesome,” said Guerriero when asked how it felt to carry the load. “Keep feeding me.”

Jones, however, redeemed himself late in the fourth quarter with quite possibly the biggest play of the game.

With just under three minutes remaining in the game and the Hawks holding on to a slim 24-21 lead, head coach Kevin Callahan decided to roll the dice and go for it on a fourth-and-1 at their own 34-yard line.

Out of the wildcat formation, Jones took a direct snap straight up the middle for 16 yards and a crucial first down to the 50-yard line. The Leopards were then forced to burn all their time outs and the Hawks were able to run out the clock to secure the 24-21 win.

Jones finished with 49 yards rushing on 12 attempts while Monmouth as a team rushed for 223 yards on 47 attempts.

“You have to give Devell and the offensive line credit too for what for what they were able to do in the closing minutes of the game,” said Callahan. “They were able to grind out those tough yards.”

On Monmouth’s second possession of the game, they went 86 yards in 12 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Guerriero finished off the drive with a nifty 19-yard touchdown run and senior Matt Mosquera’s converted the extra-point kick.

Shoemaker’s sack led to a three-and-out on Lafayette’s ensuing possession and following a Lafayette punt the Hawks drove to the Leopards 15-yard line courtesy of a Bahar to Moore 48-yard pass play. The drive, however, stalled after a false start penalty and two incompletions and the Hawks had to settle for a Mosquera 35-yard field goal.

Junior cornerback Justin Terry and Grimes had back-to-back tackles for loss on Lafayette’s next possession forcing another punt with the Hawks taking over at their own 37-yard line still holding a 10-0 lead.

Eight plays later, the Hawks had a first-and-10 at the Lafayette 11-yard line. Guerriero picked up five yards on first down but following an incompletion, Bahar threw behind a wide open Assanti Kearny on a crossing pattern in the end zone on third down bringing on Mosquera who was perfect from 23-yards out for a 13-0 lead.

Monmouth’s inability to finish off those two drives with touchdowns almost cost them the game as Lafayette kept hanging around and made things quite interesting.

On their possession following Mosquera’s second field goal, the Leopards put together their only scoring drive of the afternoon with a time consuming 75 yard, 15 play drive capped off by a John Gay 13-yard touchdown run to pull within 13-7 with 1:28 left in the first half.

Following a 33-yard kick return by Moore, the Hawks put together their most efficient scoring drive of the day marching 64 yards in six plays in just 1:16. Bahar found Moore for 32 yards on the drive before hitting junior Joey Alderelli on a crossing pattern in the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown with five seconds left in the half.

A perfectly executed two-point conversion then gave the Hawks a 21-7 lead at the half. With Moore in motion, Bahar faked a handoff to Guerriero then tossed a soft pass to Moore, who had reversed field before gathering in Bahar’s pass for the two-pointer.

Pearson’s touchdown on Lafayette’s second possession of the second half pulled the Leopards to within 21-14 with 11:38 left in the third quarter.

It stayed that way until early in the fourth quarter.

Monmouth went three-and-out but a booming 55-yard punt by junior Colin McCreary pinned the Leopards back at their own 10-yard line with 13:29 left in the game.

Kelly-Gamble then appeared to have sacked Shoemaker in the endzone for a safety but the referee ruled his forward progress was down at the one-yard line. Two plays later Ryan O’Hara was forced to punt out of their own endzone and sophomore Eddie Morales returned the punt 23 yards to the Lafayette 23.

However, three consecutive incompletions left the Hawks with a fourth-and-10 from the 23-yard line and the Hawks called on Matt “Money Man” Mosquera again and he nailed a 40-yarder – his third of the day – pushing the Hawks lead to 24-14 with 10:50 remaining in the game.

“He tells me he’s good from 60,” Callahan said while praising Mosquera. “So I’m not worried about the little things like a 40-yard kick.”

Monmouth’s defense then forced another three-and-out and following the punt the Hawks took over at the at their own 18-yard line.

The Hawks went nowhere and six plays later were forced to punt from the 34-yard line but McCreary’s punt was blocked by Marco Olivas and the Leopards were in business with a first-and-goal at the Hawks nine-yard line.

Three plays later, Shoemaker’s pass to Julian Springer was good for a 13-yard touchdown and suddenly the Leopards were within three points, 24-21 with 4:38 left in the contest.

The Hawks then ran out the clock thanks to Callahan gutsy decision to go for it on fourth down.

Monmouth improves to 1-1 on the season with a big home game looming next Saturday against Albany, who routed Bryant University 45-3 in their game Saturday.

“Obviously, I’m very happy to get our first win of the year,” said Callahan. It was good to come away with a win today. As I told the team in the locker room ‘You can’t get the second one until you get the first one.’”

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