Paxton, Mass. – Anna Maria College senior Robert Small (Sleepy Hollow, NY) ran for 225 yards and three touchdowns to lead the AMCATS to a 42-14 victory over visiting Castleton State College in Eastern Collegiate Football Conference action at AMCAT Field on Saturday afternoon.
With the win the AMCATS notch their first conference win of the season (1-4) and improve to 2-6 overall, while the Spartans dip to 1-7, 0-5 GNAC.
Quarterback Gregory McGoldrick (Brooklyn, NY) completed 13 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver William Ricard (Billerica, Mass.) had 147 yards receiving on six catches and two touchdowns while kicker Julian Diaz (Providence, RI) was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra points. On defense junior Kevin Card (Deer Park, NY) recorded 9 tackles while senior Tony Valente had a 66-yard interception.
The Spartans were led by running backs Doug Saffo (Benton, NH) and Elias LaCount (Worcester, VT) who combined for 153 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Freshman quarterback Kyle Kianpour (Azusa, Calif.) completed 10-of-24 for 87 yards on the afternoon. Sophomore Jay Morgan(Georgia, VT), junior Todd Carr (Ticonderoga, NY) and freshman Nick Romeo (Sparta, NJ) each posted 9 tackles in the loss.
Anna Maria scored the only points in the first quarter. The AMCATS covered 85 yards on eight plays culminating with a 5-yard pass from McGoldrick to Ricard for the early 6-0 lead, Diaz put the extra point through the uprights for the 7-0 advantage after one quarter.
Bobby Small scored a pair of touchdowns in the second quarter to push the lead to 21-0 heading into the intermission. His first TD came at the 7:08 mark when he broke thru the offensive line and scampered 44-yards untouched for the score, six minutes later he would dive 3-yards to complete a 5 play, 70 yard drive for Anna Maria.
Anna Maria continued the offensive pressure in the second half scoring on their first possession putting together a pretty 75-yard, 7 play drive encompassing 3:19. McGoldrick was a perfect 3-for-3 on the drive completing passes of 13-yards to Josh Sundquist (Windham, ME), 25-yards to Greg Caldwell (Springvale, ME) and a touchdown score of 29-yards to Ricard.
Trailing 28-0, the Spartans finally found the endzone with a 56-yard run from the line of scrimmage by Doug Saffo, placekicker Robert Lineberger (Warwick, RI) hit the extra point to make the score 28-7.
Anna Maria countered quickly with a 23-yard rushing touchdown by freshman Jafar Ashshaheed (Brooklyn, NY) to put the game out of reach. The teams would trade scores for the 42-14 final.
Anna Maria returns to action next Saturday when they travel Gallaudet University for a noontime tilt, Castleton will be on the road at Becker College.
