Football Takes Down Golden Bears for First Time Since 2014; Quinn Breaks Two Program Records
Milton, MA – The Curry Football team took down the Western New England Golden Bears on Saturday 52-31, improving to 6-1 on the season, and 4-0 in CNE play, while the Golden Bears are now 3-4 and 1-3. Having lost the previous nine meetings, the victory marked the Colonels first win over WNE since 2014, when an 0-7 Colonels team beat a 6-1 WNE team 7-0 in OT.
That game in 2014 was played in torrential downpour, and heavy winds, but Saturday's game took place on a perfect fall day. The Colonels would go three and out in their opening drive. The Golden Bears would go up 3-0 on a 23 yard field goal on the ensuing drive, but the Curry crowd woke up when Karim Chaplin II took the following kickoff 89-yards for a TD. This put the Colonels up 7-3, and altered how WNE kicked off the rest of the game, deciding to squib kick going forward. The two teams would trade a touchdown each before the end of the quarter, with the Colonels' score coming on a 53-yard pass from Anthony Santino to Colin Ridley. The play was some great play calling by the Colonels offense, as it was disguised as a run with tight ends Danny Doris and Nick Barry coming in.
The Golden Bears would grab the lead back early in the second quarter, using their running game to march down the field. They would lead 17-14 until late in the half, when Colonels star Montie Quinn scored on a two yard run. After a quick defensive stop, the Colonels struck again before the half, this time on a Ridley 16-yard TD reception. The Colonels led 28-17 at the break.
It was a quiet first half for Quinn, who was coming off of an NCAA record breaking 522 yards last week. He only totaled 38 yards in the first half, but the threat of with the ball opened up the pass game for the Colonels.
Western New England opened the second half with a TD to close within a possession, and after a Curry field goal towards the end of the third quarter, it was 31-24 after three. The Golden Bears tied things up less than a minute into the fourth quarter, but from there, the Montie Quinn show began. Quinn would break off a 50-yard TD run on the next drive, which gave him 19 rushing TDs on the season. That broke Raphael Zammit's record of 18 in 2002. After another defensive stop, Quinn ran it in again from 15 yards to put the Colonels up 45-31 with 5:30 left in the game. The Colonels once again got the ball, back and Quinn ended the game with the big one, scoring his fourth TD of the day on a 70-yard run.
With that last run, Quinn broke the program record for rushing yards in a year, besting his total of 1,652 from last year. He currently sits at 1,683 yards on the season, averaging 240.4 per game. The DIII NCAA record is 238.5 by Dante Brown in 1996 for Marietta.
While the second half was dominated by Quinn, the Colonels passing game led the way in the first half. Quarterback Anthony Santino went 9-15 in the game for 167 yards and two TDs. On the season he has thrown for 16 touchdowns, and only one interception. The program record for fewest interceptions in a season is three, done three times. Both of his touchdowns on the day went to Colin Ridley, who caught the ball four times for 84 yards. Chaplin, in addition to his kickoff return TD, had two receptions for 51 yards.
Defensively, the Colonels were led by Shane Field, who had 10 tackles. Jathan Green was second on the team, with eight. Greene also had a key interception in the second quarter.
Up Next – The Colonels will travel to Husson next week. The Colonels have never beaten the Eagles, going 0-5 in the teams' meetings.
