By Dillon Flanigan
Sports Editor
photo | wade barillaro
Quarterback Keith Ridley Jr., a graduate, throws a touchdown pass to wide receiver Divine Edwards, a junior.
The Franklin Pierce University Ravens flew ahead in the second half, defeating the Owls 35-24 on Saturday, Oct. 26.
“The first half was probably the best complimentary football we probably played all season: kicking game, defense, turnover, stop on downs, offense moving the ball,” Head Coach Tom Godek said. “We only had three possessions in that second half, and they had the ball for over 40 minutes on offense. So certainly, when you’re behind and you don’t have the ball, that’s not a good thing.”
After receiving the opening kick, the Owls went three and out. As the Ravens drove down the field, safety Joenel Figueroa, a junior, intercepted the pass at the Owls’ five-yard line.
“Joenel has a good nose for the ball,” Godek said. “I’m sure there’s going to be some things that can get corrected on film, but he’s a guy that responds to coaching and wants to be better week-in and week-out. We need him to be a leader of our defense for sure.”
With a brokenup pass, quarterback Keith Ridley Jr., a graduate, launched his next pass towards the Owls’ sideline downfield to wide receiver Tarik Hetmyer, a graduate.
As the defender tipped the ball, it landed in Hetmyer’s arms while he was racing for the end zone. Being forced out of bounds at the Ravens’ one, running back E’Lijah Gray, a senior, put the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
The Owls offense spread the ball around to eight different skill players. One of the eight was wide receiver Divine Edwards, a junior, who caught the second touchdown of the half to go up 17-7 with a minute left.
“We have a lot of weapons on our team, and it’s always nice to be able to use all of them,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of different players that don’t even get to play.”
Godek was happy with the cache of receivers, elaborating that airing the ball out and picking a part of the secondary was the offensive gameplan.
Though, that offensive did not score in the second half, the only touchdown was on a kick return by running back Shawn Martin, a senior.
“Martin’s been looking for one of those. He’s done a lot when he was younger with that here,” Godek said. “I’m so happy for him. If there’s a guy that deserved that, it’s Shawn Martin.”
Not just the kick return for the touchdown, but every aspect of the special team’s unit performed to expectation. In each half, punter Andreas Picarelli, a junior, pinned the Ravens to their own one-yard line. Though like last week, this led to a touchdown.
“They ate up most of the quarter, scored on the first play of the fourth quarter,” Godek said. “And I’ll tell you that that’s an impressive thing for an offense to do that, and it’s not an easy thing to do. But you got to give them credit.”
The Owls only had three possessions in the second half, two of which were punts and the last of which was a fumble recovery by the Owls. Excluding the end of game kneel, the Ravens scored touchdowns in all four possessions, eating over 25 minutes of clock in the second half alone.
Injuries were a concern before the game, but the depth was being tested.
Wide receiver Luke Gadson, a senior, did not play the second half as he dealt with a lingering injury since camp. Defensive back Josh Martinotti, a junior, left the game prior to halftime with a lower body injury and was held out by team physician Dr. Jordan Gruskay.
“They’re mounting up this year, week-in and week-out. It’s not good,” Godek said. “We’re definitely starting to really get paper thin in spots. We’ll probably have to look at how we practice here the next two games, just based off of our numbers.”
