MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME FOOTBALL
43rd Annual Admiral's Cup
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Ritchie Field, Castine, Maine
FINAL: MAINE MARITIME 47, MASSACHUSETTS MARITIME 41
CASTINE, Maine -- Senior quarterback Michael Fahey (Union, Conn.) amassed 216 yards of total offense and accounted for three touchdowns as Maine Maritime used a last-second goal line stand to post a 47-41 victory over Massachusetts Maritime in the 43rd Annual Admiral's Cup contest played Saturday afternoon at Ritchie Field.
In a game that saw the teams combine for 88 points (the highest scoring Admiral's Cup clash in the 43-year modern-day series history) and 1,233 yards of offense, a defensive stand gave the host Mariners (1-1) their first Admiral's Cup win since 2010, snapping the visiting Buccaneers' (1-1) four-year run with the trophy. Maine Maritime, which at one point enjoyed a 28-point second quarter lead of 41-13, used an interception by senior Matt Clifford (Kittery, Maine) with 3:09 remaining to gain possession inside at the visitors' 27-yard line, but an interception by senior Matthew Anson (Braintree, Mass.) two plays later on his own 4 gave Massachusetts Maritime the ball back with just over three minutes to go. The Buccaneers drove to their own 45 and faced a 4th-and-8, but a pass interference call against the hosts moved the ball to the Mariner 40, and senior quarterback Brad Skeffington (Salem, Mass.) proceeded to drive his squad down to the Maine 5-yard line with 15 seconds to play. After a pair of rushes that sandwiched a false start penalty, Skeffington fired a pass to the end zone on the final play of the contest that fell incomplete and sealed the hosts' triumph.
Skeffington gave Massachusetts Maritime an early 6-0 lead just 1:18 into the contest when he scampered in from 20 yards out, but junior Joshua Doolan (Fairfield, Maine) evened matters for Maine Maritime on the ensuing possession when he went 61 yards for the tying score. Just 18 seconds later, Buccaneer sophomore Kenny Pierce (Beverly, Mass.) regained the lead for the visitors with a career-long 87-yard touchdown run, but the Mariners responded with 35 unanswered points in just over 17 minutes of play, as a pair of Fahey scoring runs of one and 49 yards staked the hosts to a 21-13 advantage after the first quarter, and a pair of touchdowns from five and 19 yards out by sophomore Jacob Doolan (Fairfield, Maine) extended that margin to 27-13. Fahey, who completed just 2-of-4 passing attempts on the afternoon, then found freshman Jordan Talbot (Portland, Maine) on a 31-yard scoring strike with 5:26 remaining in the half to give the Mariners a 41-13 edge, but Massachusetts Maritime responded with three touchdowns in the final 2:59 of the half, as Skeffington hooked up with juniors Jonathan Furtado (Swansea, Mass.) and Shane Haggerty (Cohasset, Mass.) on touchdown passes of 30 yards and one yard in a 57-second span (the latter coming off a hosts' fumble on the kickoff), and Pierce broke off an 80-yard run with 42 seconds remaining before intermission after a Maine Maritime punt to enable the Buccaneers to creep back to within seven at 41-34.
After combining for 75 points in 30 minutes of play, the game settled into a defensive tussle in the second half, as the lone Mariner points came on a pair of field goals from 25 and 28 yards out from freshman Chad Martin (Fairfield, Maine), the latter with 13:18 remaining in the contest, to give the hosts a 47-34 advantage. Pierce's third touchdown of the day, an 11-yard scamper that capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive, lifted Massachusetts Maritime back to within six with 7:22 remaining and set up the frantic finish in the final three-plus minutes.
Sophomore James Ferrar (Cumberland, Maine) rushed for 157 yards on 23 carries in the win for Maine Maritime, as Fahey rushed for 138 yards on 27 attempts and the Doolan brothers combined for 184 more rushing yards (Joshua 96, Jacob 88). The Mariners amassed 499 yards on the ground and received 88 more through the air from Fahey, whose other completion went for 57 yards, as the hosts collected 587 yards of total offense and averaged 7.8 yards per play despite fumbling seven times (losing two). Pierce rushed for a career-high 212 yards on 15 carries (14.1 yards per rush) to go with his three scores in the setback for Massachusetts Maritime, while Skeffington amassed 346 yards of total offense, including 160 on the ground (22 attempts) and another 186 yards through the air, as he completed 14-of-34 attempts. Pierce and Haggerty combined for nine receptions and 110 yards for the Buccaneers, who collected 646 yards of total offense (460 rushing) and averaged 7.5 yards on 86 plays.
Senior Jeddy Doyon (Hampden, Maine) paced Maine Maritime defensively with 16 total tackles (seven solo), while senior Justin Lovely (West Gardiner, Maine) also recorded an interception for the Mariners. Sophomore Bobby Gross (Tampa, Fla.) registered a career-high 13 total tackles (six solo) in the setback for Massachusetts Maritime, while junior Marshall McCarthy (Duxbury, Mass.) and senior Jack Schmitt (Bourne, Mass.) recorded 12 and 10 stops, respectively, for the Buccaneers. The final score broke the previous highest scoring mark in the annual rivalry contest between the two schools of 82 points set on September 28, 1991 in a 48-34 Massachusetts Maritime win in Castine, as the Buccaneers now hold a 25-18 series advantage over Maine Maritime in the Admiral's Cup series dating back to 1973.
Massachusetts Maritime heads to Worcester, Mass. next Saturday afternoon to take on Worcester State in its Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference opener that kicks off at 1:00 p.m., while Maine Maritime travels to Cambridge, Mass. to square off with MIT in its New England Football Conference lid-lifter that kicks off at Noon.