King's Suffers 17-3 Setback Against FDU-Florham
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Wilkes-Barre, PA-- The King's College football team couldn't overcome a pair of first quarter turnovers that led to two FDU-Florham touchdowns as the Monarchs fell to the visiting Devils 17-3 at King's McCarthy Stadium Saturday afternoon.
With the win the Devils move to 1-8 overall with a 1-6 mark in Middle Atlantic Conference, while the Monarchs fall to 1-7 overall and 1-6 in the MAC.
The Monarchs opening drive looked promising when
Eric Ofcharsky ripped off a 22-yard run on third and one moving King's into FDU territory.
Bryant Klein, making his second career start, then hit
Jay Torres for seven yards and tacked on a roughing the passer penalty to move the ball to the Devils 24-yard line. The drive ended abruptly when FDU's Steve Hoverson forced a fumble that the Devils recovered.
King's defense responded with a three and out forcing FDU to punt the ball away, but the Monarchs handed the ball right back when Torres fumbled the punt return at the Monarchs 37. The Devils marched the ball the 37 yards in just five plays capped by a Sean Norton one-yard run to give FDU the early 7-0 lead.
Following a King's punt FDU struck again driving the ball 65 yards on eight plays keyed by a 24-yard pass from Ryan Cushman to Anthony Fruncillo and then finished by Norton on a five yard run.
On the ensuing kickoff Torres started the return before handing the ball to fellow senior
Matt Spencer who took the ball on an end around and scampered up the sideline all the way to the FDU 48-yard line before being tripped up. King's used four straight runs to move the ball to the Devils 20. Klein completed a pair of passes to
Jordan Haddock and Ofcharsky to set up first and goal at the FDU 3, but the Devils held King's to a 19 yard
Mike Lloyd field goal cutting the lead to 14-3.
After Lloyd missed a 46-yard field goal attempt wide left the Devils used the ground game to put three points on the board before the half. Norton had a run of 29 yards and Cushman moved the chains with a 17-yard scamper to keep the drive alive. Travis Mullen then connected on a 25-yard field goal with :05 left in the half to give the Devils a 17-3 lead at the break.
After a scoreless third quarter, King's threatened to close the gap with when senior
Joe Kirchon relieved Klein with 6:41 remaining in the fourth quarter and moved the team down the field connecting on passes of 29 yards to Torres and 18 yards to
Jordan Buford. A pass interference call on FDU moved the ball to the 11 before a sack bogged down the drive and led to a turnover on downs.
After an FDU punt, Kirchon was able to drive the Monarchs again, finding
Glenn Ford for a 16-yard completion and to Torres for 27 more yards. The Monarchs were able to get the football to the one-yard line before a devestating personal foul penalty stalled the drive that ended when Kirchon was intercepted in the endzone with just 1:31 to play.
The King's offense never got untracked with Klein finishing the game 11-of-18 for 96 yards while Kirchon was 7-of-10 for 106 yards over the final 6:41 of the game. Ofcharsky netted led the King's backs with 50 yards rushing. Torres pulled down six passes for 86 yards and Buford caught three balls for 39 yards.
Defensively freshman defensive end
Devon Sanchez led the team with 10 tackles, one of those for a loss.
Ryan Cordingly made nine stops, two for a loss and
Ryan Kelly and
Chris Shuster each made eight tackles.
Kris Koslop made seven tackles and two stops for loss.
Norton led the way offensively for the Devils rushing 26 times for 99 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Cushman finished 9-of-21 for 93 yards. Jon Bennett hauled in four passes for 41 yards.
FDU held a slight 253-245 edge in yards, but won the turnover battle forcing four turnovers by the Monarchs. Michael Mancino led FDU in tackles with eight while Steve Margolin posted seven stops.
King's returns to action Saturday when the Monarchs travel to Lebanon Valley for their final MAC game of the season. The game will kickoff at 1:00 p.m.
