Sept. 14, 2002
Final Stats
Junior tailback Jason Bonadies (Southbridge, MA) ran for a game-high 107 yards and a touchdown to Sacred Heart University to a 32-13 win over Monmouth University in a Northeast Conference football tilt on Saturday.
Things didn't start well for the Pioneers as they hoped to erase the memory of an opening-week loss at Marist last week. Monmouth got a 46-yard field goal from Ryan Peterson on their first possession. Five minutes later the Hawks made it 10-0 on a 43-yard pass from senior QB Bill Rankin to Billy Lynn. Lynn was hit by SHU's Ron St. Juste (Stamford, CT) as soon as he made the catch, but squirmed out of the tackle and scampered down the right sideline another 30 yards for the score.
The end of the first quarter would just about signal the end of the Monmouth highlights in the game. The Sacred Heart defense began to assert itself, and the offense began to show signs of shaking off the early-season rust. Senior kicker Tim Redican (Meriden, CT) got the Pioneers on the board with 10:34 left in the first half. SHU QB Joe Kroells hit Andy Gonzalez (Willimantic, CT) with a 34-yard pass to the Monmouth 21 that would set up the score.
Sacred Heart, 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the NEC, got even on the next Monmouth possession when senior corner Pete Athans picked off a Rankin pass and ran 52-yards for a touchdown.
On their first drive of the second half, the Pioneers drove 54 yards in six plays, capped by a 48-yard pass from Kroells to senior receiver Doug Geoffrey (Meriden, CT). A bad snap on the conversion attempt was turned into a positive by the Pioneers when holder Gonzalez picked up the ball, rolled to the right and found a wide open Mike Peshler in the endzone for the two-point conversion and an 18-10 lead.
A Bonadies fumble on the next SHU possession gave the Hawks the ball at the Pioneer 45. Monmouth ran 13 plays but could manage just 36 yards and settled for a 26-yard Peterson field goal.
Athans returned the ensuing kickoff 33 yards to the Monmouth 47. Kroells hit tight end Sean Macauley (Clinton, CT) for ten yards on the first play. Proof that the stars were truly aligned for SHU showed up on the next play when Bonadies took a handoff and ran straight up the field for what looked like an easy score. However, the ball came loose at the Monmouth 15 and skidded into the end zone where receiver Marlon Ward fell on it for a Sacred Heart touchdown that effectively put the game away.
The Pioneers would get one more score midway through the fourth. After freshman Craig Kohan intercepted a Rankin pass and returned it to the Monmouth 21, Bonadies ran it in from 12 yards out five plays later for the capper.
"This was a much better effort on both sides of the ball than we showed last week," said SHU head coach Bill Lacey. "We were able to run the ball some today, and that opened things up a lot more for Joe Kroells to throw. I was very happy with the way Jason Bonadies ran the ball today, but he's got to take better care of the football."
