Football v Plymouth State

DANBURY, CT - Senior quarterback Quinn Fleeting (Windsor, CT) completed 30 of 39 passes for 411 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Western Connecticut State University football team to a 37-29 victory over Plymouth State University at the Westside Athletic Complex on Saturday night.

Fleeting, the opening week's  Jack Grinold Eastern Massachusetts Chapter of the National Football Foundation Gold Helmet winner following WestConn's win over Hartwick on September 2, threw touchdowns of 46, eight and four yards as the Colonials improved to 2-0 on the season and are now 1-0 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference.

The Colonials finished with a convincing 554-283 total-offense advantage in a game that was only decided by eight points.

They raced out for a 14-0 lead following back-to-back touchdown runs by senior Kyle McKinnon (New London, CT).  He plowed in from four yards out just 3:45 into the contest then dove in from two yards out with 4:05 remaining in the first stanza.

Plymouth's Jacob Szulc was on the receiving end of Zach Edwards' eight-yard touchdown strike and following a Jeremy Martin extra point, the Panthers cut their deficit to 14-7 in the opening minutes of the second quarter.

Sophomore Jordan D'Onofrio (Orange, CT) booted a 22-yard field goal with 9:33 remaining in the first half to put WestConn up 17-7.

Edwards sprinted up the middle of the field from 31 yards out to cap off a four-play 78-yard drive that consumed only 1:28.  PSU was down by only three points, 17-14 at that point.

Fleeting found Austin Calamita (North Branford, CT) open on the right sideline for a 46-yard touchdown on the next play from scrimmage.  Calamita caught the ball on the 13 yards line and carried three defenders into the end zone.  He finished the day with six catches for 132 yards.

Duane Gary (New Haven, CT) led all WestConn receivers with seven catches for 108 yards.

"Offensively, we were efficient tonight," stated sixth-year WestConn head coach Joe Loth.  "Quinn (Fleeting) really threw the ball well all night and we were able to run the ball in the fourth quarter to close out the game."

Szulc and Edwards came together for a 40-yard touchdown in the closing minute of the first half to send the teams into intermission with WestConn up, 24-21.

Scoring in the second half calmed down quite a bit, but Fleeting found Jawad Chisholm (Bridgeport, CT) from 49 yards out and Dimitrios Tsesmetzis(Hopewell Junction, NY) from four yard away to give the Colonials a comfortable 37-21 advantage with 10:39 left in regulation.

"It was a good team win tonight," added Loth.  "Our defense really settled down in the second half and played well."

Edwards, who threw a seven-yard TD to Szulc with 6:46 left in the game, finished the night by completing 18 of 43 passes for 205 yards and three scores.  He was intercepted by Ryan Jarzavek (Cromwell, CT) with 1:03 remaining in Plymouoth's come-from-behind bid.

Khalil Patterson (Hartford, CT) led the WestConn ground attack with 72 yards on 11 carries.  He racked up most  of his yards after McKinnon left with an injury in the third quarter.

David Hamilton led the Panthers with 47 yards on 18 carries.

Defensively, Kevin Maxen (Waterbury, CT) had seven tackles, two and a half for a loss and recovered a fumble he forced.

Zach Ziemba and Matt Adamik each had nine tackles for Plymouth State, now 2-1 overall and 0-1 in the league

Webcast Produced by WCSU Media

Dir: Scott Volpe
Graphics: Peter Puccio
Replay Tech: Alexia Smith
Cameras: Xena Cajamarca
                Abigail Burford
                Tiffany Owen
                JP Sheehan

Game Audio provided by WXCI