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EWING – A ray of light seemed to shine throughout the bright, soon-to-be autumn sky in Lions Stadium, as The College of New Jersey football program had reason to believe that they had made the adjustments necessary to pick up a victory over NJAC rival Kean University.
It proved to be just a brief break in the clouds, though, as the Lions (0-3) were surprised by the much-improved Kean Cougars (2-0) in a Saturday afternoon contest filled with very similar groupings of causes to effects, losing at home 23-6.
These chains of events seemed always to benefit Kean, despite their playing a penalty filled, injury-riddled game that TCNJ was unable to capitalize on.
A pattern was established early, in two straight first quarter drives, the Lions offense marched up the field, aided by the play-making ability of wide receiver Conor Mulholland, into the red-zone of the Cougars.
Both drives ended with interceptions by quarterback Michael Marchesano. He finished the game with only nine completions on 20 throws, and those two interceptions landed him on the bench for most of the second half action.
He was replaced by Trevor Osler, a taller, more accurate thrower, who had his way with the Kean secondary in the second half. When asked if he believed in the timeshare system at quarterback, he wasn’t going to throw his teammate under the bus.
“That’s Coach Wayne Dickens’s system,” Osler said. “A lot of teams use two quarterbacks, like Ohio State, and they’re arguably the best team in the country.”
The Lions have always been a ground operating team, relying on their run, especially from senior back Victor Scalici to jumpstart their offense. Today, after falling behind 10-0 at halftime and 17-0 early in the third quarter, the playbook called for more passes, something Osler really succeeded with.
“I go in and try to do the best job I can for our team,” said Osler. He finished with 143 yards and threw TCNJ’s lone touchdown of the game.
Kean’s physical offensive front and stellar blocking created immense amounts of running room that had the Lions worn out by the end of long, quickly paced drives. Kean’s quarterback Tyler Rodriguez, as always, was a dual threat to run and pass, as he used his quick decision-making to put the offense into a hurry-up and scrambled around avoiding multiple sacks.
Rodriguez, after a game in which he threw for 263 yards, a touchdown, and scrambled for 69 yards, left the game in the early fourth quarter with an apparent wrist injury. Talented running back and return-man Damian Corredor also left with an injury after 167 all-purpose yards on the ground and receiving.
Kean didn’t make it easy on itself for that reason, even after amassing a three-score lead, they did not elect to slow down and use reserves, which allowed two of their main offensive weapons to get injured. They also had 100 total yards of penalties, which stalled successful drives and sent back three big runs by reserve tailback Kyree Tyson-Jones.
It was a game of missed opportunities by TCNJ, unable to capitalize on penalties, injuries, and missed field goals by Kean. Despite this, the crowd of just under 500 people still got excited in the 4th quarter, as Osler developed strong chemistry with receivers Mulholland and Nick Craig. Mulholland had a long touchdown reception, and Craig had a leaping catch in the end-zone that was nullified by the officials because he couldn’t get a foot down inbounds.
“It would’ve been great to have Nicky Craig haul that ball in,” Osler said.
It was instead an afternoon of what could’ve been.
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