Football Opens Conference Play With Road Loss at Bryant
Blue Devils have a bye next week before heading to Penn on Oct. 8
The Central Connecticut football team opened Northeast Conference play with a road loss at Bryant University on Saturday, falling 45-25 to drop to 1-3 overall on the season and 0-1 in the league. The Bulldogs are now 2-3 overall and 1-0 in the league.
Central will have a bye next week before heading to Penn on Oct. 8 for a non-conference game beginning at 1 p.m.
Bryant scored on four of five first half possessions to take a 28-3 lead at halftime. They began the day with an eight-play, 71-yard drive and took a 7-0 lead after their first possession. JEan Constant ran it in from 20-yards out for the score and the early lead.
The Blue Devils put their best first half drive together on their first possession, as they drove 86-yards on 12 plays but were stopped short of the goalline and settled for a 20-yard Ed Groth field goal.
The Bulldogs would put together 21 straight points to end the half and take the big lead into halftime. Quarterback Dalton Easton ran for one score and threw for one as the Bulldog offense scored on all four trips inside the red zone. Easton was 13-of-17 for 155 yards before halftime.
Central sophomore quarterback Jacob Dolegala was 11-of-19 for 110 yards before halftime but the offense was forced to punt three times on its five first half possessions. The offense drove to the Bulldog 30-yardline just before the half but a ball to the end zone went incomplete as the half ended.
The Blue Devils cut into the lead in the third quarter, scoring their first touchdown of the game on defense. Sophomore strong safety Tymir Hinton intercepted an Easton pass and took it 65 yards for a Blue Devils touchdown. It was the second interception for a touchdown this season by the Blue Devils. The two-point conversion made it 28-11.
But the Bulldogs answered immediately, going 65-yards in just seven plays to push the lead back to 35-11. They made it 38-11 on a Ricky Perez field goal from 38 yards with 33 seconds left in the third quarter.
Dolegala hit sophomore K.J. Smith with a three yard touchdown pass to cut the Bulldog lead to 38-18 with 10:16 left in the fourth quarter. The touchdown was the first for the offense on the day and capped an impressive 19-play drive that went for 75 yards. It was helped by a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt from Groth.
Following a Bryant score, Dolegala threw his second touchdown pass of the game, this time to sophomore running back Drew Jean-Guillaume to make it 45-25 with seven seconds left in the game.
The Blue Devils have a bye week next week and will then head to Penn for a non-conference game on Oct. 8 beginning at 1 p.m.
