Photos By Michael Lipscomb
By Abrielle Tutino
The football team produced five turnovers to earn a 69-13 homecoming win over Catholic in Landmark Conference action Saturday at Doug Arthur Stadium.
Despite Susquehanna’s (5-2 overall, 3-0 Landmark) impressive offensive output, it was the defense that was nothing short of exceptional. Led by Berkeley Wagner’s 21-yard interception return and seven tackles, the defense intercepted a pair of passes and recovered three fumbles.
“We did very well, but we have a lot of things we need to work on,” Wagner said. “We gave them too many free first downs and penalties.”
Vin Raniero also had an interception after a pass deflected off the helmet of a Catholic (3-5, 2-2) player. Fumbles were also forced by Josh Angelo and Kaeleb Fees. The River Hawks had a total of 13 penalties during the matchup.
“I have all the faith in the world in our defense to have short fields like we did today,” SU quarterback Josh Ehrlich said.
Susquehanna ended the first quarter with 13 points on the board from a 42-yard field goal by Dominic Bourgeois, and a 54-yard touchdown from Michael Robins.
The momentum didn’t end there with Rahshan La Mons scoring a 14-yard touchdown, followed by Wagner’s interception. With 7 minutes left in the half, Tommy Grabowski rushed up the middle for a 1-yard touchdown, giving the Riverhawks a 27-0 lead.
Before entering the locker room, Ehrlich completed a pass to Daniel Growney for 39 yards, bringing the score to 34-6 at half time.
Ehrlich led the Riverhawks in rushing and passing yards with a total of 294 passing yards and 94 yards gained on the ground.
Late in the third quarter, Ehrlich called on La Mons for his second touchdown of 33 yards, bringing the score to 41-13. Freshman Carter McCauley then scored a 29-yard touchdown just over a minute later.
Early in the final quarter, Ehrlich tossed his fifth touchdown pass of the day to Hunter Morgenroth (7 yards). Backup quarterback Tommy Wright also completed a pair of touchdown passes to John Kradenski and Connor Daly.
“John has had a tumultuous year with a lot of different things so to see him get in to the end zone was a spectacular thing and you could tell how proud we were with our sideline,” SU coach Tom Perkovich said.
The River Hawks are the only Landmark team still unbeaten in conference play. They will play at Western Connecticut State next weekend before hosting Wilkes in a potential title-clinching game.
