The bye week came at a bad time for the Duquesne Dukes as they saw their four-game win streak come to an end, 38-31 at the hands of previously winless Central Connecticut State.
Star running back Larry McCoy, who entered the game less than 165 yards away from setting the DU all-time school record for rushing, missed the game due to injury, but his replacement Ryan Ho rushed for a career-high 114 yards, rushing for one touchdown and also catching a scoring pass for DU.
However the Duquesne offense wasn’t the problem, but instead it was another slow start by the Dukes, who have been playing catch up football all season. They rallied from a 17-0 deficit to tie the game late in the third quarter, but could never gain the lead.
The Duquesne (4-2, 2-1) defense, who has performed very well during the Dukes’ four-game win streak, didn’t play very well in this one, allowed 495 yards of total offense in the defeat. CCSU, which began the afternoon averaging only 261 yards per game, outgained DU 147-71 in the opening 15 minutes.
The Dukes fell behind early on a Juan Duque 22-yard field goal which came after a fumble by Ho. In the process, CCSU grabbed a lead for the first time in any game this season. That was followed up by a one-yard touchdown run by CCSU quarterback Andrew Clements, which came after a 37-yard play on a fake field goal. Clements made it 17-0 with a seven-yard run, before Ho got the Dukes on the board with a two-yard touchdown run to make it a 17-7 game at the half.
Duquesne stormed out of the locker room to tie the game at 17 early in the third.
Quarterback Sean Patterson threw one of his three touchdown passes on the afternoon, a five-yard strike to Sean Brady to pull the Dukes within three. Charlie Leventry tied the game with a 30-yard field goal, but Duquesne could never get over the hump.
CCSU answered with a pair of touchdowns, a 34-yard touchdown pass from Clements to Devin Baker and a 14-yard touchdown run from Nate Pagan to make it 31-17.
Patterson pulled Duquesne within a score with an 18-yard touchdown to Ho, but CCSU’s Rob Hollomon broke a 29-yard touchdown run to put Duquesne down 14 once again. Patterson hit Brady again, this time for a 25-yard score with just over six minutes remaining, but that would be as close as Duquesne would get.
Patterson threw for 248 yards and three touchdowns and added another 38 yards rushing, but it wasn’t enough to come out with a win. Hollomon ran for 164 yards and a score for CCSU, while Clements threw for one touchdown and ran for two more and combined for 271 yards of total offense.
Duquesne returns home for the first of back-to-back home games when it takes on Sacred Heart on Saturday, Oct. 20 at 12:10 p.m.
Photo Credit: Duquesne
