Seahawks rout Bison 48-7

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – The Salve Regina football team wins in dominant fashion on Saturday, 48-7 over Nichols College on Fall Festival Weekend.

The Seahawks had lost three games in a row coming into today's game but left no doubt in this one, racking up 593 yards of offense.  The defense dominated as well limiting the Bison offense to 270 total yards and only 79 on the ground. Salve Regina averaged almost 10 yards per play compared to the Bison's 4.4 yards per play. 

 Salve Regina scored on their first possession of the game, going 53 yards in four plays for the score, a 36-yard touchdown pass from Steven Wilken (Ringwood, N.J.) to Alex Hulme (Hopkinton, Mass.).

Nichols answered however with a six play 92-yard drive scoring on a Jarvis Harris (Houston, Texas) catch and run of 69 yards on a pass from Quillian Respass (Huntington, N.Y.) to tie the game at 7-7.

Salve Regina would then score 41 unanswered points, taking control of the game with a seven play 61 yard scoring drive, Wilken to Michael Mahoney (Mahwah, N.J.) from 20 yards out, followed up by a 60 yard pick-six by Matt Conroy (Philadelphia, Pa.) to give the Seahawks a 21-7 lead in the first quarter.

Salve Regina scored three more times in the second quarter to take a 42-7 lead into halftime. First Mitch Graziano (Kingston, Mass.) caught a 12-yard touchdown, then Hulme scored two more times, one a 62-yard catch and run, the other a 26-yard pass from Wilken set up by a Nichols fumble on the kick-off that gave the Seahawks the ball deep in Bison territory.

The Seahawks would open the second half with their starters and score on the very first play from scrimmage. Dan Buonocore (Mahwah, N.J.) sprinted 65 yards for the score to make it 48-7. 

From the point on reserves for both teams got the majority of the playing time and Salve Regina walked away with a convincing win.

On the day Steven Wilken finished with 14 completions on 19 attempts for 269 yards and five touchdowns. Three of those touchdowns went to Alex Hulme, who posted his second straight three-touchdown performance, hauling in eight passes for 196 yards. On the ground, Buonocore led the way with 186 yards on 15 attempts and a score.

Quillian Respass who completed eight of 25 passes for 191 yards and one touchdown, an interception, and 23 rushing yards led the Bison on offense. Respass was constantly under pressure from the Seahawks defensive line, notably Rory McEntee (Wakefield, R.I.) who tallied six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, and Hayden Stanton (Wallingford, Conn.) who made his return from injury recording four tackles and two sacks for a loss of 16 yards.

Salve Regina head football coach Kevin Gilmartin was happy to see everything come together for his team.

"Our biggest problem has been that we couldn't get everything clicking together." Gilmartin said. "In this game we stopped them on defense, go down the field and score, and get the extra point. Getting offense, defense and special teams rolling makes for a big difference."

Salve Regina now 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the NEFC will next travel to face Western New England on Saturday October 11 at 1 p.m.