EASTON, Mass. (October 26, 2024) – Duquesne University, receiving votes in this week's AFCA NCAA FCS coaches poll, totaled 555 yards of offense, taking command with a 24-point second quarter and then withstood a late Stonehill College rally attempt to secure a 48-34 victory in Northeast Conference football action on Timothy J. Coughlin, '80 Memorial Field at W.B. Mason Stadium this afternoon.
Senior quarterback
Darius Perrantes tossed five touchdown passes with 412 yards by completing 25-of-34 attempts in engineering the Duquesne offense. He produced a pair of 100-yard receivers in postgrad
John Erby who caught eight passes for 138 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while classmate
Joey Isabella added another eight catches for 118 yards and a score.
Perrantes got a 100-yard rushing effort from junior
JeMario Clements who carried the ball 20 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. Postgrad
Jermaine Johnson and sophomore
Shawn Solomon, Jr. each chipped in touchdown catches for the Dukes.
Dunphy posted a career-high 152 yards on six receptions and his first career touchdown this afternoon (PHOTO BY Bree Smith, '27)
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Junior
Jack O'Connell posted a career-high four touchdown passes of his own, completing 13-of-26 passes for a career-best 231 yards. Classmate
Brigham Dunphy accounted for a career-high 152 of those yards, including 97 after the catch, on six catches with his first career touchdown. Postgrad
Jacob Flynn collected the first two touchdowns of his Stonehill career after scoring one touchdown in five years (16 games) at the University of Connecticut.
Senior
Jarel Washington added 83 yards on the ground as Stonehill posted 336 total yards on 20 carries with a touchdown, while junior
Cole Clarke chipped in with a touchdown.
Junior
Ty Howard totaled a team-high nine tackles (three solo) for the Duquesne defense with a fumble recovery. Sophomore
Luke Miller forced a fumble to go with five tackles (two solo), including 2.0 tackles for a loss of six yards, and a half sack.
Junior safety
Jordan Irvine finished with a career-best 14 tackles (career-high 11 solo), posting his first career double-digit tackle total. Sophomore
Charles Battaglia added six stops (two solo) and an interception.
How It Happened
- Duquesne overcame an early turnover when Battaglia picked off Perrantes during the opening drive of the game to score the first 21 points of the game.
- Clements opened the scoring with a three-yard touchdown rush with 50-seconds remaining in the opening quarter to cap a 15-play, 91-yard drive that consumed 7:38.
- Perrantes found Solomon, Jr. for a 36-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter and two plays after Howard recovered a Stonehill fumble on the Skyhawks first play from scrimmage after the opening touchdown.
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O'Connell posted a career-high four touchdown passes, totaling a career-best 231 yards today (PHOTO BY Sophia DiNanno, '27)
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Perrantes gave Duquesne a three-score lead just 5:02 into the second quarter with a 12-yard touchdown to Isabella.
- Stonehill got on the scoreboard with Dunphy collecting a pass from O'Connell and racing 52 yards down the right sideline for his first career touchdown with 6:42 remaining in the half.
- Duquesne tacked on ten points in the final 99 seconds of the half with Perrantes' 29-yard touchdown pass to Johnson with 1:39 on the clock, before postgrad Brian Bruzdewicz delivered his first of two field goals in the game with a 24-yard try as time expired on the half.
- Stonehill opened the second half with a nine-play, 75-yard scoring drive, capped by an 11-yard touchdown by Flynn from O'Connell 4:40 into the third quarter. Flynn would add his second score with a 23-yard reception from O'Connell with 61 seconds to play in the third, closing out a ten-play, 75-yard drive after Perrantes fourth touchdown of the game to Erby.
- Erby added his second touchdown of the third quarter with five seconds left on a 32-yard pass from Perrantes and then Bruzdewicz added a 30-yard field goal with 5:20 to play in regulation that gave the Dukes a 28-point lead (48-20).
- Stonehill added two touchdowns in the final two minutes of the game to close within two scores as Washington scored his fourth touchdown of the year with a one-yard plunge with 1:55 to play and then Clarke collected a 12-yard touchdown pass from O'Connell with 46 seconds remaining after the Skyhawks recovered an onside kick at midfield.
- Duquesne recovered the second onside kick attempt and was able to see the clock out from there.
Flynn caught the first two touchdowns of his Skyhawks career this afternoon (PHOTO BY Bree Smith)
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Noteworthy
- Stonehill outscored Duquesne 28-17 in the second half after trailing by 25 (31-6) at the half.
- Duquesne won for the first time in three meetings between the two programs after Stonehill won the first two encounters since elevating its program to NCAA I FCS.
- Dunphy's first career 100-yard game included catches of 27 and 33 yards to go with his 52-yard touchdown. His career-high 152 receiving yards today fell just seven yards shy of his career total of 159 yards on ten receptions entering the day.
- Dunphy joins junior tight end Cody Ruff with 100-yard receiving games, with Ruff surpassing the milestone in Stonehill's season-opener at Stony Brook.
- Flynn's two touchdown catches in the third quarter are his first in a Stonehill uniform after transferring from UConn where he scored one touchdown in 16 games, which came in a 28-3 win over Central Connecticut State University in 2022.
- Irvine posted his first career double-figure tackle total with his 14 stops.
- Junior Mo Seide recovered an onside kick late in the game, marking the first time Stonehill recovered an onside kick since Peter Catal did so on September 26, 2015, when Stonehill scored three touchdowns in the final 62 seconds to erase a 17-point deficit with 2:13 to play to post a last-second 40-37 triumph at LIU.
- Washington has six career rushing touchdowns (seven overall) after his fourth-quarter score today.
Up Next:
Stonehill (1-6, 0-3 NEC) returns to action next Saturday for its first of three trips to Pennsylvania over the final month of the season when it visits Saint Francis University at 1 p.m. The Skyhawks are back at W.B. Mason Stadium in two weeks when it hosts Central Connecticut State for an NEC matchup on Senior Day on November 9 at 1 p.m. Duquesne (5-2, 3-0 NEC) hosts Mercyhurst University next Saturday at noon.
For the latest on Stonehill Athletics, follow the Skyhawks via social media on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and check out its all-new website, powered by Sidearm Sports, at stonehillskyhawks.com.
