Nov. 5, 2005

Box Score | Quotes | Notes

Pittsburgh, Pa. - Duquesne used a dominating performance from its defense to secure its seventh consecutive Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Football League title with a 56-14 win over La Salle at Rooney Field. The victory, in addition to giving the Dukes their ninth league championship in the past 11 seasons, also extended DU's conference winning streak to a nation's best 37 games and clinched Duquesne's 12th consecutive winning season.

Duquesne, which entered the game ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division I-AA in total defense, showed why by recording 11 sacks and picking off four passes. All-American middle linebacker Harry Carter led the Dukes with 13 total tackles including 3.0 sacks in his final home game.

The DU defense set the tone early when Kyle Postell picked off a Michael Jump pass - the first of two Postell interceptions - at La Salle's 27 yard line on the first play of the game.

True freshman quarterback Kevin Rombach, who was making his first career start, completed a 19-yard pass to Bruce Hocker on Duquesne's first play from scrimmage to set up a one-yard plunge by Jeremy McCullough. Rombach, who was playing because of injuries to starter Scott Knapp (shoulder) and back-up Ben Palumbo (ankle), completed a 45-yard pass to Dan Spriggs to set up a one-yard scoring run by Greg Hough to put the Dukes up 14-0 at the end of one quarter.

Jump, who was sacked seven times on the afternoon, found John Zabel from 29 yards out to cut the lead to seven early in the second quarter.

Duquesne answered with a four-play, 52-yard drive capped by a six-yard Rombach to Alex Roberson touchdown to up its lead to 21-7. Travis Taltoan, who finished with seven catches for 120 yards, caught two passes - including a 41-yarder along the sideline to set up the score.

La Salle would get no closer than two touchdowns the rest of the day. Michael Ford returned the first of his two interceptions 41 yards for a score to give Duquesne a 28-7 lead with 11:49 left in the half.

Jump found Greg Vacarro from six yards out on the final play of the half to make the score 28-14.

From that point on it was all Duquesne, as the defense held La Salle to 18 second-half yards while the Dukes scored four more times. Anthony Tillman blocked a punt that was recovered by Steve Mougis in the end zone to make it 35-14 late in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, Taltoan caught a 31 touchdown pass from Rombach, McCullough, who finished with a game-high 90 yards on 14 carries, scored on a five-yard run and Jay Bluford, who was in for Rombach, scored from 46 yards out on a quarterback draw with 5:38 left to close out the scoring.

La Salle, which was held to minus six yards rushing on 31 attempts, finished with 170 total yards.

Rombach was nearly flawless completing 12-of-15 passes for 207 and two scores as the Dukes finished with 390 yards of total offense. Antoine Bullock added three sacks for the Dukes to up his school record career total to 27.5. Ryan Esdale also posted a pair of sacks for DU.

BY QUARTER      1       2       3       4       FINALLA SALLE        0       14      0       0       14DUQUESNE        14      14      7       21      56

LEADERS

Rushing (Att./Yds./TD)
DU - McCullough (14-90-2)
LAS - Sullivan (12-39-0)

Passing (Att./Comp./Int./Yds./TD)
DU - Rombach (15-12-0-207-2)
LAS - Jump (31-18-3-166-2)

Receiving (Att./Yds./TD)
DU - Taltoan (7-120-1)
LAS - Russo (6-46-0)

Tackles (Tot./Solo)
DU - Carter (13/9)
LAS - Lauri (10/7)