Sept. 23, 2006

Box Score | Quotes | Notes

John Simmons broke up a pass off a fake field goal on the game's final play to give Duquesne a dramatic 24-21 win over Sacred Heart at Rooney Field.

Sacred Heart, which dropped to 1-3 on the season, drove to the Duquesne three-yard line with three seconds on the clock when holder Dario Melendez took a high snap from center, hesitated in putting the ball down, stood up and rolled to his right and threw a pass toward the end zone. Simmons emerged from a pack of players to knock the ball to the turf as time expired.

The win, Duquesne's third in a row, upped the Dukes' record to 3-1.

Sacred Heart stunned the Dukes early, scoring on their first two possessions to take a 14-0 lead. Jason Payne, who finished with a game-high 103 yards on 13 carries, opened the scoring with a 56-yard run on the fourth play from scrimmage. On SHU's next possession, quarterback Tyler Arciaga found a wide open Alvin Franklin over the middle for a 19-yard score on a 4th-and-2 play.

Scott Knapp, who completed 21-of-29 passes for 259 yards and three touchdowns, got the Dukes on the board when he found Bruce Hocker from 32 yards out on the first play of the second quarter to make it 14-7. The Knapp-to-Hocker connection clicked again - this time for 33 yards - with just over five minutes left in the half to tie the game at 14-14.

Sacred Heart, which scored all of its points in the first half, answered with a Arciaga to Corey Bundy 44-yard touchdown pass on SHU's next series to give the Pioneers a 21-14 lead.

Duquesne managed to drive 62 yards in seven plays to set up a 37-yard Mark Troyan field goal on the final play of the half.

The only points of the second half, came on a perfectly-thrown 22-yard strike from Knapp to Conrad Carter at the 5:41 mark of the third quarter.

Sacred Heart, which finished with 329 yards, was held to 115 in the second half. One hundred and fifty-four of Duquesne's 332 yards came in the second half.

Bruce Hocker led all receivers with 93 yards on five catches for Duquesne. Dan Spriggs added five catches for 57 yards for DU.

Alvin Franklin caught a game-high six passes for 58 yards for Sacred Heart.

Arciaga, who finished the game 16-of-28 for 203 yards, was just 8-of-22 for 93 yards in the second half.

Todd Mills, Travis Decker and Michael Hill led Duquesne with eight tackles each. Hill and Kyle Postell picked off one pass each for the Dukes.

Sacred Heart's Jon Corto posted a game-high 10 stops for Sacred Heart.

BY QUARTER      1       2       3       4       FINALSACRED HEART    14      7       0       0       21DUQUESNE        0       17      7       0       24
LEADERSRushing (Att./Yds./TD):  DU - McCullough (17-47-0);  SHU - Payne (13-103-1)Passing (Att./Comp./Int./Yds./TD):  DU - Knapp (29-21-2-259-3);  SHU - Arciaga (28-16-2-203-2)Receiving (Att./Yds./TD):  DU - Hocker (5-93-2), Spriggs (5-57-0);  SHU - Franklin (6-58-1)Tackles (Tot./Solo):  DU - Mills (8/5), Decker (8/4), Hill (8/4);  SHU - Corto (10/7)

DUQUESNE QUOTES

Head Coach Jerry Schmitt: "Our guys worked hard this week on focusing on football practice. I think our kids did a good job of that. It was therapeutic for us to get on the field and play, not only for our team but for the campus.

"Sacred Heart is a good football team. I was very concerned about them all week."

On the game's final play: "I was shocked. I was hoping that we might get off the edge and block it."

GAME NOTES

The Dukes - as are all DU athletics teams - wore white wristbands with the number "5" in navy blue on them to honor the five Duquesne basketball players shot last Sunday ... the win was Duquesne's third in a row over a Northeast Conference team this season (Robert Morris and Saint Francis are the others) ... DU is now 6-1 against teams from the Northeast Conference since 2003 ... the win evened the series record at 1-1 ... sophomore quarterback Scott Knapp (Pittsburgh, Pa./Perry Traditional Academy) completed 21-of-29 passes for 259 yards and three touchdowns, giving him seven TD tosses in DU's last two games ... Knapp has 11 touchdown passes in four games this year - nine of which have gone to junior receiver Bruce Hocker (Upper Marlboro, Md./Eleanor Roosevelt) ... Hocker continued his torrid pace with five catches for 93 yards and two touchdowns, giving him 18 catches for 382 yards and 10 touchdowns on the young season ... nearly two-thirds of his 18 catches (11) have gone for scores ... his 10 TD grabs have covered 32, 34, 68, 30, 14, 9, 20, 32 and 33 yards ... he is already six TD's shy of the single-season receiving mark of 16 set by Reggie Harris in 2000 ... Duquesne enjoyed a 21-15 advantage in first downs ... DU, which had just six yards rushing on 11 first-half carries, finished with 73 for the game ... all six touchdowns scored in the game covered at least 19 yards ... Sacred Heart's scores came from 56 (run), 19 (pass) and 44 (pass) yards out, while Duquesne's three touchdowns covered 32, 33 and 22 yards (all passing).