Football Falls to Holy Cross 34-33 Friday Night

The anticipation was building for Friday night’s game against Holy Cross in more ways than one. First, it was homecoming. Second, the start time was pushed back to 7:30 and then 7:50 due to the thunderstorms that rolled through the area.

Cinnaminson got off to a roaring start, leading 21-0 at halftime, but surrendered 34 points in the second half to fall to Holy Cross by a final score of 34-33. The Pirates fall to 4-1, while the Lancers move to 3-2.

Box Score

Everything seemed to be going right for the Pirates in the first half as the running game, passing game and defense were all clicking.

“We were flying around, playing great offense, great defense, great specials,” head coach Mario Patrizi said. “We had all the momentum in the world. Obviously, they made some adjustments. They did some nice things.”

The Pirates opened the scoring on a 10-yard run from quarterback Shaun Davilla with 7:22 to go in the first quarter. The score was setup by a 37-yard pass from Davilla to receiver Frank Stepnowski to the 10-yard line of the Lancers.

With 3:19 to go before the half, Davilla found Devon Taylor for a 58-yard strike that gave Cinnaminson a 13-0 lead. Then, with 30 seconds left, Davilla found receiver Kevin Schoch from 16 yards out to up the lead to 21-0.

The crowd was loving the game, the Pirates were up 21-0 at the break and all seemed well in Cinnaminson. Then, the second half happened.

“We knew what they were going to try to do and they did it,” Patrizi said. “They did a nice job. They put it in the air a little bit. The thing that hurts, when you start giving up the run, then you’re in trouble. If you can stop the run and force the pass, then you got a little something, but we didn’t do that. We were guessing and once you start guessing, you play on your heels and you’ve got a problem.”

Cinnaminson botched the kickoff to open the second half, giving the Lancers the ball at the Cinnaminson 44 yard line. It took the Lancers less than three minutes to score their first points of the game, a three-yard run from CJ DeGeorge. A successful PAT kick put the score at 21-7 in favor of the Pirates.

“We’ve had some good wins. We just gotta keep building. We knew they weren’t going to quit. The thing is, in the second half, you can’t let them score early. They didn’t take any time off the clock. They scored and I think there was 10 minutes to go in the third quarter. Once that happened, that’s an issue and we never could regroup.”

Cinnaminson answered immediately, upping the score to 27-7 on a 59-yard pass from Davilla to Taylor. Despite going up by 20 with 8:31 left in the third, the Lancers had an answer for everything the Pirates threw at them.

Undercuffler struck again, this time with a 19-yard pass to Matt Correnti for a touchdown that pulled Holy Cross to 27-14. This Lancers score was setup by a turnover on downs by the Pirates offense, which went for it on fourth and one from their own 23, but were stuffed by Cross’ defense.

“At 27-7 I took a chance with fourth and one and we didn’t get it and it kind of turned the momentum around,” Patrizi said.

With a little over two minutes left in the third, the Lancers pulled to within 27-21 when Undercuffler found Rob Rodolico for a 9-yard touchdown pass. This Holy Cross score was setup by a Correnti interception of Davilla that he returned to the Pirates 11 yard line. Cinnaminson held a 27-21 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.

Holy Cross would take its first lead of the night on a 34-yard pass from Undercuffler to Jordan Baxter with 9:33 remaining in regulation.

Three minutes later, Davilla scored from seven yards out on a keeper to put the Pirates on top at 33-28 after a two-point conversion attempt failed.

Holy Cross took the lead for good with 1:53 left in the game when DeGeorge scored from five yards out on a run. A two-point conversion attempt failed and the Lancers led 34-33. The Lancers drive was kept alive on a fake punt run for a first down by Correnti on fourth and three from the Lancers own 35.

From the fake punt play to the winning touchdown, the Lancers were able to kill 3:44 off the clock.

Coming into Friday night’s game with Holy Cross, the Pirates had outscored their opponents 103-25, including two shutouts.

“The 34 points, that’s a lot. It’s very surprising,” Patrizi said. “I’m not gonna lie to you, that’s uncharacteristic of us. The coaches have to see what happened and we will go from there. Defensively we really did nothing. We lost our edge and were just hoping. Against teams like Holy Cross, who have a will to win, you’re going to be in trouble and it bit us tonight.”

The Pirates were able to get the ball back twice in the final 1:53, but turned the ball over on downs after four straight incompletions on the first drive.

The Pirates got the ball back one final time near midfield after a Lancers punt, but Davilla was sacked on the final play of the game, sending Cinnaminson to their first loss of the season.

Davilla finished the night with three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns. Taylor had two receptions, both for touchdowns. The Pirates left four points on the field Friday night in two missed PAT kicks and one failed two-point conversion.

Cinnaminson football returns to the field next Friday, October 16 at 7pm when Lawrence comes to town.

“I think it’s going to be a tough game,” Patrizi said. “This is the first time all season we’ve faced adversity. Where are we gonna go? How do we regroup from this? Lawrence, they’re a Group III school. We need the game.”