MADISON, N.J. – Despite a season-high 381 yards of total offense, the FDU-Florham football team suffered a 45-17 Homecoming-Day defeat to the King's College Monarchs on Saturday afternoon at Robert T. Shields Field.

With the win, the Monarchs improved to 3-3 overall and 3-2 in conference action, while the Devils remain winless at 0-6 and 0-5 in the MAC.

In the loss, Devils quarterback Tyler Maurer (West Milford, N.J.) tossed for a career-high 357 yards, however, the junior also had three passes intercepted.

The Monarchs offense was geared by quarterback Tyler Hartranft's  346 combined yards, to which he added two touchdowns.

The afternoon began with promise for the Devils as they forced the King's offense to a three-and-out on the opening possession of the game.

FDU-Florham's first drive started at their own 10-yard line but quickly advanced down the field thanks to a 19-yard completion to James Ognibene (Chester, N.Y.) and a 41-yard dart to freshman Tyler Adams (Port Murray, N.J.). Unfortunately, on the next play Mauer rolled out under duress and King's junior Anthony Martuccio picked off the intended pass, which promptly ended the promising drive.

Following another King's three-and-out, the Devils took over at their own 22-yard line. Mauer opened the drive by hitting freshman standout Malik Pressley (Sayreville, N.J.) for 19 and 10 yard gains. Later on the drive, Maurer found Adams for 19 yards down to the King's 32-yard line. Two plays later, Anthony Ognibene (Chester, N.Y.) caught a screen pass and took it down to the one-yard line. Ognibene capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge and the Devils led 7-0.

On the ensuing kickoff, King's senior wide out Dan Kempa turned on the jets and returned the kick 90 yards to the house, which evened the score at 7-7 and shocked the capacity crowd.

After a Devils' punt, King's quickly marched into Devils territory on the back of a 45-yard completion to junior fullback Patrick Robinson. Robinson found pay dirt on the next play from nine-yards out and gave the Monarchs a 14-7 advantage with 1:52 to play in the first quarter.

Maurer locked in on Ognibene for 22 yards and Pressley for 19 yards to get the Devils into prime scoring position on the next drive. Pressley then had a 23-yard touchdown catch nullified by an offensive interference call.  Three plays later, a miscommunication led to Martuccio's second pick of the day, however, this time Martuccio turned it into a 91-yard interception return touchdown and increased the Monarch's lead to 21-7.

FDU-Florham's offense remained undeterred and marched 45 yards on five plays to climb back within a touchdown at 21-14. Maurer capped the drive with a two-yard quarterback-keeper for his first rushing score of the season.

The Devils matriculated 79 yards on nine plays on their next possession and junior kicker Sean Gavin (Upton, Mass.) drilled a 35-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 21-17.

King's countered with a 10-play, 78 yard excursion that also resulted in a field goal and again went ahead by a touchdown. After a Devils' three-and-out, Hartranft capped a 63-yard drive with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Robinson, which increased the lead to two scores 1:06 before halftime.

After allowing 359 yards to the Devils in the first half, the Monarchs limited FDU-Florham to just 59 yards in the second half. With the FDU-Florham offense in neutral, King's only need 14 second-half points to secure the 45-17 victory.

One week after tying the Devils single-game reception record, Pressley excelled again by hauling in nine catches for 116 yards in the loss.

Making his first start of the season, Devils sophomore linebacker John DePalma (Staten Island, N.Y.) made a game-high 10 tackles.

For King's, senior Kris Matthews made 10 stops, while Bobby Russell and Nick Kaijala tacked on six each.

Next up for the Devlis:
FDU-Florham is off to Stevenson, Md. to battle with Stevenson College next Saturday, October 25^th at 1 p.m.