Madison, NJ (October 21)- The FDU-Florham football team (3-4, 2-4 MAC) bounced back after two straight Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) contests and took care of business against Alvernia, defeating the Golden Wolves 41-16 on Saturday afternoon.

Matt Heineman (Staten Island, NY) made FDU-Florham history as he broke the single-game sack record with four sacks on the day. The previous holders were Mike Gibson (1994) and Mike Ortiz (1999). He also led the team in tackles with nine total. Jakob Salinas (Bristol, Conn.) totaled six tackles with 1.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Branden Louis (Norwalk, Conn.) was lights out in the secondary today and recorded two pass breakups while Anthony Cuzzocrea (Staten Island, NY) recorded his first interception of the season.

Offensively, Nayson Brown (Red Bank, NJ) had his best outing of the season, totaling 87 yards on 15 carries. Ryon Thomas (Mattapoisett, Mass.) had an efficient day, throwing 21 completions on 26 attempts for 182 yards and three touchdowns. Anthony Bilotta (Cedar Grove, NJ) had a career day, hauling in five catches for 62 yards and a touchdown while Michael DeSantis (South River, NJ) caught four catches for 49 yards.

After the Devils deferred the opening kickoff, the Golden Wolves got the ball first and scored on their opening drive. The Golden Wolves got inside the Devils 10-yard line, but the defense held strong and Alvernia had to settle for a field goal from 30-yards but took a 3-0 lead.

The Devils got the ball and put together their own scoring drive that started on their 35-yard line. Bilotta highlighted the 11 play, 65-yard drive when he came up big with a 22-yard catch on third and nine at midfield to keep the chains moving and then caught a seven-yard fade ball in the corner of the endzone to help give FDU the 7-3 lead.

On the ensuing drive, Alvernia quarterback Colin Payne threw an interception to Cuzzocrea on the third play of their drive to give the Fairleigh Dickinson the ball on the Alvernia 28. The Devils capitalized on the great field position as Kwanir Edwards (Trenton, NJ) punched it in from a yard out for a 14-3 lead.

Alvernia had a 96-yard kickoff return touchdown nullified by a holding call that started their next drive at their own 14-yard line. Salinas came up big on third and two with a four-yard sack to force a punt. The Devils once again took it to the house on a six-play, 44-yard touchdown drive that was capped off on a Thomas pass to Aidan Clowry (Pawling, NY) on an 11-yard touchdown reception to extend the FDU lead to 21-3.

Heineman had 1.5 sacks on the next Alvernia drive and after a less than ideal punt that gave the Devils the ball on the Golden Wolves 16-yard line. FDU was not able to score a touchdown but was able to collect a field goal as Chris DiMedio (Cornwall, NY) put the ball through the uprights from 26 yards out for a 24-3 FDU lead. With just a minute and a half left in the half, the Golden Wolves gambled on 4^th and 11 at midfield and could not connect to turn the ball over on downs. Fairleigh Dickinson took advantage of the two-minute drill opportunity. The Devils drove the ball down to the Alvernia nine and
Thomas was able to use his legs to make multiple defenders miss and roll his way into the endzone to cap off the best first half of football the team has played all season when FDU took a 31-3 advantage into the half.

After receiving the second half kickoff, FDU remained hot as they put together yet another touchdown drive. 72 of the 88 yards on the touchdown drive were tallied by Nayson Brown on the ground and the drive was capped off by Thomas who flared out a pass to Justin Malak (Staten Island, NY) who scampered in from four yards out for a 38-3 lead.

Alvernia was finally able to score a touchdown on their next drive. Zach Ayers took a kickoff return to the FDU 24-yard line where Shymarr Wright ran it in from 10 yards out to cut the lead to 38-10.

The next scoring drive did not come until the fourth quarter when the Golden Wolves compiled a 12-play, 69-yard drive in for a touchdown that was finished off by a pass from Payne that connected with Joseph Perkins from 12-yards out. The extra point attempt was blocked by Tyler Denner (Germantown, Md.) and left the score at 38-16.

The final scoring drive was by FDU right after the Alvernia scoring drive. The Devils got Chris Maida (Red Bank, NJ) into field goal range where the first-year kicker connected from 40-yards out to finish off the game, 41-16.

FDU-Florham squares off with Eastern for the first time in program history on Saturday, October 28 where the two teams will play at the University of Pennsylvania at 1:00 pm.

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