Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (October 7)- The FDU-Florham football team (2-3, 1-3 MAC) had a 14-0 lead going into the second half but a second half surge for King's (4-1, 3-1 MAC) that saw 17 unanswered points pushed them past the Devils, 17-14 on Saturday afternoon.

Defensively, Matt Heineman (Staten Island, NY) showed out today with nine total tackles including three for a loss and a sack and had three quarterback hurries. Willie Garner (Brick, NJ) notched 2.5 tackles for loss with 1.5 sacks on the day while Ginika Ozurumba (Union, NJ) collected eight total tackles with 0.5 sacks.

Offensively, Kwanir Edwards (Trenton, NJ)  netted 68 yards on 17 carries and caught four passes for 18 yards. Ryon Thomas (Mattapoisett, Mass.) ran for a touchdown in the game while Aidan Clowry (Pawling, NY) caught three passes for 20 yards.

The Monarchs got the ball first and three plays in, Otis Harold (Vineland, NJ) punched the ball out on a run by Russell Minor-Shaw that was recovered by Jakob Salinas (Bristol, Conn.) on the King's 20-yard line to give FDU excellent field possession for their first offensive drive. The Devils however, moved in the wrong direction and their drive ended on the Monarch's 26-yard line as Thomas could not connect with Clowry on fourth down.

King's punted on their next drive and the Devils put together a six-play, 46-yard drive that was capped off by a 30-yard field goal from Chris DiMedio (Cornwall, NY) to give FDU a 3-0 lead.

Another fumble by Minor-Shaw that was recovered this time from Darius Ferreras (New Milford, NJ) gave The Devils another shot at excellent field possession starting at the Monarch's 38-yard line. Fairleigh Dickinson once again found a field goal on the drive, this time it was from 45-yards out from DiMedio, who gave the Devils a 6-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

The second quarter was highlighted by great defense with each team holding each other to turnovers on downs. With 7:15 on the clock, the Devils defense held strong for a turnover on downs on their own 47-yard line. A personal foul call on third and five moved the ball into King's territory and FDU took it the distance the rest of the way as Thomas capped of a touchdown drive with a nine-yard run on third and goal. Thomas also ran in a two-point conversion to put FDU up, 14-0.

The next drive, Minor-Shaw suffered his third turnover of the day with an interception thrown to Branden Louis (Norwalk, Conn.) but the Devils were not able to capitalize and a fake punt by Joe Ciotti (Madison, Conn.) got stuffed and gave the Monarchs a chance to score before half with the ball on the Devils 38-yard line. King's set up for a field goal just before half, but missed the 38-yarder and entered halftime scoreless.

The defenses once again did their thing through most of the third quarter with no sides offense being able to find anything. With 2:35 left to go in the third, The Monarchs pinned the Devils deep into their own territory and a fumble by Thomas fell into the endzone and he fell on it for a Monarchs safety and cut the lead to 14-2.

The safety sparked momentum for King's as they started with the ball on their own 42-yard line and put together a seven-play, 58-yard drive that was capped off by a one-yard run by Minor-Shaw for a Monarch's touchdown that cut the deficit to 14-9.

The Devils punted on their next drive and another big drive for King's on a eight-play, 80-yard drive was once again capped off on a one yard run by Minor-Shaw and after a successful two-point conversion flipped the game to King's, 17-14.

FDU got the ball back but were unable to do anything with it and a four and out gave King's the ball back with excellent field possession at the Devil's 30. They got all the way down to the FDU 3, were unable to score which gave FDU one last possession on offense but time was against them with 20 seconds and no timeouts, and they ran out of time and ultimately fell to King's.

FDU-Florham returns to Robert T. Shields for a two-game homestand starting with #24 Delaware Valley on Saturday, October 14 with kickoff set for noon.

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