AVE MARIA, Fla.- The Ave Maria University football team looked to be headed for a shootout with the St. Thomas University Bobcats on Saturday night, but could not keep up with STU's potent offense in a 55-33 defeat in front of more than 2,000 fans at Gyrene Field. The Bobcats held a 21-17 lead at halftime of Ave Maria's Homecoming game, then scored 27 of the next 30 points to pull away from the Gyrenes in the second half.
St. Thomas struck for a touchdown on their first drive of the game, but the Gyrenes scored twice before the end of the first quarter to take their first lead of the game at 10-7. The touchdown came on a pass from Andrew Lege to Darius Sawyer, while Kieran O'Neil connected on a field goal from 34 yards out to put AMU ahead.
The teams traded touchdowns on three consecutive drives in the second quarter, with two scores for STU and one for the Gyrenes. Trailing 14-10, Ave Maria's score came on Lege's second touchdown toss of the day, a 13-yarder that found Roman Newkirk. St. Thomas would answer with a long touchdown pass on their next drive, which would prove to be the final score of the half and left the Bobcats up 21-17.
St. Thomas would never trail again, outscoring the Gyrenes 13-3 in the third quarter to open up a 34-20 lead. The Bobcats would then score on their first two drives of the fourth quarter to finish off their 27-3 run, taking a 48-20 lead.
Ave Maria continued to battle into the fourth quarter, scoring twice in the final 15 minutes. After going down 48-20, Lege logged his longest pass of the day, a 72-yarder that got Joshua Jenkins into the endzone. The final touchdown saw Sawyer get into the endzone for the second time, scoring a seven-yard touchdown thrown his way by Kristian Marks.
It was a fast-paced game between the Sun Conference foes, who ran a total of 158 plays over 60 minutes. Both teams averaged more than five yards per play, with Ave Maria racking up 395 yards of offensive on 78 plays, and St. Thomas recording 592 yards on 80 total plays.
The Gyrenes threw the ball 48 times on Saturday, with starting quarterback Andrew Lege completing 22 of his 47 passes for 245 yards and three touchdowns. Lege's favorite target was Jenkins, who narrowly missed out on school records in receptions and yards with nine catches for 140 yards. Darius Sawyer added five catches and a pair of touchdowns, while Quino Mauricette pulled in four receptions to go with his 59 yards on the ground.
With just one loss in conference play, the Gyrenes still control their own destiny for a share of the Sun Conference title. That control is thanks to next week's opponent, as AMU will look to hand Keiser their first loss in conference play in West Palm Beach. Kickoff between Ave Maria and Keiser at the Keiser Multi-Purpose Field is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Keiser would clinch a share of the conference title with a win, while the Gyrenes would move back into a tie for first place in the loss column.
