TELEGRAM: Pace defeats Greyhound football, 21-14

October 12, 2008

By Rick Eggleston

WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

CORRESPONDENT

WORCESTER- With its offense sputtering for the better part of yesterday's Northeast-10 showdown against Pace, Assumption College knew if it had any shot at winning, it would have to work a little late magic.

After a little hocus-pocus in the waning moments of the third quarter and into the fourth, the Greyhounds sat poised at making the Setters disappear from Multi-Sport Stadium.

In the end, however, the Houdini act - a fumble recovery on the Pace 1 that resulted in an Assumption touchdown, and later a blocked Pace field goal that led to a fake-punt first down and an eventual score that tied the game for Assumption - wasn't enough as the Setters battled back in the final four minutes for a 21-14 victory.

"If teams don't win games, either the players aren't very good, you don't play hard, or you're not executing," Assumption coach Adam Fuller said. "Right now, it's a matter of us mostly not executing. We have good players, so I'll take the blame that we can't win the close ones yet."

It wasn't all gloom and doom for the scrappy Hounds (1-5, 1-3), who faced Pace (4-2, 3-1) for the second time this season. In their first meeting to open the season, Pace came from behind to win.

Yesterday, it was the Greyhounds' turn to play the role of comeback kids, only to come up short after Pace running back Nate Ford rumbled in for a 2-yard touchdown to seal the deal with 1:40 left.

"Every time (Pace) needed to run the football, they were having success," said Fuller, whose team was outgained in rushing yards, 126-100.

Pace's Ray Gregg (14 of 26, 206 yards) threw two touchdown passes to give the Setters a 14-0 lead.

But defense - led by Chris Martino (12 tackles), Dustin Zitzmann (11 tackles), Mike Foley and David Fulvio - kept Assumption in the game and led to its first score after Zitzmann recovered a botched Pace handoff at the Setters' 1-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Josh Ratacik (21 of 37, 162 yards) faked right and then spun left to score on a 5-yard keeper, cutting the Setters' lead in half with 21 seconds left in the third period.

Pace marched to the Hounds' 24 and attempted a field goal that was blocked by Bernard Scott. Ratacik set up shop at his 41, and with Assumption facing a long fourth down and poised to punt, backup QB Andy Kupec took the snap and fired a 30-yard strike to Joey Fabiano for the first down.

Three plays later, Ratacik hit Fabiano with a 32-yard TD pass, pushing the senior wideout over the career 1,000-yard plateau and tying the game, 14-14.