In their first trip to the NCAA football playoffs since the 2003 season, the College at Brockport scored 38 first half points and racked up 626 yards of total offense in a 66-0 whitewash of Plymouth State to advance to the second round against Wesley College (Del.).
The 11th ranked Golden Eagles never punted in the game as they opened with a 30-yard field goal from Brett Renzi and followed with a seven play drive capped by a four-yard touchdown run by sophomore quarterback Joe Germinerio to lead 10-0 after the first quarter.
Brockport converted a 71-yard drive on their first possession of the second quarter with Jerry Thompson on the receiving end of a 49 yard touchdown pass before, on Plymouth State’s next possession, senior safety Jake O’Connell (Spencerport) intercepted a pass and ran it all the way for a 45 yard touchdown to make it 24-0.
“Honestly it starts with our D-line,” O’Connell said. “They’ve been doing a great job getting pressure. A lot of those picks (interceptions) I make are a product of the D-line because they are getting so much pressure on the quarterback.
“I saw a crossing route and it was play-action so I read the quarterback’s eyes and he threw it right to me.”
Their next possession came after a third down sack by senior Julius Mizro and ended with a 37-yard scoring strike from Germinerio to DaQuan Hubbard on fourth down. Hubbard was again the recipient of a 43 yard score on a third-and-25 play just prior to the half.
“I started off okay, but then I dropped two passes in a row, but coach (Jason) Mangone and Joe (Germinerio) believed in me and got me the ball again,” Hubbard said. “Joe gave me a chance on the jump ball and I went up and got it.”
Plymouth State opened the second half and held the ball for 11 plays before being stopped on four downs at the Brockport six yard line and it took only two plays for the Golden Eagles to put the game completely out of reach as freshman Tyree Brown ran right and cutback to the middle on his 59 yard scamper to the end zone to make it 45-0.
Sophomore Jason Hellwig then took over at quarterback and ran it in from five yards out after Brown gained 56 yards on two running plays.
Senior Dan Hogan then got in on the act with a pair of rushing touchdowns from 12 and one yard out to finish off the onslaught.
“We pride ourselves on trying to score every drive and limit mistakes and I feel like we did that,” Germinerio said.
Brockport’s defense limited the Panthers to just 104 yards of total offense – minus five yards rushing – and only seven first downs in the entire game.
Germinerio finished 19-27 passing for 316 yards and three passing TD’s, Hubbard had 127 yards receiving with his two scores and Brown had 156 yards on the ground.
“As a guy who has called offense my whole life, now having a defense that, we don’t ever just assume that they’re going to shut people out, but it’s very reassuring that you know that if you don’t score you’re probably going to get the ball back in about a minute and a half,” Brockport head coach Jason Mangone said.
“We have been so self-directed this year in terms of our players. There has been zero coaching off the field by our coaches in the sense that we have to keep them grounded. If anything they are the most grounded team ever, which is a surprise considering the success that we’ve had usually you get caught looking ahead. We don’t have to worry about that – these guys are one lay at a time, one day at a time, one week at a time and I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that all season.”
