Saint’s Football visited Rochester Saturday, Oct. 6, for a big win with a final score of 38-24, bringing them up to a record of 2-4. Early in the first quarter, Joseph Viscardo ’21 caught a three-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Aaron Ruthman ’21 to bring the Saints ahead 7-0.
Rochester answered with a 45-yard touchdown pass to bring the game to a tie. The back and forth continued when Matt Cognetta ’20 made a two-yard touchdown run to bring the Saints back into the lead 13-7 by the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter ended with a field goal and touchdown for Rochester bringing them in the lead over the Saints with a score, 17-13. Fortunately, the Saints managed to enter halftime in the lead when Ruthman ran for a 10-yard touchdown for the last play of the first half to give the Saints a 21-17 halftime lead.
The Saints built up to a 31-17 lead in the third quarter with a 21-yard field-goal by Austin Pinard and a four-yard run for a touchdown by Saints’ Jamie Battaglia ’22 . The third quarter closed with the score standing at 31-17.
Rochester fought hard in the fourth quarter with a 16-yard completion for a touchdown, but the Saints responded with a one-yard run for a touchdown by Darian Davis ’22 to end the game with a final score of 38-24.
Saints’ wide receiver, Anthony Ferraro ’21, broke the school record of 13 catches by completing the game with 18 catches. He broke the record that was previously shared between his brother, Vincenzo Ferraro ’18 and Bill Suminek ’79. He totaled 174 receiving yards for the day.
Ruthman tied Mike Lefflbine’s ’16 record of 35 completions in a game. He passed JP Kearney ’16 and Jon Blumhagen’s ’05 record of 50 attempts by two, ending the game with 52 attempts. He finished the game with 347 passing yards and only one interception.
Ruthman said, “I just plan on continuing to keep the same energy so that the rest of my teammates can feed off of it and continue to be consistent every day and every week of practice in order to be ready for the games. An individual goal for myself on Saturday was to go through my reads and make the right calls so that we executed every play to its full potential and for the most part that’s what we did.”
He also made note of how special an accomplishment it is for him to have his name marked down in SLU athletic history.
After the game, St. Lawrence head coach Dan Puckhaber said, “our defense found ways to get off the field in the second half and the offense was able to run the game out at the end. I’m really proud of how Austin Pinard was able to make some kicks today and give his teammates some confidence in him. It is nice to have some momentum headed into the bye week. We challenged the team this week to ‘keep swinging’ and they did.”
The Saints are looking to bring the same defense and energy to their next game against Union on Oct. 20.