MIDDLETOWN, R.I. - Salve Regina senior running back Dan Buonocore (Mahwah, N.J.) rushed for three touchdowns (7, 18, 3) and 124 yards on 30 carries to lead the Seahawks to a 35-23 victory over the Gulls of Endicott College in New England Football Conference (NEFC) action at Gaudet Field.
Last year's NEFC finalists met again in the final game of the regular season with identical records; Salve Regina improves to 6-4 overall (5-2 NEFC) while Endicott slips to .500 overall (5-5, 4-3 NEFC). The Gulls dropped their final three conference games of the season.
Endicott scored on its first two, and final two, possessions of the game.
Salve Regina won the coin toss and elected to kickoff. The Gulls began their opening drive at their own 25 and QB Drew Frenette (New Bedford, Mass.) completed two of his first three passes, both first downs, and put Endicott in Seahawk territory. Four of Frenette's next five passes also found his targets, including a third-down, 13-yard completion to Dimitri Skinsacos (Old Orchard Beach, Maine) for six points. Kyle Regan (Nashua, N.H.) added the PAT kick for a 7-0 Endicott lead.
Regan's ensuing kickoff was fielded by junior Alex Hulme (Hopkinton, Mass.) at his one-yard line, who then cut across the field to return 83 yards passing his teammates on the sideline before being brought down by the kicker.
That set up a three-play, 16-yard drive for the Seahawks who used 50 seconds on the first quarter clock to have Buonocore finish with a seven-yard TD run. Jackie Hurley's (Kingston, Mass.) PAT kick tied the score at 7-7.
The visitors moved the ball with three first downs on their next drive, but settled for a Regan 27-yard field goal after 12 plays. Salve Regina LB Matt Conroy (Philadelphia, Pa.) came around the left tackle to catch Frenette on a rush five yards in the backfield on 3rd-and-goal from the Seahawk 5-yard line.
Salve Regina's next drive started at its own 20 as Regan avoided Hulme with his kickoff.
Steven Wilken (Ringwood, N.J.) connected with Matthew Traynor (Secaucus, N.J.) for 18 yards and a first down. Buonocore caught a pass out of the backfield for eight yards, rushed for four yards on the next play into Endicott territory, and a face mask penalty on the Gulls gave the Seahawks a first down at the visitor's 30-yard line.
A Buonocore three-yard rush preceded a Wilken to Hulme completion for nine yards. Buonocore finished the drive with an 18-yard TD run. Hurley's kick made it 14-10 Salve Regina with 2:46 left in the first.
Sophomore defensive back Joey Farrar (Watertown, Mass.) picked off a Frenette pass at the Seahawk 36 and returned the ball 18 yards into Endicott territory. Wilken used three different targets - Buonore for nine, Hulme for 13, and Traynor for 21 - to complete a touchdown drive in five plays and 46 yards. The latter was the school-record 11th touchdown of the season for Traynor which gave Salve Regina a 21-10 lead.
In the Seahawks' opening drive of the second half, Wilken had a 10-yard rush on 4th-and-7 and later a 15-yard pass to Hulme on 4th-and-8, that put the ball at the Gulls' five-yard line. Two more rushes for Buonocore had the Seahawks with a commanding 28-10 lead.
Erik Klein's (Springfield, Pa.) interception of a Frenette pass ended another Gulls' drive deep in Seahawk territory. Salve Regina then engineered its most time-consuming drive (12 plays, 84 yards, 6:15) that resulted in a four-yard keeper for Wilken just over a minute into the fourth quarter.
Once again, Frenette marched his team downfield on a drive that consumed eight plays and 36 yards, but ended with a sack by Ethan Gambale (Mays Landing, N.J.) and a fumble recovery for Hayden Stanton (Wallingford, Conn.) at the Seahawk 30 with 11:49 remaing.
Salve Regina, which led 35-10 at that point, made only one first down in its next three possessions.
Following a Benjamin Barrett (West Greenwich, R.I.) punt that pinned Endicott on its own 11, Frenette had nine completions during a nine-play, 89-yard scoring drive. Nate Lewis (Acushnet, Mass.) caught five of those passes including the 10-yard TD strike with 5:53 remaining.
Salve Regina benefitted from a Regan onside-kick attempt going out of bounds to give the Seahawks the ball at the Endicott 49. Three plays netted one yard before Barrett punted into the wind to the Gulls 25-yard line.
Frenette completed 10-of-14 passes on the next drive covering 75 yards in 3:16. Brett Egizi (Walpole, Mass.) took a 15-yard flip from Frenette and reached over the pylon in the corner for the third Endicott TD of the game to make it a 12-point difference (35-23) with 1:05 left to play. Frenette's two-point conversion pass was intercepted by Frank Musco (Montvale, N.J.) with no return.
Wilken finished with 12 completions in 20 attempts (one interception) for 126 yards. Frenette passed 67 times with 47 completions and two interceptions. The Gulls were limited to 40 yards rushing while the Seahawks had 169 yards on the ground including four touchdowns.
Phil Terio (Trumbull, Conn.) and Troy Smith (Madison, Conn.) both had 10 tackles apiece for Salve Regina. Connor McLaughlin (Canton, Mass.) led the Gulls with 10 tackles (nine solo).