CANTON, N.Y. – The No. 18/18 Endicott football team defeated St. Lawrence, 44-13, on Saturday afternoon in the season opener for both teams at Leckonby Stadium.
Endicott jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in the contest.
The Gulls were gifted an early safety at the 12:30 mark (2-0) via a botched punt attempt in St. Lawrence's end zone before Clayton Marengi (Lynnfield, Mass.) connected on TD passes with Jayson Little (Natick, Mass.) and Shane Aylward (Tewksbury, Mass.) to close out the quarter (10:27, 15 yards, 9-0 | 7:10, 11 yards, 16-0).
From there, Endicott scored 21 more unanswered points to head into the locker room with a 37-0 advantage.
Marengi finished the contest 13-17 passing (76.5%) for 190 yards and three touchdowns. He also ripped off a 30-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter to make it 22-0 with 14:56 to play.
Little led the receiving corps with two touchdowns on a team-high-tying three catches and 41 yards.
On the ground, Michael Vecchione (Chelmsford, Mass.) found the end zone twice on nine attempts to round out the scoring (2nd, 1:05, 6 yards, 37-0 | 3rd, 5:19, 4 yards, 44-0).
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Endicott is 4-2 all-time against St. Lawrence.
- The Gulls have won the last four matchups by a combined score of 129-27.
- Defensively, Endicott held the Saints to 153 yards on offense (25 rushing, 128 receiving, 3.00 yards per play; lowest rushing total since 9/3/22 vs. Endicott, 16 yards on 22 attempts).
- Hector Johnson (Worcester, Mass.) paced the defense with a team-high-tying five tackles (4 solo, 1 assisted, 2.5 TFL).
- Danny Fleming (Tewksbury, Mass.) notched a career-high five tackles (3 solo, 2 assisted, 1 TFL).
- Little scored his first career touchdown (single-game career-high too).
- Vecchione set a single-game career-high with two rushing touchdowns.
- Joe Tirrell (Franklin, Mass.) picked off his second career pass at the 3:08 mark of the first (set up Marengi rushing TD in second).
- Endicott went 8-for-12 on third downs (.667 | 1-1 on 4th down).
- St. Lawrence did not convert a third down attempt (0-10).
WHAT'S NEXT
No. 18/18 Endicott (1-0) visits No. 19/20 Ithaca on Saturday, September 14 at 1 PM. St. Lawrence (0-1) travels to Norwich next Friday at 7 PM.
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(Photo Credit - Tammy McManaway)
