Michael Holdridge catches three TD passes

ASHBURNHAM, Mass. (October 26, 2013) – Freshman quarterback Ryan O’Kelly (West Warwick, R.I.) threw five touchdown passes, and the Franklin Pierce University sprint football team capped its amazing 2013 season with a fourth-consecutive win on Saturday as the Ravens hammered Post, 42-14, at Arthur Hurd Field in Ashburnham, Mass.

Franklin Pierce capped its season with a 5-2 record, while also adding a second trophy to the athletic department trophy case by capturing the Talon Cup with the win over the Eagles. The cup was established last season with it being awarded annually to the winner of the series. Franklin Pierce and Post are the lone two teams in the Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL) that are based in New England, thus the teams have squared off in the final week of the season each of the past two years during the league’s rivalry week.

The Talon Cup, will take its place along with the 2013 Allegiance Bowl trophy, which the Ravens captured last month with their 13-6 win over Cornell in the bowl game in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Post capped its year with a 4-3 record.

O’Kelly threw just 13 passes on the day, but completed nine of them for 176 yards and the five scores. More importantly, he did an outstanding job of taking care of the football by not throwing any picks.

He threw four touchdown tosses in the first half alone, and three of his scoring throws on the day went to sophomore wideout Michael Holdridge (Peru, N.Y.), who capped his season with seven touchdown grabs. Holdridge’s three TD receptions came just one week after he hauled in the game-winning 22-yard scoring strike from O’Kelly on the final play of overtime in a 27-24 triumph over Mansfield.

O’Kelly’s first touchdown toss was to Holdridge from 12 yards out late in the first quarter to answer an opening touchdown from Post. O’Kelly then put the Ravens on top for good 61 seconds into the second quarter when he connected with freshman running back Kiano Wilder (Gaithersburg, Md.) on a 10-yard touchdown pass, followed by a two-point conversion throw to D.J. MacDonald (Mattapoisett, Mass.) to make it 14-7.

O’Kelly hooked up with Jahlil Dean (Maple Shade, N.J.) minutes later on a 28-yard scoring toss to make it 20-7, and late in the half, he connected once again with Holdridge on a 14-yard TD pitch and catch to stake the Ravens to a 28-14 lead at halftime.

O’Kelly’s impressive first half could not have happened without the physical running style of MacDonald, who wore down Post’s defense quickly as the first half wore on. He pounded out 105 of his 122 yards rushing in the first 30 minutes, and even got behind the Eagles’ secondary for a 46-yard reception.

MacDonald capped his season with 652 yards rushing for an average of 93.1 yards per game on the ground.

O’Kelly hit Holdridge with a 37-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter to put a capper to his amazing afternoon.

Not to be outdone, Franklin Pierce’s defense turned in a strong outing holding a dangerous Post offense to just 14 points on a pair of touchdown passes from Greg Volpe to Rashaun Reid and Jay’Len Mahan.

In fact, the defense got into the scoring act as rookie Josh Castro (Nashua, N.H.) returned a Post fumble 37 yards for a touchdown just moments after O’Kelly’s final TD pass of the game to put an exclamation point on the dominating win.

Castro, along with sophomore Connor Rogowsky (Nashua, N.H.), made a team-high 10 tackles, while Derek Reddy (Natick, Mass.) intercepted a pair of passes and recovered a fumble. Reddy’s two picks gave him six for the season, which was the most in the league. And just days after he was named the CSFL’s special teams player of the week, Reddy was back at it again as the punter, as he boomed five kicks for an average of 45.4 yards, including a 69-yarder.

After an impressive season which saw several amazing individual performances, the Ravens will now await word on the 2013 CSFL all-league selections, which should be announced in the near future.

For more information on Franklin Pierce sprint football, please visit the team’s page at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu. To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce sprint football apparel can do so on the athletic department’s online store at http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)