MOON TWP, Pa. — Robert Morris (7-4, 4-2) welcomed Stonehill into The Joe for the Colonials season finale on Saturday afternoon. The Colonials built a sizable first-half lead and let their defense close the season out in the second half. With the 31-13 win over Stonehill, Robert Morris clinched third place in the NEC and their best overall finish since 2019.
The Colonials and Skyhawks traded punts to start the game but Robert Morris came alive on their second offensive drive of the game. After a short gain on the first play of the drive, Zach Tanner, who started in-place of senior Anthony Chiccitt, hit Shawn Charles in stride for an 86-yard touchdown.
The Colonials struck again on their next offensive drive. Tanner side-armed a pass to Landen Lucas who took it 40 yards and into Skyhawks’ territory. A few plays later, DJ Moyer punched in a touchdown on a two-yard rush.
After a third straight three-and-out from the Skyhawks offense, the Colonials hit gold once again. On the first play of the ensuing drive, Tanner connected with Charles for their second touchdown connection of the game, a 51-yarder. On the play, Tanner threw a 50-50 ball to Charles who snagged it out of the air near the five and fell into the end zone.
The Skyhawks offense struggled in the first half but were bailed out by their defense when they forced and recovered a Tanner fumble inside of Colonials territory which set their offense up with a short field. While the defense held them out of the end zone, Danny Hurley nailed a 29-yard field goal to cut the Colonials lead to 21-3.
Then, right before halftime, the Skyhawks maintained their best offensive drive of the game and capped it off with a fantastic one-handed touchdown grab by Jake Newsham. The score came with 12 seconds left in the half and cut the Colonials lead to 11 points as the teams entered the locker room.
The Skyhawks started the second half with the ball and continued their momentum from the end of the first half as they marched right down the field. That was before the Colonials defense stepped up and held them to another Hurley field goal attempt. That attempt went wide left and it kept the score where it was.
With a chance to re-extend their lead, the Colonials committed an unnecessary error when Tanner was picked off by Mo Seide near midfield which was then returned deep into Colonials territory giving the Skyhawks another chance to crawl back into the game.
Fortunately for the Colonials, their defense stepped up again and forced another Hurley field goal attempt which he made from 27 yards out. The field goal cut the Colonials lead to just one possession midway through the third quarter.
Needing a score to re-claim momentum, the Colonials committed yet another untimely error as they attempted a double-reverse pass that was intercepted deep in Skyhawks territory but the story of the second half kept writing itself which was the Colonials defense picking the offense up and forcing a stop.
After two unnecessary errors, the Colonials looked to finally re-grab the hold of the game and were inside of the plus-10. They faced a fourth-and-short and could have kicked a field goal to go back up by two scores but opted to go for it on fourth down and were stopped a yard short.
For the third time in three drives, the Colonials defense picked their offense up and forced a quick three-and-out to start the fourth quarter. Then, finally, the Colonials offense got them back into scoring position and they converted on a 25-yard field goal by Jayson Jenkins. His field goal gave the Colonials a two possession lead with just over 10 minutes left in the game.
The Colonials added another touchdown before the game ended when Jamar Shegog hit Drew Eason in the end zone and forced a fumble which was recovered in the end zone.
With the Colonials season officially over as Central Connecticut State clinched the automatic qualifier for the FCS playoffs by winning the NEC, a new era of Colonial football is on the horizon as they graduate many of their playmakers, offensively and defensively.
