UMass Dartmouth beats Plymouth State 35-21 as Markus Andrews catches three TDs in season finale

DARTMOUTH One series after Plymouth State took the ball away in its own end zone, UMass Dartmouth senior captain Xavier Lopes picked off Matt Phillips at the 25 and scored for a 28-7 fourth-quarter lead.

UMass Dartmouth beat Plymouth State 35-21 on Saturday, Nov. 14, at Panther Field in Plymouth, N.H., in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference finale for both teams. Sophomore receiver Markus Andrews of New Bedford, a Dartmouth High graduate, caught 10 passes for 83 yards and three touchdowns, and senior captain Mekhi Wilson carried 40 times for 195 yards and a score. Junior defensive lineman Ancil Alexander of Taunton, a Taunton High graduate, led the defense with 10 tackles, three of them for losses, and forced one fumble and recovered another. The Corsairs (5-4, 5-3 MASCAC) came into the last game on their schedule at 4-4 and leave with a winning record and three straight wins.

Lopes, a 6-foot-3 defensive back from Lorain, Ohio, also broke up three passes. Plymouth State junior Luke Beaulac had intercepted a deep JC Petrongolo throw in the end zone on the first snap of the fourth quarter, and the Panthers worked out to their 37 before a holding call put them back at the 27. The Lopes interception came on the next play, first-and-20, with 11:50 left. Junior Connor McManus of New Bedford, a Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School graduate, kicked the extra point, one of his five in five tries.

Loose balls early

Plymouth State's Alejandro Rauth blocked a McManus punt on the Corsairs' opening series, and the Panthers took over at the UMass Dartmouth 38. On the next snap, Alexander forced Reece Davis to fumble, and Logan Murphy recovered for Plymouth State. Two plays later sophomore defensive back Dwayne Julius knocked the ball loose from quarterback Colton Lefebvre on a third-down run, and Alexander recovered at the 41.

From there UMass Dartmouth went 59 yards in 11 plays, with Petrongolo, a senior from Quincy who played at Catholic Memorial, completing all three of his throws, a 4-yarder to Andrews and passes of 21 and 5 yards to sophomore Jayden Francois. Wilson did the rest: his 9-yard run on third-and-4 reached the 10, and on fourth down from the 1 he went in with 7:29 left in the first quarter, with McManus adding the kick for a 7-0 lead.

The second touchdown drive started at the Corsairs' 9 after a 43-yard Ryan Bryant punt and went 91 yards in 14 plays. Wilson converted two third-and-4 runs, of 15 and 5 yards, and early in the second quarter sophomore quarterback Jackson Hart of Dartmouth, a Dartmouth High graduate, ran 4 yards on fourth-and-2 from the UMass Dartmouth 49. Petrongolo hit Derek Lopes, a junior from Carver who played at Carver High, for 16 yards and Francois for 15 to the 16, and two plays later he found Andrews for a 12-yard touchdown with 12:05 left in the half.

The Corsairs' defense held Plymouth State to two first downs in the first half, with freshman Gavin Butterfield and Lopes each breaking up a third-down pass. UMass Dartmouth closed the half with a 15-play drive from its own 8 that took 5:27 and reached the Plymouth State 25, where Seid Djalla broke up a fourth-and-2 throw with 25 seconds left, and the Corsairs went to the locker room up 14-0.

Andrews on fourth down

Plymouth State opened the second half with a 39-yard Joey Donati kickoff return to the UMass Dartmouth 39, but two plays after a 15-yard Lefebvre pass to Phillips, Lefebvre lost the ball on a run and senior captain Owen Dunker recovered at the 27. Wilson took the next six handoffs for 39 yards, runs of 14 and 16 among them. On fourth-and-3 from the Plymouth State 34, Petrongolo threw short to Andrews, who caught it behind the line at the 36 and went the distance for a 34-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead with 10:49 left in the third quarter.

The Panthers answered after a 40-yard Tyler Umhoefer kickoff return, with Phillips, a junior listed on Plymouth State's roster as a receiver, taking the snaps at quarterback from that series on. On third-and-9 he threw 46 yards to sophomore Jayden Graham, who was pulled down at the 1 by Lopes. After a false start, Phillips found freshman Donati for a 5-yard touchdown on third-and-goal with 6:49 left in the third, and Bryant's kick made it 21-7.

Freshman Jayson Dyer returned the next kickoff 35 yards, and the teams traded punts, the Panthers' coming after Lopes broke up a deep third-down throw meant for Donati. Wilson then carried seven straight times for 33 yards into Plymouth State territory as the third quarter ended, a drive that closed with Beaulac's interception.

The fourth quarter

After the Lopes touchdown, Graham broke a 42-yard run to the UMass Dartmouth 23, where junior defensive back Matteo Pina of Rochester, an Old Rochester Regional graduate, made the stop. Three plays gained a yard, and on fourth-and-9 from the 22, Phillips threw to senior Beau Fellows for a 22-yard touchdown with 9:24 to play. Alexander blocked the extra point, but an offside call on the Corsairs gave Bryant another try, and he made it 28-14.

Plymouth State tried an onside kick, and graduate student Peter Popowich covered it at the Panthers' 46. Wilson carried six straight times for 33 yards, converting a third-and-6 and a third-and-1, and Petrongolo threw to Andrews for a 13-yard touchdown, his third of the day, with 5:08 left, and McManus made it 35-14.

The Panthers drove 59 yards in nine plays for the last score. Phillips threw 27 yards to junior tight end Connor Adams, and senior captain Conner Robidoux stopped him at the 1. Alexander stopped Davis for no gain on first down, Alexander and Pina dropped Drew Cakouros for a 1-yard loss on second, and Davis scored from 2 yards out on third down with 31 seconds left. Sophomore Tyler Jonte covered the short kickoff that followed, and Petrongolo knelt once to run out the last 30 seconds.

The numbers

UMass Dartmouth outgained Plymouth State 400 yards to 233, ran for 215 yards to the Panthers' 106, had 23 first downs to 12 and held the ball for 34:41. The Corsairs converted 9 of 16 third downs and 3 of 4 fourth downs and scored on all three trips inside the 20, and Plymouth State lost two of its five fumbles.

Wilson, a senior from Narragansett, R.I., averaged 4.9 yards a carry, and his 40 carries topped the team's season high of 39, which he set in his program-record 340-yard game at Worcester State on Oct. 17. He came into Saturday with 1,172 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns in seven games, UMass Dartmouth Athletics said when the MASCAC named him its Offensive Player of the Week on Nov. 9. The school's season statistics, updated after the game, have him finishing the regular season with 205 carries for 1,367 yards and 14 rushing touchdowns.

Andrews' three touchdown catches were the most by a Corsair in a game this season, topping his own two at Fitchburg State on Sept. 12, and his 10 catches tied the team high Francois set on Oct. 3, according to the school's season statistics. The updated figures have him finishing the regular season with 39 catches for 610 yards and seven touchdowns. Petrongolo completed 19 of 25 passes for 180 yards, three touchdowns and an interception, matching his season high for completions. Francois caught four passes for 44 yards and Derek Lopes three for 35, and Dyer added 59 yards on two kickoff returns.

Eight of Alexander's 10 tackles were solo stops, his three tackles for loss totaled 12 yards, and he added a quarterback hurry to the forced fumble and the recovery. He came into the game with 10 tackles and three tackles for loss in six games and matched both totals in one afternoon. Dunker had six tackles and the fumble recovery, Pina six tackles, and Julius three tackles, one for a 4-yard loss, plus his forced fumble.

Up front, senior captain Kevin Moura of Fairhaven, a Fairhaven High graduate, and junior Timothy Zibrida of Rehoboth, who played at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional, started on the offensive line. McManus also punted twice more for 71 yards and kicked off six times. Sophomore defensive back Anthony Diakite of New Bedford, a New Bedford High graduate, sophomore defensive end Nick Wood of Fall River, a Durfee graduate, and freshman lineman Travis Gardner-Harris of Taunton, who played at Archbishop Williams, also saw the field for the Corsairs.

Plymouth State

Tyler Holcomb, a senior linebacker from Coventry, Conn., made 18 tackles, 10 of them solo, and Beaulac, who had the interception, and senior linebacker Aidan Fritz added nine tackles each. Graham ran 15 times for 75 yards, Davis ran 10 times for 28 yards, and Phillips completed 4 of 9 passes for 100 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Bryant punted four times for a 41.8-yard average, three of them inside the 20.

Sophomore defensive lineman Nate Pickup Jr. of Fairhaven, a Fairhaven High graduate, started on the Panthers' defensive line. It was Senior Day at Panther Field for Plymouth State, and the Panthers finished 4-5 and 3-5 in the MASCAC before a crowd of 1,082 on a 42-degree afternoon that turned to rain in the fourth quarter.

UMass Dartmouth's season

Coach Josh Sylvester's Corsairs opened with a 21-13 home loss to Salve Regina on Sept. 4 and won 56-22 at Fitchburg State. They then lost three league games by a combined nine points: 23-21 to Framingham State, 26-22 at Massachusetts Maritime and, after a 49-40 win at Worcester State, 29-26 to Bridgewater State on Oct. 24. They closed by beating Dean 62-14 and Westfield State 45-14 before Saturday's win.

The win was UMass Dartmouth's eighth straight over Plymouth State, a run that began in 2018, and the Corsairs lead the series 16-11, according to Plymouth State's series history. It lists a 42-21 UMass Dartmouth win in Dartmouth last season and a 47-42 win in Plymouth in 2024.

Of the 19 seniors and one graduate student on the roster, those who played Saturday include Petrongolo, Wilson, Lopes, Dunker, Moura, Robidoux of East Longmeadow and tight end Isaiah Augustus of Hartford, Conn. Linemen Luis Santos of Pawtucket, R.I., Ezrah Hatcher of Waterbury, Conn., Sebastian Perez of Fitchburg and Patrick Sennott of Millis played in the finale too, along with Popowich, the graduate student, of Verona, N.J.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.