By Tim Baysinger

The Pride continued their strong start to the season with another impressive victory, this one a 28-13 win at Albany Saturday afternoon. Quarterback Brian Savage ran for two touchdowns while passing for a third to lead the Pride to their first consecutive victories under head coach Dave Cohen. Running back Kareem Huggins ran for 76 yards and 98 yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Wide Receiver Charles Sullivan also caught six passes for 125 yards including a touchdown. In his first two games with the Pride, Savage has passed for 547 yards and two touchdowns, while also running for two more. “Brian is a very talented football player, all the credit goes towards the work he put in the off-season,” said head coach Dave Cohen. Savage spent all summer with his coaches and receivers and credits to his early season success. “We are all good friends off the field, we have good connections with each other, I know all their different speeds and routes,” Savage said. Albany took an early 3-0 lead on their opening drive, an 18-play 64-yard drive that lead to a Jason Fralicker 31-yard field goal. The Pride would answer quickly when running back Kareem Huggins ran back the ensuing kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown and a 7-3 lead. The Pride would never trail after that. The score would remain that way until the second quarter when Savage broke off a 20-yard option run that ended with him in the end zone and a 14-3 advantage. Savage would guide the Pride on a 55-yard touchdown drive and his second rushing touchdown for a 21-3 lead to end the first half. The Great Danes came out in the second half the same way they started the game. They took their opening drive down the field and ended with another Jason Fralicker field goal, this one from 41-yards to cut the deficit to 21-6. The Pride would answer back again, this time with on a 43-yard touchdown pass to receiver Charles Sullivan. The 43-yard strike was Savage’s longest completion of the season; he threw another 43-yard pass to Sullivan last week against Furman that also ended in a touchdown. The Pride led 28-6. Albany quarterback Vinny Esposito would tack on a touchdown run of his own for the Great Danes only trip to the end zone, making the score 28-13 late in the third quarter. That would be the final score as nobody would score in the fourth quarter. Hofstra has outscored its opponents 60-30 this season. The Pride defense has allowed only 13 points and 343 yards of total offense in its last six quarters. The defense has also forced three turnovers, one fumble and two interceptions. “We were a top rated defense last season and most of our guys are back, so I am not surprised by way our defense is playing,” Cohen said. The coach won’t settle on only two wins, though. “I feel that we are definitely capable of playing a lot better, we need to be more disciplined on defense and on offense we need to be more established and better on third down conversions,” Cohen said. Despite those remarks, Cohen is still very pleased with how this season has begun. “Our older guys have really stepped it up this season, all the credit goes to them, they worked extremely hard over the off-season,” Cohen said.

With a lethal combination of height, hands and speed, Charles Sullivan emerged as quarterback Bryan Savage’s favorite downfield target. Sullivan leads the CAA in receiving yards per game by almost 50 yards. (Sean M. Gates)