Questions Abound Ahead Of Merrimack Encounter
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (Sept. 27 BGA) – No guarantee who will start at quarterback. A dangerous running back. A potential game-breaking wide receiver who may or not play because of injury. A dominant defensive lineman.
The 1-3 Merrimack team Dartmouth faces Saturday has some real similarities to the team it easily dispatched a week ago. But this game differs in one significant aspect.
The Big Green’s 45-13 win over struggling Fordham last Saturday came on Memorial Field. This game won’t just be Dartmouth’s first on the road, but it will be Homecoming for the Warriors and like Sacred Heart – which stunned the Big Green two years ago before a boisterous crowd of alumni – Merrimack apparently does Homecoming right.
Consider: Although it has a capacity of just 3,500, last year 13,647 were shoehorned into Duane Stadium for Homecoming. That’s almost 5,000 more fans than the Warriors had for their other four home games combined and they were rewarded with a win over Stonehill.
Two years ago Merrimack drew 12,622 for the Homecoming win over LIU and the year before it was 12,147 turning out for Duquesne. So while their football history goes back only to 1996 and they were Division II until 2019, rest assured the Warriors will have plenty of support against the Big Green.
Dartmouth coach Sammy McCorkle is well aware what that can mean.
No one has to remind him what happened two years ago when an SRO crowd of 5,569 cheered Sacred Heart on to a 38-31 overtime win against the Big Green in Fairfield.
“We can only control what we can control,” McCorkle said in advance of the Merrimack game. “It’s at their stadium and it’s their Homecoming, but we can’t allow the Homecoming part or anything else to get in our heads.
“You definitely want to start well,” he continued. “You want to match their intensity. You want to match their energy. They are a very good football team and we have to be ready to play.”
To be fair, Merrimack – playing an independent schedule this fall after leaving the Northeast Conference along with Sacred Heart – is off to just a 1-3 start. The Warriors were impressive in a 21-6 loss at Air Force on Aug. 31, and were seriously unimpressive in their second FBS game at Connecticut a week later, losing 63-17. They got on the right track with a 31-21 win at Bucknell of the Patriot League before falling to Maine, 26-15, before a rain-soaked 2,547 at Duane Stadium a week ago.
McCorkle put Merrimack’s early results in perspective.
“They were toe-to-toe with Air Force,” he said. “I just think that UConn got it rolling against them early with some big plays and ended up getting good field position all the time because (Merrimack) was scrambling. It was a tough start for them, but that's not who they are.”
Who they are, he stressed, is a team not that unlike his own.
“Offensively they are pretty similar to us,” he said. “They do a lot of things. They've got some threats. They've got guys. Their running back, he's legit. He does a very good job. He's got good vision. He's got good acceleration, good burst. He's dangerous.”
The player McCorkle references is running back Jermaine Corbett, a 5-foot-9, 195-pound transfer from Stonehill who is averaging 102 yards per game and 7.3 yards per carry this fall. He ran for 103 yards on 14 carries against UConn, averaging 7.4 per. He also averaged 7.4 against Air Force with 59 yards on eight runs. In the win at Bucknell he finished with 166 yards on 19 carries.
While McCorkle has been impressed by what he’s seen of the Merrimack offensive line – “They are big, athletic guys who moved their feet well,” he said – the Warriors have huge questions at wide receiver and quarterback because of injury.
Although 5-9, 180 wide receiver Donovan Wadley has just 93 yards on receptions this fall the speedster is capable of breaking a game open as a returner. He led the nation with a whopping 37.9-yard average on 17 kickoff returns last year with touchdowns of 95, 94 and 90 yards. He also had an 83-yard touchdown reception and a 45-yard touchdown run. He left last week’s loss to Maine with an injury and while he’s questionable for Dartmouth, the Big Green is wary of him.
“He’s the returning (offensive) player of the year in their (former) league,” said McCorkle. “He’s definitely a threat with the ball in his hands and we have to know where he is at all times.”
Who will throw him the ball is the question of the day. The talk out of North Andover before the season was that either Gavin McCusker or Malakai Anthony would start at quarterback, with Anthony getting the nod against Air Force. McCusker came in to start the second drive of that game, was hurt on his first play and hasn’t seen the field since. Auburn, N.H.’s Ayden Pereira, a sophomore transfer from Maine, was behind center for much of the second half against UConn before giving way to Justin Lewis, who finished the game.
Pereira has played the last two games, throwing for 147 yards on 11-of-15 accuracy in the lone win over Bucknell. On the season he's completing just 47.7 percent of his attempts for 212 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Lewis has completed 73.7 percent of his throws for 165 yards, but with two interceptions to one touchdown.
“I have no idea who will play so we have to be ready for whoever they put in the game,” said McCorkle with a shrug.
Defensively, the player to watch is Nicholas Lenon, a 6-2, 250 sixth-year pro prospect who has 40 tackles for loss and 21.5 career sacks for the Warriors. He has six sacks this year. In addition to production from the defensive line, safety Donte Williams has a team-high 23 tackles with two forced fumbles and an interception.
“They fly around and knock the heck out of you,” said McCorkle of the Merrimack defense. “They're very physical and violent.They’ve got a bunch of guys up front who can play. At every level, they've got guys who can run around. They play with a lot of energy and we've got to match that energy, that's going to be the big part.”
On special teams Lliam Davis, a senior kicker out of Johannesburg, South Africa, has made 22-of-29 field goals in his career with a long of 46. Cole Peterson averaged 40.9 yards per punt.
Among the keys to success, according to McCorkle are cleaning up two of the few things that needed cleaning up after Fordham.
“I think the penalties, that's a big thing,” he said after Dartmouth was flagged eight times for 60 yards a week ago. “A couple of them were just being aggressive, which is normal. Guys are jazzed up, ready to play.
“And obviously, when other guys get in the game, we've got to keep that tempo going. We can't have a lull because we put different guys out there for different matchups. Energy has to say the same the whole time. Overall we did that, but there were a couple of times when we've got a little relaxed, and we can't do that.”
