CHARLESTON, W.Va. – When Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) and Damon Burton Jr. (Rochester, N.Y./Aquinas Institute) first became teammates at the University of Albany, they never envisioned that their collegiate careers would come to an end on a football field in Charleston, West Virginia.
What a farewell it was for two of the stars of the University of New Haven football team.
Holmes caught a pair of touchdown passes and Burton had a game-high 14 tackles as the Chargers made things interesting after falling behind by 24 points in a 52-44 loss to Charleston on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
"It is the way we train here, all summer," Burton said. "We grind the whole year round so when we get to the tough battles, it is just another day at the office."
Charleston took advantage of some first-quarter struggle by New Haven and never trailed in the game.
However, three touchdown passes by New Haven quarterback Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) in the fourth quarter had the Chargers so close to pulling off the upset.
"We were used to being in that spot," said Holmes, who finished with 114 yards on eight catches. "We started too slow today and it bit us in the butt today."
Despite giving up 52 points, New Haven coach Chris Pincince credited the defense to keep the Chargers in the game. New Haven could have easily been down 35-0 heading into the locker room at halftime.
Instead, New Haven headed into the second half down by 17 points.
When New Haven scored on its last possession of the first half, it turned out that the offense was just getting started.
A kickoff return by Kha'lil Eason (Norwalk, Conn./Brunswick School) helped set up a 9-yard run by Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) to pull New Haven within 10 points.
It took just three plays for the Golden Eagles to go 54 yards with Wright capping the drive with an 11-yard run.
A 29-yard pass from Menard to Holmes was followed three plays later by Dante DeLorenzo (Kennebunk, Maine/Kennebunk) snaring a deflected pass by Menard for his first touchdown of the season.
However, Marrero took the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown.
Another TD run by Wright pushed the Charleston lead to 24 points.
Menard, who was 20-for-34 for 278 yards with five TD passes, tossed touchdown passes to Holmes, Kasi Hazzard (Hillside, N.J./Edison) and Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) as well as two-point conversion passes to Hazzard and Holmes had New Haven within eight points with less than two minutes to play.
The officials ruled that Charleston came up with the onsides kick even though New Haven cornerback Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) argued that he recovered the ball.
With New Haven out of timeouts, Charleston was able to run out the clock to advance to a matchup with Kutztown in the second round of the playoffs.
It was the third year in a row that New Haven's season ended with a loss in a one-score game on the road in the NCAA Division II playoffs.
"I feel like we understand what we have to do," Burton said. "You have to put in that much work and that much more effort. We have a great new facility for another year so the guys are mentally locked and checked in. Nobody wants to be that team that always makes it to the first round of the playoffs and continues to lose so I feel like they will be locked in even more and the guys who come back next year have to go strong. I believe in them. They are going to go win the NE10 and keep gutting it out."
Holmes, Burton, Foelsch, offensive lineman Xavier Bryson (Mechanicsville, Va./Hanover / Fork Union Military Acad.), running backs Hunter Cobb (Sandy Hook, Conn./Newtown) and Jake Conlan (West Haven, Conn./Trinity-Pawling), defensive back Dev Williams, safety Musa Hemby (Trenton, N.J./Hunterdon Central) and receiver Elijah Jeffreys (Somerville, Mass./Somerville) are among the players who played in their final game at New Haven. They are part of the first group of Chargers to play in three consecutive Division II football playoffs. There is still enough returning talent for the Chargers to make a run at three NE10 titles in four years.
When New Haven looks back at Saturday's game, it will be impossible to overlook the miscues early on.
The mistakes started early as a strong tackle by Jayden Shwed (Hawthorne, N.J./Hawthorne) on the opening kickoff was wiped out by an offsides penalty.
Charleston started its first drive near midfield rather than having the ball around the 20. The New Haven defense stiffened up once Charleston got into the red zone as a pass breakup by Giye Jenkins (West Orange, N.J./Seton Hall Prep) and pressure by Davon Colon (Cromwell, Conn./Xavier) left Charleston to settle for a field goal.
Behind the running of Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton), got the ball inside the Charleston 40 on the Chargers' first possession. Offensive lineman Brody Peacock (Stillwater, N.Y./Stillwater) recovered the ball when Menard fumbled and a false start pushed New Haven in 3rd-and-long.
The missed opportunity proved costly as Charleston used a fake punt to set up Chavon Wright with the first of his three first-half touchdown runs.
New Haven freshman cornerback Jabron Solomon's (Lawnside, N.J./Woodbury) interception in the end zone kept Charleston from adding to the lead.
"He is one of the funniest, goofiest, happiest young guys I ever played football with," Burton said of Solomon. "I wish I had another year so I could play with Jabron again. He has a lot of shoes to fill.
He is playing on a defense with a bunch of grad transfers, a bunch of seniors and he is the only true freshman so I applaud him because he always steps up his game, he makes the plays and he never backs down from anybody no matter the size or age gap or whatever the case might be. I think Jabron is going to be a three-time All-American here, he is going to be one of the best players to come out of New Haven if he just sticks to it."
Menard connected with Holmes on third down and then Kevin Foelsch (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) came down with a one-handed grab to set up Menard's 15-yard scoring pass to Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy) with 43 seconds left in the first half to make it a 24-7 game.
"The entire team played their butts off," Pincince said. "The defense kept us in it in the first half. They played hard, they kept us in the game. They gave us an opportunity to figure out things on offense. I couldn't be prouder of the 58 kids that came with us and the 70-plus kids that stayed home."
It is easy to wonder what would have happened if not for Charleston's successful fake punt and the kickoff return for a touchdown.
"They outcoached us on the fake punt," Pincince said. "We were going after it like we had all year. We blocked five or six kicks all year.
They knew that, they checked it and we didn't obviously because we checked it at the end and stopped them the second time."
It was an emotional end for the players who put on a New Haven uniform for the final time. Some of them came in from other programs and had experiences that will stay with them forever.
"Words can't describe my time in New Haven, the relationships that I built, the friendships that I have I will have for the rest of my life," Holmes said. "The coaches, Coach P [Pincince], Coach [Matt] Scott, I could say that they changed my life for everything that I didn't expect at New Haven when I came here three years ago and I got more than what I was promised."
The offense struggled at times this season but the Chargers outgained Charleston 241-202 in the second half.
Menard was 9-of-11 for 149 yards in the fourth quarter to spearhead the comeback.
"You could see from Game 1 to Game 11 how far Daelen grew as a quarterback and the rest of the linemen that are coming back, we have a close bond," Holmes said. "I think this is just a starting point for them and I feel like next year is going to be even better for them."
Ais finished with 59 rushing yards, Jenkins had nine tackles and Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) added eight while Eason had 236 yards on nine kickoff returns.
Marrero had 300 all-purpose yards and Wright finished with 163 yards and six touchdowns for the Golden Eagles.
