Holy Cross Notes

The Bulldogs kicked off the season with an impressive 28-10 victory over Holy Cross. Yale moves to 1-0 on the season ahead of a tough battle against the Cornell Big Red at home this weekend.

In Dante Reno’s first start at Yale, he completed 72.2% of his passes for 166 yards, 2 touchdowns and no interceptions. Reno showed strong command of the offense and excelled on short to medium throws. While Reno is elusive enough to dodge defenders in the pocket, he does not pose much of a downfield running threat. Ball placement on deep throws was another area of concern, although his accuracy on long balls did seem to improve in the second half. The offense leaned heavily on the ground attack as Yale rushed for 152 yards and 3 touchdowns. Pitsenberger was in peak form as he racked up 127 rushing yards (4.9 yards per carry) and accounted for all 3 of the rushing touchdowns. Daal looked impressive on his 3 carries for 15 yards while Adams and Djeumeni Kemeni saw their first carries of their careers. The starting offensive line from left to right was Avera, Charron, Bluhm, Lewis and Bennett with Avera as the only surprise in the lineup playing in place of St. Aubyn. The offensive line generated a solid push on running plays but was not as consistent in pass blocking as they gave up two sacks and struggled to pick up blitzes at times. With Shipp out of the lineup at receiver, Brown took over as the top receiving threat and had a career day with 5 catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. Santiago had a decent outing with 2 catches for 15 yards while Daal was a threat on routes out of the backfield with 3 catches for 13 yards. Wagner and Smith established themselves as receiving targets at the tight end position combining for 3 catches for 19 yards. Work remains to improve the offensive output especially on third downs, however, considering the Bulldogs were playing in their first contest against a seasoned opponent, it was a great first step forward for the offense this season.

Defensively, the Bulldogs were more sound on run support than a year ago but there were lapses in the secondary that Holy Cross failed to exploit. Webster, White and Barkley-Smith struggled at times to contain Holy Cross’ receiving corps and gave the Crusaders golden opportunities to tighten the score of the contest. Hopefully Gonzales can return this week to add more experience at the cornerback position. The most notable absence was Egodogbare who is likely the second most impactful defender after Kamara. Egodogbare was not even listed in the two-deep depth chart which is very concerning given his history of injuries. Shaber and Tate started at the defensive tackle spots while Larry and Yang started as ends. It was great to see Larry back in a Yale uniform and he made an immediate impact on the defense with 4 solo tackles and a sack. Sophomore DT Mack Johnson flashed his potential with 2 tackles and a sack. Ayo-Durojaiye and Grant were highly active at linebacker, although Grant will need to clean up early-season mistakes such as missed tackles and blown coverage assignments. With the Nickel position replacing one linebacker spot, Kamara, Tarver and Daniyan were all able to featured in the starting lineup. Kamara started the contest with a huge hit on a kickoff and impressed throughout with 10 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, a sack and a pass breakup. Daniyan had a strong performance with 9 tackles and a forced fumble. Future opponents will likely not make as many mistakes as Holy Cross did, so shoring up the cornerback positions and eliminating the mental mistakes will be vital heading into Ivy League play.

Conforti was 4 for 4 on PATs and did not attempt an extra point. Reese Keeney, a transfer from Rice, handled the punting duties and averaged 34.8 yards per punt. Crushing blows delivered by Kamara and Wagner on kickoffs were the highlights of the special teams from Saturday.