BROOKVILLE, N.Y. — He's the real deal!
Quarterback
Luca Stanzani followed up his sizzling first collegiate start by delivering the LIU football team a second straight win as the Sharks defeated Central Connecticut State, 29-20, on Saturday afternoon at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium.
Redshirt freshman
Ayinde Johnson's first career interception, which he returned 40 yards for a touchdown in the final minute, sealed the victory after the Blue Devils recovered an on-side kick while trailing by two points.
Stanzani, a true freshman from Clearwater, Fla., and the reigning Stats Perform FCS Rookie of the Week, completed 19 of 32 passes for 234 yards and one TD and also rushed for 50 yards as LIU won its second straight game.
"He's very consistent," coach
Ron Cooper said. "He's confident. We knew he had something special to him when we recruited him. We could have played him earlier in the season, but the timing is right. Our offensive line blocked for him. We had guys making plays —
Michael Love,
Davon Wells,
Zach Rhodes,
Owen Glascoe,
Reese Dykstra. Everybody was making plays around him. It takes that to win."
The Sharks had built a 22-7 lead on
Michael Coney's third field goal of the game — a 32-yard conversion with six seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Central Connecticut then answered with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns, setting up a potential game-tying two-point conversion with 64 seconds remaining. However, Shon Mitchell's pass, intended for Jadd Dolegala and defended by LIU cornerback
Rudy Silvera in the back of the end zone, was incomplete.
The Blue Devils then recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the Sharks held on in big part thanks to Johnson's first career interception.
"I've been working hard a long time, since I tore my ACL last season," Johnson said. "With it just being my second start, it felt really good to get a team win like that at home with scrappy plays. They ran that same play concept the drive before. And I knew with it being less than two minutes left that they were going to try to get out of bounds. I saw the quarterback want to throw it, so I just drove. I just drove as fast as I could and I made the play."
LIU (2-7, 2-3 NEC) now has won consecutive games, against Duquesne and Central Connecticut, in Stanzani's first two starts at quarterback.
"We made another stride this week," Cooper said. "There are a lot of young guys playing, and making plays on offense."
