The Maritime College football team couldn't bounce back after a week two loss and fell on the road to the United States Merchant Marine Academy 45-0 on Saturday afternoon.

The Privateers came out strong on the defensive end as a sack from William Betencourt on the opening drive pushed the Mariners back to a 38-yard field goal attempt, which was missed wide left. Following the missed field goal attempt, a 42-yard pass from Michael Varela (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) to Christian Judge (Springfield Gardens, N.Y./Springfield Gardens) put Maritime in striking distance. Unfortunately, two false start penalties killed the Privateers drive and they had to punt the ball away. 

On the ensuing drive, USMMA finally broke the Privateers defense and put seven points on the board. Later in the quarter, the Mariners added another touchdown to their lead, but Maritime still had a chance to bring the score closer heading into the locker rooms. However, back-to-back turnover from the Privateers allowed USMMA to make it a 24-0 advantage at halftime.

Maritime was never able to get offense rolling against the stout Mariners defense and ultimately fell by a score of 45-0. The Privateers defense forced four fumbles in the loss, but was only able to get the ball to bounce their way once out of the four opportunities.

Liam Bailey (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville) led the defense with 18 total tackles, while Justin Snuffer (Maple Shade, N.J./Maple Shade) picked up the most solo tackles with 12. Frank Vano (Babylon, N.Y./Babylon) also reached double digits in tackles with 11, while Salvatore Escaldi (Farmingville, N.Y./St. John the Baptist) picked up one sack and a fumble recovery.

Offensively, freshman Michael Varela (Lindenhurst, NY/Lindenhurst) got the start and went 11-26 for 119 yards. Judge tallied four catches for 68 yards while senior captain Andrew Geni (Bronx, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) chipped in six receptions for 42 yards.

Maritime returns home next Saturday when they host William Paterson at 1:00 p.m.