Albany Collars Troy 46-23
Maller quarterback Scott Lawson threw for 5 touchdowns and Eddie Tranholm III rushed for two scores as they paced the Mallers to a 46-23 victory over the Troy Fighting Irish. The game had extra significance for Capital Region Sports as we sponsored the first annual Capitalregionsports.com Cup.
Congratulations to the Mallers for being the 2008 winners!
Troy was the team to get the scoring started as quarterback Justin Kastner connected with Pleasant Roue on consecutive passes of 64 and 6 yards as the Fighting Irish took the 6-0 early lead. Lawson and the Mallers quickly responded with a 55 yard bomb hauled in by Noble Champen to edge ahead 7-6. Kastner reloaded and this time found Flip Tarver for a 65 yard strike to retake the lead at 13-7. Not to be outdone Lawson connected with Culture Branch from 36 yards out and the Mallers knotted the score at 13 a piece. Troy was able to end the first quarter scoring with a 28 yard field goal off the foot of Sean Conde making it 16-13.
The Mallers wrestled control of the game with a 20 point outburst in the second quarter. Eddie Tranholm III found the end zone twice scoring from 1 and 3 yards out and Lawson found the streaking Branch for a 41 yard touchdown. The quarter could have been worse for the visitors from Troy had it not been for a fumble recovery by James Meher and an explosive 64 yard kickoff return by Joe Halse to end the quarter. The Mallers took a 33-23 lead to end the half.
The second half was more of the same for the Mallers. Lawson connected with Noble Champen from 28 yards and Jesse Bennett from 7 yards. Albany’s Jarris Jones had a third quarter interception of Kastner at the 6:05 mark in the quarter. In the ensuing series the Fighting Irish stopped the Mallers with a drive ending fumble recovered by Troy’s Nick Yatrakis. Unfortunately for the Irish, Kastner received some sort of injury to his throwing arm and Troy’s hopes for a comeback fell short and the Mallers cruised to a 46-23 victory.
Next week the Mallers host the Utica Yard Dogs, 7pm Bleecker Stadium. The fighting Irish and Justin Kastner have a week to heal and on July 26th they take on the Southern Tier Diesel, 5pm at the Troy high school field.