FITCHBURG, Mass. – The Castleton football team dropped its first road game of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling by a final score of 34-3 at the hands of Fitchburg St. at Elliot Field.

Castleton is now 0-2 following the loss, making this the first time since the 2011 season that the team has started winless through two games. Fitchburg St. stays unbeaten at 2-0 with the win.

Ryan Payne accounted for the only points of the day for the Spartans, drilling a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter. Moe Harris rushed for 64 yards in the contest and added another 58 yards in the receiving game, accounting for two-thirds of the team's receiving yards on the day. Harris also had one kick return for 18 yards to give him a total of 140 all-purpose yards. Jakob Trautwein led the defense with 11 total tackles, while Darren Callan had 10 total tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Trautwein and Callan combined for four tackles for losses, while Bubba Collins had two sacks on the day.

For Fitchburg St., James Antonelli went 12-of-17 through the air with a pair of touchdowns. Garrett Dellechiaie added a 17-of-20 effort through the air with 133 yards. Overall, Falcons' passers completed 78.3 percent of their passes for more than 200 yards on the day. 11 different Fitchburg players had receptions, including six players with three or more catches. Malcolm Brown-Simpson accounted for one of the scores on the defensive side of the ball, returning an interception 85 yards for a touchdown.

Castleton struggled on third down, converting just two out of 15 chances on the day, while Fitchburg St. converted nine of its 18 opportunities. The Falcons held a 21-10 edge in total first downs on the day, and outgained the Spartans 307-128 in offensive yardage. Each side lost three fumbles on the day, while Castleton had a pair of passes intercepted. For the second week in a row, Fitchburg St. was penalized 11 times for more than 100 yards, but came away with a victory while Castleton was tagged with seven penalties for 51 yards.

Fitchburg St. got took the game's first lead, punching in a two-yard rushing touchdown with just more than one minute to play in the opening quarter. After two goal-line rushes left the ball at the two-yard line for the Falcons, Jevon Brown-Simpson got the job done with give his team a 7-0 lead following a successful point after.

The Falcons struck again before their offense even had the ball, when, on the Spartans' next drive, Nick Boles was intercepted by M. Brown-Simpson. The senior then took the ball 85 yards to the house to push his squad's lead to 14-0 early in the second stanza.

Later in the second quarter, Callan forced a fumble on J. Brown-Simpson and recovered it himself to give Castleton great starting field position at the opponent's 29 yard line. Seven plays later, the Spartans got on the board when Payne converted a 27-yard attempt into three points for Castleton to make it a 14-3 game. Both offenses would fail to score the remainder of the half, sending it to the locker rooms at the same score.

The second half was all Fitchburg St., as the home side put up 20 unanswered points in the final 30 minutes of action. Antonelli got the scoring started with 9:54 to play in the third quarter, connecting with Sterlin Garvin on a five-yard pass for a touchdown. Antonelli recorded his second short touchdown pass of the day with 11:02 to go in the game, this time finding Dakota Mullen for a four-yard score. The sophomore rounded out his afternoon with a five-yard touchdown run with just 1:10 remaining, his third total touchdown of the day.

Castleton is back in action next Saturday, when it hosts Salve Regina on Homecoming and Family Weekend. Kickoff is scheduled for noon.