THROGGS NECK, N.Y. – The Castleton University football team carried a lead late into the fourth quarter against Maritime (N.Y.) Saturday, but was unable to hold on as the Privateers mounted a final-minute scoring drive to defeat the Spartans, 19-16, in the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference opener.
 
Castleton (2-3, 0-1 ECFC) held a 16-12 lead with less than three minutes to play, but Maritime (1-3, 1-0 ECFC) used a 10-play, 79-yard drive that ended in a touchdown to take control 19-16 with just 53 seconds remaining. Castleton marched the ball up near midfield, but was unable to get into field goal range as time expired on a final hail mary that fell incomplete.
 
Maritime collected 21 first downs to Castleton's 13, and out-gained Castleton 360-142 through the air. The Spartans had an advantage on the ground, 125-100. Castleton was just 2-of-16 on third down and 1-of-4 on fourth down; Maritime went 5-of-16 on third down and 0-of-3 on fourth. Time of possession was nearly equal, with Maritime holding a 13-second advantage, 29:40-29:27.
 
Simon Davis Jr. rushed for a season-best 83 yards on 11 carries with a touchdown. His scoring run came from 51 yards out, as he broke off the lengthy scamper in the third quarter. Devin Wollner added 58 yards on 16 carries. Anthony Martinez caught six passes for 88 yards, while Davis Jr. hauled in four for 19. Jacob McCarthy finished the day 16-of-34 passing for 142 yards.
 
Andrew Genier led the Spartan defense with nine tackles , while Jayson Gilsinger, Chris Rice and Dustin Rock added three each. Genier, Rice and Jacob Griggs all had 1.5 tackles for a loss, while Rice had the only sack of the day for Castleton. Gilsinger, Will Fischer and Damiyr Martinez forced fumbles for Castleton, with Gilsinger recovering his own forced fumble in addition to intercepting a pass. Kyle Ford had two pass breakups and five tackles.
 
The Spartan special team units were operating efficiently in multiple facets of the game, as Damiyr Martinez returned a kick-off 94 yards for a touchdown—Castleton's first kick-return TD since Moe Harris did so against Misericordia in 2018. The field goal blocking unit thwarted three kicks on the day—two extra point attempts and one field goal. Rice was credited with the blocked field goal, the first time a Spartan had blocked a field-goal attempt since he did so against Gallaudet in 2019. The blocked point-after attempts by Kristopher Carroll and Ethan Coarse were Castleton's first since the 2018 season, when Rice and Ford each blocked PAT tries in the same contest. Mike Morgan had nine punts with an average of 33 yards and landed four of those inside the Maritime 20-yard line, helping keep Castleton's defense in good field position on the day. Noah Crossman made his only field goal attempt of the afternoon, hitting from 21 yards in the second quarter.


Maritime's David Keogh completed 26-of-48 passes for 360 yards, three touchdowns and an interception on the afternoon. Three players caught five passes each, as Michael Varela, Eric Borchert and Kevin Murphy hauled in a quintet of catches. Murphy's biggest catch was his final one, an 11-yard score on a fade route that sealed the win for the Privateers—his second touchdown of the day. Cole Trosclair had just two catches, but one was a 73-yard touchdown grab for Maritime's second touchdown of the day. Nicholas Morman rushed for 104 yards for Maritime, the only ballcarrier for the Privateers to gain any yardage on the day.
 
Sean Hart had a game-high 10 tackles, followed by Abdoulay Konate with nine and Frank Vano and James Varga with eight each. Six player registered tackles for a loss and three tallied a sack.
 
After a scoreless first quarter, Castleton broke the scoreless tie after a 12-play, 59-yard drive that used almost five minutes of clock time concluded in a 21-yard field goal by Crossman. The 3-0 lead didn't last long, however, as Maritime scored just before the halftime break to take a 6-3 edge when Murphy caught his first touchdown of the day.
 
Coming out of the locker room at halftime, Damiyr Martinez received the kick-off at Castleton's six-yard line before evading tacklers and running down the right sideline into the end zone for a 94-yard kick-return touchdown and a 10-6 Spartan lead following the extra point.
 
Castleton added to its lead two drives later when Simon Davis Jr. broke off a 51-yard touchdown run Castleton's third play of the drive. The drive began with a four-yard rush by Davis Jr. before McCarthy connected with Anthony Martinez for a 25-yard completion just shy of midfield. Davis Jr. then took the handoff and found paydirt 51 yards later. Maritime was flagged for a facemask on the play, a penalty that was enforced on the ensuing kick-off. After Crossman's PAT missed, the Spartans held a 10-point lead, 16-6.
 
Maritime responded quickly to Castleton's second touchdown, as Keogh found Tosclair for the 73-yard catch-and-run score on just the second play of the drive. Castleton was flagged for roughing the passer, which was also enforced on the ensuing kick-off. Coarse blocked Joe Gagliardi's PAT, keeping Castleton ahead by four, 16-12, with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter.
 
That score held deep into the final frame, as Maritime took over at its own 21-yard line with 2:46 on the clock and one timeout. The Privateers picked up a first down on the drive's first play, an 11-yard connection from Keogh to Varela. After back-to-back incompletions brought up third-and-10, Keogh again found Varela for a first down. Consecutive first-down catches moved the ball inside the red zone for Maritime, and a seven-yard run pushed the ball to the 11-yard line of the Spartans before Maritime called timeout with 1:03 on the clock. A second-down pass fell incomplete, but on third down, Keogh looked left and found Murphy on a fade route for the 11-yard touchdown and a 19-16 lead following the extra-point conversion.
 
Castleton tried one final time to get into field-goal range, starting the drive at its own 15-yard line. Maritime was penalized for 12 men on the field to start the drive, and McCarthy found Davis Jr. for seven yards and a first down on the following play. After a Castleton timeout, McCarthy connected with Anthony Martinez for 25 yards to the Maritime 48-yard line. One more completion to Caezar Williams moved the ball to the Maritime 41-yard line, and Castleton called timeout with nine seconds remaining. An incompletion brought up fourth down with enough time for one final play, and Castleton took a shot at the end zone. The ball was batted down at the one-yard line, ending the game with Maritime on top, 19-16.
 
Castleton is on the road again next Saturday, traveling to Franklin, Mass., to play Dean College at noon.