After savoring an undefeated Division I championship season last fall, the Pinkerton Academy football squad has picked up where it left off despite the graduation departures of a number of important players and the loss of star senior running back T.J. Urbanik to a knee injury.
The Astros drove their 2015 record up to 3-0 with a 35-20 defeat of the host – and previously unbeaten – Salem High Blue Devils Saturday afternoon, Sept. 19.
After finishing one quarter tied up with the now 2-1 Blue Devils, the Astros outscored their hosts by a 28-13 tally the rest of the way to walk away victorious for the third time in three tries.
The strong Pinkerton performance was paced by senior running back Brett Dattilo, who rushed for 207 yards and two touchdowns and also caught two passes for 50 yards, including one more touchdown.
There were folks predicting that the host Salem crew would be able to upset the defending D-I champs in the contest, and after one quarter had been played and the score knotted at 7-7, that was still a possibility.
Mike Curley gave his Astros a lead midway through the first quarter when he rushed the football into the end zone from a yard out. But the Devils tied things up at 7-7 a bit less than four minutes later with a scoring run of their own.
The academy gridders went up 21-7 by scoring two unanswered touchdowns in the second period, with Dattilo sprinting 37 yards to paydirt 2 1/2 minutes in and then catching a 25-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Albrecht with 6:37 to play.
The academy side then bounced its lead up to 28-7 a mere 3:11 into quarter three when Nico Buccieri covered 51 big yards on a pass connection with quarterback Albrecht.
Salem then signaled that the game wasn’t quite decided by tallying two touchdowns – one late in quarter three and one early in period four – to make the score 28-20 in Pinkerton’s favor.
But the Astros hung tight and got the final word with a six-yard scoring sprint by Dattilo in the final minute of the game.
The victorious academy side tallied 276 total rushing yards and 162 passing yards for 438 total offensive yards, and their defense held Salem to 175 rushing yards and 90 through the air.
