Mario Valentini had a decision to make. His Mount St. Michael football team led Fordham Prep by five points with less than two minutes left and they were facing a fourth-and-short on the Rams’ 42-yard line.
Pin Fordham Prep deep with a punt or go for the first down?
“I didn’t feel like I want to give them the ball,” Valentini said. “You decide whether you wanted to give them the full field to go or half the field…We just thought we would try to keep the ball away from them. We hadn’t stopped them all day.”
Mount faked the punt, but fullback Gary Acquah was stopped short of the first down. The Rams then drove 57 yards in five plays for the winning score. Max Kinder hit Michael Seminario for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 31 seconds left to hand Mount a crushing 41-40 loss in a CHSFL AAA game at Coffey Field Saturday. The duo killed Mount all game. Kinder threw for 328 yards and three touchdowns, all to Seminario, who caught eight balls for 211 yards for the Rams Prep (4-3, 4-2 CHSFL AAA).
“There was just always somebody open,” Acquah said. “He kept hitting [Seminario]. I think we should have recognized that.”
On the offensive side, the game was Mount’s best of the season. They had scored just 64 points combined in it five previous games. Jaylen Amaker completed 3-of-4 passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for 68 yards and a touchdown on seven carries. Acquah rushed for 122 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. He was dragging and pushing Fordham Prep defenders around all afternoon.
“I wish it could be like this all the time,” said Amaker, who played most of the second half with a twisted ankle. “We would definitely be one of the harder teams in the league to beat.”
Acquah’s 4-yard touchdown run capped a span of 15 straight points to put the Mountaineers (1-5, 1-5) up 40-28 with 11:02 left in the game. A fumble recovery on a kickoff set up the second score. But Fordham’s Bruce Grant broke a 69-yard touchdown run to pull Fordham within 40-35 with 9:02 remaining. Mount couldn’t muster any offense after the Rams’ regained the lead.
“You got to make plays to put teams away,” Valentini said. “We are not doing that right now.”
