The Marist Red Foxes (0-1) opened their season with a 22-21 loss against the University of New Haven Chargers (1-0) on Friday night. The one-point defeat saw the Marist offense net just six first downs.
Last season, the Red Fox special teams made their mark in a 31-14 win against the Chargers. That game also opened the season, featuring the same two quarterbacks who played this time around.
The Chargers know exactly how the highly athletic graduate student quarterback AJ Duffy likes to play; designed rollouts, play-action fakes and outside-of-the-pocket throws. This was evident on New Haven’s first drive, where they drove down the field but ultimately settled for a field goal due to a sack from junior safety Wayne Adair.
Duffy finished the contest with 311 yards and two touchdowns. He completed nearly 60 percent of his passes and added 38 yards on the ground.
The other signal caller, Phil Steele Publications’ Pre-Season Pioneer Football League (PFL) Offensive Player of the Year, graduate student Sonny Mannino, did not look comfortable to start the game. He only completed two of his first nine pass attempts.
This inconsistency through the air led to the Red Foxes running the ball far more often. It started with a third-down Mannino scramble that netted Marist a first down, then continued when junior utility man Jeremy DeCaro took a first-down carry for 29 yards to the Chargers’ five-yard line. Mannino capped off the drive with a touchdown run, bouncing outside and scurrying into the end zone for the first Marist touchdown of the year.
Mannino finished the game with just 70 yards passing, adding 37 on the ground.
Senior running back Lincoln Cardillo made his return after missing the final nine games of 2025 due to injury. Heavily utilized in the passing game, he finished with 18 receiving yards and also ran for 22.
On the very next New Haven drive, Marist sent a heavy blitz at Duffy. In the middle of being taken down for a sack, he decided to attempt a throw that landed directly into the paws of junior defensive end Jordan Caldwell. He rumbled into the end zone, putting the Red Foxes up 14-3 with 14:05 remaining in the second quarter.
Nearing halftime, the Chargers cut the deficit to four on a broken play turned touchdown that saw Duffy roll out, scan the field and heave a ball 39 yards downfield to junior wide receiver Issac Glaudin.
Entering halftime, Mannino completed just six of his 13 pass attempts for 33 yards. 18 of those yards came on a third-down completion to Cardillo.
Duffy, on the other hand, had quite the first half. He threw for over 130 yards and only missed the mark on five passes.
On the New Haven’s first punt attempt of the second half, Marist’s special teams unit burst through the line and blocked the punt. Junior wide receiver Zach Garmont quickly recovered the ball in the end zone, and the Red Foxes suddenly regained their 11-point lead.
In head coach Mike Willis’ first two years at the helm, Marist’s special teams continuously prevailed, making this play yet another indication about the unit’s vitality this season.
On a third-and-12 inside their own 20-yard line, New Haven dialed up yet another go route. This time, sophomore wide receiver Tommy Troy reeled it in for a gain of 50, ultimately leading to a New Haven field goal that made the score 21-13 four minutes into the half.
With just one minute left in the third, senior wide receiver Nate Burleson II ignited a fire into a slow start of the half. He beautifully tracked a 46-yard bomb into his hands and found the end zone. The son of Nate Burleson Sr., an NFL receiver who dominated during his time at Nevada and spent time with the Detroit Lions and Seattle Seahawks, had brought the Chargers within two. New Haven went for a two-point conversion but could not convert.
Marist entered the fourth quarter with just six first downs and 147 yards of total offense. Senior edge rusher Irv Briggs leveled Mannino behind the line of scrimmage for a sack on the last play of the quarter; yet the Red Foxes still led 21-19.
With Duffy inching close to the end zone in the early fourth quarter, the Red Fox defense found their footing. Sophomore safety Chase Hatton broke up a deep pass to force a New Haven field goal attempt. Senior kicker Liam Quigley missed the kick wide left, and Marist held onto their two-point lead.
After a Red Fox three-and-out, New Haven continued their air raid. Two long third-down conversions by the Chargers, including a massive third-and-13, set up a chip-shot field goal for Quigley. This time, he did not miss, giving New Haven their first lead since the first quarter. The Chargers led 22-21 with just 4:07 left in the game.
Marist looked deflated, an oddity given their blocked punt for a touchdown earlier in the half and big-man pick-six.
On the ensuing Red Foxes drive, a second-down sack by senior defensive end Israel Bey forced third-and-long. A scramble by Mannino netted 11 yards, setting up a do-or-die fourth-and-six.
The Red Foxes went for it. They dialed up a slot fade route, but Mannino overthrew his target along the sideline, and New Haven regained possession with two minutes left to play, setting up shop at the Marist 40-yard line.
Marist conceded a fourth-down, go-for-it attempt after using two of their timeouts to stop the clock. Graduate student wide receiver Dom Grguric hauled in a bullet over the middle from Duffy, and the Chargers ran the clock down to zero.
New Haven, the team selected to finish last in the Northeast Conference (NEC), avenged last season’s loss to the Red Foxes and stood tall at home, winning the game 22-21.
Marist travels back to Poughkeepsie after the one-point loss. Mannino and his offense will look to get things sorted out before their home opener against Franklin Pierce next Friday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm.
Edited by Mike Duda
Graphic by Isabel Cortese
Photos by Quinn DiFiore
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