SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College football team concluded its season with a comeback victory against Saint Anselm College, 28-21, on Saturday afternoon at Ronald J. Abdow Field.
AIC ends the year with a 4-7 record.
In the final game of his AIC career, graduate student Daquan Holmes dazzled by becoming the all-time career interceptions leader in Northeast-10 Conference history. He recorded the 20th pick of his career in the second quarter, and his fifth of the year, when the Saint Anselm quarterback Yianni Gavalas's pass found the hands of Holmes, who followed up with a 53-yard return.
Earlier in the game, though Saint Anselm had jumped out to a 21-0 lead with 7:12 to go in the first quarter, Holmes began an AIC comeback with an impressive 88-yard kickoff return to make the score 21-7.
Redshirt sophomore quarterback Kwame Jarvis later connected with redshirt freshman Christian Dargan on a seven-yard touchdown pass to bring the Yellow Jackets within 21-14 with 14:54 left in the second quarter.
On the ensuing drive after Holmes's historic interception, redshirt sophomore Troy Morrow had an eight-yard rush with 11:15 left in the second quarter to tie things up at 21-21.
That score would hold through halftime and the entire third quarter, and AIC took its first lead of the game with 8:59 left to play when senior Evan Graham had a 16-yard touchdown reception to push AIC to a 28-21 advantage.
AIC's defense held the Hawks out of the end zone with 3:21 remaining, despite Saint Anselm having a first and goal on the four-yard line. Senior Danny Omoregie was involved in four consecutive stops to prevent Saint Anselm from scoring, and AIC kept the Hawks at the two-yard line to preserve the 28-21 score.
On the Hawks' final drive attempt of the game with a minute and a half remaining, redshirt junior Devonte Dillion had his fifth interception of the year to keep Saint Anselm from continuing the drive and to secure the victory for AIC.
Jarvis threw for 205 yards, tying his season-best. Redshirt sophomore Ryheime Moore had 77 receiving yards on the day, while sophomore Willie Brown IV had 57 rushing yards. Omoregie had 10 tackles to lead the AIC defense, and senior Jerrod Shelby added nine.
