Sacred Heart falls to Merrimack

The Sacred Heart football team ran out of time on its final drive in a 31-25 loss to Merrimack on Saturday in North Andover, Mass.

The Pioneers drove the ball to the Warriors’ 24-yard line, but quarterback Marquez McCray was sacked and on the next play wide receiver LJ Haskett could not get out of bounds as time expired.

McCray finished with 315 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception for SHU (4-3, 2-1 NEC), while Malik Grant rushed for a team-high 97 yards. Rob Dinota had six catches for 120 yards to lead the receivers.

Merrimack improved to 6-2 (4-0 NEC). Duquesne 30, CCSU 6: At New Britain, Darius Perrantes threw two touchdown passes, Ezekiel Daure returned an interception for a touchdown, and Duquesne defeated Central Connecticut.

Perrantes, who was 17of-24 passing for 260 yards, threw touchdowns of 7 yards to Abdul Janneh in the second quarter and 24 yards to Jalin Cooper in the fourth. Perrantes’ top target was Dwayne Menders with eight catches for 118 yards.

Daure’s 30-yard interception return in the final minute was the third interception of the Blue Demons’ Shon Mitchell, who completed 17 of 35 passes for 135 yards.

Nasir Smith scored Central Connecticut’s touchdown, on a 19-yard run in the third quarter. He totaled 91 yards on 20 carries.

Brian Bruzdewicz kicked three field goals for Duquesne (2-5, 1-2 Northeast Conference).

Central Connecticut fell to 0-7, 0-3.

Western Connecticut State 24, Mass. Maritime 3: Massachusetts Maritime took a 3-0 lead and then it was all WestConn led by Julian Ferguson who caught seven passes for 103 yards including two touchdowns in the MASCAC matchup at Buzzards Bay, Mass.

Dennis Riordan completed 19 of 31 passes for 23 yards and two TDs and Chad Blaszky had 131 yards on 28 carries for WestConn (5-3, 4-2).