Head Coach Shaun Williams and the Pioneers fell short against the Salve Regina Seahawks in a close battle, 24-12.

Sophomore Quarterback Nigel Jennings ripped off a 60-yard rushing touchdown, which brought the Pioneers back into the game down 17 late, but it just wasn’t enough.

What started as a beautiful, sunny, and warm afternoon with a great crowd on hand turned into a quiet and disappointing end to the game.

It was a rough afternoon for Head Coach Williams as he slowly paced up and down the sideline in frustration, looking for answers. The Pioneers were only down 10-3 at halftime, but then the Seahawks started to pull away with the lead.

The Pioneers made a few mistakes along with

penalties that eventually led the Seahawks to run away with the game.

“The message never changes. The message is finishing the game. The message is making sure we execute on a high level,” said Coach Williams.

The Pioneers weren’t executing at the high level they wanted to, and that’s what led to their defeat at the hands of Salve Regina.

Salve Regina came out of the second half strong and scored two unanswered touchdowns to extend their lead over the Pioneers 24-3 late in the third quarter.

During that drive, the Pioneers held them to a three-and-out. But then sneakily enough, as it looked like they were getting set to punt, they faked it and took it for a significant gain of 25 yards on a risky play.

This later resulted in a score, extending their lead by 21 points.

“It was actually quite disappointing, because they’ve shown a fake earlier. We thought we had prepared for it; we had discussed executing. We didn’t execute at that point,” said coach Williams.

Once they broke free and converted the fake, Salve Regina fans went wild and got to their feet, cheering loudly for the rest of that drive.

Senior Captain and Linebacker Jayce Harmon had a nice game with seven total tackles, which was second on the team, on Saturday.

Defensively, the Pioneers did a substantial job of holding the Seahawks’ offense to just 24 points, after they had averaged 34 points in their first two games of the season.

“We’ve got to prepare harder, because we’re not all the way there yet,” said Jayce Harmon.

The Pioneers’ defense has had a strong start to the season thus far, but the offense needs to limit those mistakes to have the team clicking on all cylinders.

The Pioneers were also flagged for 10 accepted penalties for 85 yards, which stalls their drives and extends Salve Regina’s.

These little things are what cost the Pioneers a victory on Saturday. Clean up a few of these mistakes, and the Pioneers have a real chance of having a 2-0 start to the season instead of 0-2.

Aggressiveness is a key part of the game, and that’s just what Salve Regina did, extending their drives to lead to touchdown scores.

They had a fake punt in their own territory, which they converted. And then another fourth-down conversion later, for 17 yards, which led to a touchdown, making it 24-3 at that point.

Once the Pioneers trailed by 21, the play call changed, with urgency in getting back in the game, as Jennings threw the ball more, which resulted in some costly interceptions.

If the Seahawks don’t convert those crucial 4th down plays, the Pioneers, only down two scores, get the ball back with a whole quarter to go.

The Pioneers look to get in the win column next week with their matchup against Moravian. “We gotta move forward, and focus on what we can control and can’t control,” stated Williams.