‘BOUT TIME: Averett wins first football game since 2006

By Jason Wolf

Published: September 20, 2008

Just four plays after he was helped off the field, starting quarterback Philip Kwiatkowski called to his backup, Shan Fairbanks, and congratulated him for finishing the drive with a touchdown.

“Normally when there’s a football injury I try to stay as far away as possible,” Fairbanks said, after gladly accepting the praise. “It’s kind of like a superstitious thing. Kind of like hospitals — and not going in them.”

It wasn’t the last time Kwiatkowski commended Fairbanks and his Averett University teammates on Saturday afternoon, as the Cougars took a three-touchdown lead into the fourth quarter against unsuspecting Guilford College and hung on for a 31-24 victory at the Cougar Den in Danville. The win snaps Averett’s 11-game losing streak, which dates to a 58-44 victory against Marysville on Nov. 11, 2006 — a win that clinched a share of the USA South Conference championship.

Thanks to a 0-10 season last year, however, the good times on the school’s North Campus seemed like ages ago. And there are loads of players on this Cougars team who never before experienced a win in an Averett (1-1) uniform.

“This is my first win in my (college) career. … It’s absolutely amazing,” sophomore wide receiver Jorge Del Valle said after his 80-yard catch and run put the Cougars in position for their final score. “To tell you the truth, I thought I knew what it was to win — coming from high school I was on a winning team, in the playoffs every year — but nothing compares to this right now. Nothing.”

Junior tailback Dontavious Watson rushed for 102 yards on 23 carries and scored two touchdowns for the first time in his collegiate career and Anthony Squillini hauled in four catches for 40 yards and two scores for the first time ever — “I played DB in high school,” he said — and Averett rolled up a 31-10 lead on Guilford (2-1) before withstanding the Quakers’ furious fourth-quarter comeback.

Guilford quarterback Josh Vogelbach, a transfer from Division I East Carolina University who threw seven touchdowns against Averett last season and has rewritten the Quakers’ record book, led Guilford on a pair of scoring drives in the fourth quarter. He tossed a 20-yard completion on fourth-and-9 to Kevin Vaughn, who was tackled at the Averett 1-yard line to set up Justin Parker’s second 1-yard touchdown run of the day, and hit Hagen Miller from 20 yards out for a touchdown with 1:44 left in the game to pull the Quakers within a single score.

That was the first and last touchdown pass Vogelbach completed on Saturday, when the Quakers’ star signal caller completed 29-of-53 passes for 327 yards while being constantly harassed by the Cougars defense. Vogelbach was intercepted three times — by Chatham High graduate Logan Smyth in the first quarter and by defensive tackle Justin Anaya and corner back John Garcia in the fourth quarter — with Garcia’s pick at midfield with 17 seconds remaining icing Averett’s victory.

“I admire Averett. They came out and they played with their hearts and souls the whole game. … I give them a lot of credit,” Guilford coach Kevin Kiesel said. “We had costly turnovers and penalties and they just kept capitalizing and kept the pressure on. … We did not come off the bus and play football, and Averett took it to us.’

The Cougars answered Guilford’s opening-drive field goal with touchdowns on their next two possessions. Squillini scored on a 12-yard pass from Kwiatkowski on the ensuing drive and Watson added a 12-yard touchdown run less than four minutes later.

Parker scored his first touchdown for Guilford later in the first quarter and another Quakers touchdown was wiped off because of a penalty as Averett managed to hold on to its 14-10 lead through intermission.

The Cougars outscored the visitors 17-0 in the third quarter as Marcus Klusacek drilled a 38-yard field goal and Watson and Squillini each found the end zone for the second time, with both scores coming after Kwiatkowski was knocked from the game with a leg injury.

Fairbanks, a senior and a starter the last two seasons, proved more than capable of leading the Averett offense after retaking the reins.

“I think for the kids that have been here, that have won a championship in 2006, then to come back and have a (0-10) season, I think they understand and appreciate that it’s not easy to win. It takes a lot of work,” Averett coach Mike Dunlevy said. “Our kids understand that and I’m excited for them because they haven’t given up.”