Owen Glascoe spurs LIU past Sacred Heart for first victory of the season

When it was over, they bounded into the small, narrow hallway leading to their locker room in groups of ones and twos and threes, wearing large smiles and screaming in a kind of joyous delirium. 

This was the intersection of effort and result, and the Long Island University Sharks were going to revel in their accomplishment. 

And it was wholly justified.

“They deserve it,” head coach Ron Cooper said after his Sharks earned their first win of the 2023 season, 23-13, over Sacred Heart in a driving rainstorm on a homecoming Saturday afternoon at Bethpage Federal Credit Union Stadium.

“They,” Cooper said, “earned it.”

For 60 minutes, the Sharks (1-5, 1-1 Northeast Conference), played a physical, smash-mouth brand of football against a Pioneers (1-5, 1-2) squad that appeared ill-equipped to counteract the style of play and the conditions.

“They gave up a lot of gaps, so we took advantage of it,” said running back Pat Bowen, who finished with a team-leading 74 yards on 13 carries. 

As a team, LIU ran the ball 48 times for 168 yards, and two of the Sharks’ three touchdowns came on the ground.

“We came back to it because that’s what works,” Bowen said. “And whatever [keeps] working, we’re [going] to keep doing that.” 

The no-frills approach worked so well that LIU had its first halftime lead of the season at 14-10. 

Tight end Owen Glascoe’s 6-yard touchdown run 7:22 into the game opened the scoring, and his 6-yard touchdown pass to Leak Bryant 5:24 into the second quarter extended LIU’s lead to 14-0. 

“Never threw one in my life,” Glascoe said of the touchdown. “That was the first one.” 

Sacred Heart cut the lead to 14-7 on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Cade Pribula to LJ Haskett on the ensuing possession, and Sam Renzi’s 34-yard field goal with no time remaining in the first half brought the Pioneers to within three.

That was as close as Sacred Heart would get.  

In the third quarter, LIU went on a nine-play, 45-yard drive that took 5:05 off the clock, and was capped by Glascoe’s second touchdown run of the game, a 2-yarder off the right side that pushed the lead to 20-10. Punter Will Lynch mishandled the snap on the extra point and fell on the ball.

It did not matter because, on the second play from scrimmage following the kickoff, Jai Roe picked off Pribula (15-for-29, 151 yards, one touchdown, one interception) at the Sacred Heart 28-yard line which directly led to Michael Coney’s 45-yard field goal that extended the lead to 23-10. 

Renzi’s 32-yard field goal with 1:19 left in the third ended the scoring.

 Prior to the game, LIU held a moment of silence for former head coach Bryan Collins, who died in July. Collins compiled a 162-84 record in 23 seasons at LIU and is the all-time winningest coach in program history.