Michael O’Grady | Sports Editor
Duquesne football opened up their season under the lights on Thursday night with a 49-10 loss to Toledo at the Glass Bowl. The Rockets, who were ranked as high as 23rd at times in last year’s AP College Football Poll, cruised to the win with their up-tempo offense, and extended Duquesne’s losing streak against FBS schools to five.
Though the Duke defense would struggle all game, the offense kept the score relatively close for most of the first half before several turnovers brought what momentum they had to a screeching halt. Quarterback Darius Perrantes, beginning his fourth season at Duquesne, was a modest 15-for-26, good for 143 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw a brutal interception.
Perrantes’s best weapon of the night was graduate transfer wideout John Erby, who played with Perrantes at Rhode Island in 2019. Erby immediately made his mark on the offense with seven receptions for 69 yards, including a ridiculous toe-tap catch late in the second quarter.
“It means a lot,” Erby said on suiting up for Duquesne. “It took a lot to get here, I’ve been through a lot, but I was just looking for an opportunity here, and my old quarterback gave me one. They bought into me, my team bought into me, I’m just blessed.”
Erby took some time to get going, as did most of the offense. Before Duquesne had a first down, Toledo QB Tucker Gleason and his offense had marched down the field twice for touchdowns, one to Junior Vandeross and another to Jacquez Stuart.
On Duquesne’s third drive, already down 14 and facing a 3rd-and-17 situation, Perrantes threw a bomb down the right side that Ian Sheehan dove for and caught to advance 35 yards; from there, the offense came alive, albeit with some luck. Two plays after Sheehan’s catch, JaMario Clements broke off for a run but fumbled upfield, and the ball bounced forward for some time evading capture until lineman Tommy Brandt jumped on it in the red zone. The Dukes would eventually score on a 4-yard touchdown pass to tight end Noah Canty.
Toledo responded instantly when Jerjuan Newton left the Dukes in the dust for a 54-yard score on the first play after the following kickoff, but a few runs from Taj Butts and well-placed Perrantes passes brought the Dukes into Toledo territory again early in the second quarter. After two incomplete shots to the end zone, Perrantes found Erby on 4th-and-8 for a clutch 24 yards downfield to keep Duquesne in the game.
The drive came down to a 3rd-and-goal from the Toledo seven-yard-line, where coming out of a timeout, Perrantes looked right and flipped a checkdown to Clements, who was stuffed well before he reached the end zone. The Dukes would settle for a Brian Bruzdewicz field goal, cutting Toledo’s lead to 11 instead of a much more manageable seven.
“Darius saw something and wanted to check to it,” Duquesne Head Coach Jerry Schmitt said when asked about the timeout and subsequent play call. “[Toledo] did a pretty good job of disguising. We tried to emphasize all week, just go with what you see and make the plays, and then the play came up short.”
As it would turn out, the points left on the board were insignificant, because that would be the last time Duquesne would score. A huge Jack Dunkley sack on third down and an ensuing missed Rockets field goal gave the Dukes the ball back with plenty of time in the first half, but a fumbled handoff to Clements on the first play of the drive gave possession right back to Toledo, and this time they took advantage for another touchdown.
With two minutes to go in the half, Perrantes connected with Erby three times in the hurry-up offense, including Erby’s toe-tap catch and another timely fourth-down conversion.
“I’m really happy for [Erby] that he had that opportunity,” Schmitt said. “What I saw was an outstanding work ethic since the day he showed up on this campus, as well as a really nice young man, a teammate who helps out other guys. He comes to work every single day, works hard at his craft. He had to work extra hard to learn this system quickly, and it paid off for him.”
At the Toledo 27-yard-line with 28 seconds left, the Dukes were in great position to score and immediately get the ball back since they were going to receive the second-half kickoff. Perrantes complicated things, however, by throwing a laser away from all of his targets but straight at defensive back Braden Awls, who held on for the backbreaking interception. The Rockets ran out the clock, and the Dukes went into the locker room down 18.
Duquesne’s final killer turnover came on the second-half kickoff itself, when returner Jermaine Johnson fumbled and once again, Toledo came up with the ball. After that, the bottom fell out under Duquesne against their stronger opponent, and the Rockets added three more touchdowns in the second half en route to a 49-10 final.
“You’re fighting a battle coming back,” Schmitt said. “We made a couple of mistakes, and it really separated the game. It took us out of having a chance at competing. The thing is to correct those mistakes and work on them in practice so that we don’t beat ourselves.”
Erby, though new to the Bluff, was voted a captain by his teammates prior to the season. He used his platform to emphasize improvement from everyone, including himself.
“Everything was tough sledding today, and [the offense] contributed to that a lot, there’s a lot of things I have to work on myself. We did some good things, but enough bad things to put us behind 30-plus points,” he said.
Duquesne’s schedule only gets more difficult this week. On Saturday, they’ll make their first of two trips to Massachusetts this season to play Boston College, a team that just made national headlines for their upset of Florida State. With eight days of rest, the Dukes will be ready for their second-straight test against an FBS opponent, hoping to make a huge upset of their own.
“The kids enjoy the opportunity,” Schmitt said. “They like the challenge.”
Highlights of the rest of Duquesne’s schedule include a Week 3 playoff rematch with Youngstown State, a home opener on Sept. 21 against Division II West Virginia Wesleyan, homecoming on Oct. 5 versus LIU, and the first edition of the Robert Morris rivalry since 2019, when the Northeast Conference-newcomer Colonials will visit Rooney Field on Nov. 9.