NEW HAVEN – The Yale football team’s 41-24 victory over Merrimack on Saturday afternoon was more than a comeback win in its home opener.
It was an emotional tribute and an opportunity for the Bulldogs to begin healing a day after former coach Tony Reno, who led Yale for 14 years, died at age 52
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His son, Yale’s junior quarterback Dante Reno, decided to play Saturday to honor his father, and he did so in incredible fashion, finishing the game 22 of 39 for 298 yards and four touchdowns.
He threw touchdown passes of 9 and 10 yards to Jaxton Santiago, a 2-yarder to Graham Smith and then a 20-yarder to Garon Kemp.
Santiago finished with five catches for 100 yards, while Lucius Anderson had game-high totals of seven catches and 116 yards.
Running back Hugo Djeumeni Kemeni also scored a touchdown and finished with 132 yards on 30 carries as Yale improved to 2-1.
The Bulldogs scored the game’s final 17 points after it was tied 24-24 with 5:16 to play in the third.
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Kemp made an outstanding second-effort catch in the end zone on third-and-goal from the 20-yard line to give Reno his fourth TD pass of the game and put Yale ahead 31-24 with 12:50 to play.
On the previous play, Reno was stopped at the 6-yard line on a third-and-goal run, but offensive holding was called. Merrimack had a choice of taking the result of the play and making it fourth down or pushing Yale back 10 yards and giving the Bulldogs another try at a touchdown from 20 yards away.
Coach Mike Gennetti took the penalty, and Yale made him pay by scoring the touchdown.
Then, after a three-and-out forced by the Bulldogs’ defense and a huge 28-yard pass from Reno to Santiago, Yale took its first two-score lead of the game, 34-24, on a 38-yard field goal by Noah Piper with 9:30 remaining.
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The Bulldogs then kept their momentum rolling on their next possession, scoring on a 9-yard touchdown run by Djeumeni Kemeni to take a 41-24 lead with 4:07 to play.
Yale opened the second half with an eight-play, 72-yard drive to take a 24-21 lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Reno to Graham Smith. Reno completed all three passes he attempted on the drive, including a 28-yarder to Santiago and a 21-yarder to Reid Jones.
Merrimack came right back to tie the score, however, on a 25-yard field goal by Guytano Bartolomeo on a 10-play, 70-yard drive, and then had a chance to take the lead moments later when Yale turned the ball over at its 21-yard line on a fumbled handoff exchange.
The Bulldogs’ defense didn’t yield, however, and Bartolomeo missed wide right on a 35-yard field goal attempt.
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The game remained tied 24-24 after three quarters.
Yale struck first as the Bulldogs drove the ball 72 yards in seven plays, with Reno completing four of his first five passes, including a 9-yard touchdown pass to Santiago.
Merrimack responded on the second play of its next possession, however, with a 79-yard touchdown pass from AJ Hairston to Kenyon Massey to tie the score 7-7.
The Warriors took the lead with 2:21 to play in the first quarter on a Reno interception that linebacker Will Claude returned 73 yards for a touchdown.
Merrimack extended its lead to 21-7 midway through the second quarter with an impressive seven-play, 92-yard drive culminating in a 40-yard touchdown pass from Hairston to Dennis Morgan.
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Yale fought back by scoring the final 10 points of the half on back-to-back drives. The first was a 13-play, 56-yard drive that ended with a 27-yard field goal by Noah Piper. Three plays before the kick, it appeared that Reno had scored on a 13-yard run, but Yale was called for a holding penalty in the end zone to negate the TD.
Reno had his best series on the Bulldogs’ next possession. He completed passes to Santiago for 25 yards, Cuttler Adams for 15 and finally 10 yards to Santiago for a touchdown to pull Yale within four, 21-17, going into halftime.
The Bulldogs weren’t shy about throwing the ball in the first half, as Reno was 13-for-26 for 113 yards and also drew two pass-interference penalties.
Former head coach Jack Siedlecki, who hired Reno in 2003, said that he always knew Reno would be a highly successful coach because he possessed all the attributes.
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“When you hire an assistant football coach, a lot of guys have particular skills that they are really good at,” Siedlecki said. “Some guys are really good coaches on the field. Some guys are really good evaluators of talent. Some guys are great recruiters. Some guys develop players really well. Some guys have great relationships on campus.
“Tony had the whole package, and that is why he was as successful as he was as the head coach. He could do everything.”
Siedlecki said that Reno’s greatest qualities were that he was a tremendous family man first, and that, when it came to football, his genuine nature allowed him to build great, trustworthy relationships with his players.
“He was very caring and very concerned for his players well-being,” Siedlecki said. “Players always know if you are genuine and if you are not. With football, the hardest thing about it is that you are dealing with over 100 kids and there are only 22 starters and 40-45 guys playing in a game. To actually have a relationship with all of those kids and care about all of those kids and be genuine is really, really important, and Tony had that quality.”
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Siedlecki said that people on the outside will all simply view Reno as a really successful coach because his record of 83-49 tells that story, along with his five Ivy League championships in the last eight years he coached, including last year’s historic 9-3 team that became the league’s first representative in the FCS playoffs.
What the sheer numbers don’t show is how Reno went about building Yale back into a contender. After taking over from Tom Williams (2009-11), Reno spent five years meticulously planning and working to restore the championship pride.
“It wasn’t like he was the miracle worker, and all of a sudden everything was successful,” Siedlecki said. “He went through the battle. I think he was something like 2-8 his first year. When you do that and build the program from scratch, there is a lot of pride but you have to have a lot of different talents to be that successful.”
A big part of his rebuilding of the team was hiring great coaches like all the guys who helped him succeed last season while he was battling illness. Kevin Cahill, who coached under him for 10 seasons (2012-22), returned to take over the program this year as head coach.
This article originally published at Yale football rallies for emotional win as Dante Reno honors late father with four TDs.
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