Albany is the bully of the Northeast Conference largely because of a massive offensive line anchored by 6-foot-7, 340-pound Raphael Nguti.

Duquesne is the newcomer in the conference and offered athletic scholarships for the first time this year.

Albany parlayed its superior strength and depth into a 33-23 victory against Duquesne yesterday at Rooney Field.

"They've had three years of scholarships and we've had one year; that makes a big difference," Duquesne coach Jerry Schmitt said. "They're pretty physical with their offensive line controlling the ball. Their line did start to wear on us."

The Great Danes (2-3, 1-0) played keepaway from the Dukes (2-2, 1-1) in the second half with a punishing ground game that featured David McCarty, who finished with 230 yards rushing on 37 carries and three receptions for 40 yards and a touchdown.

"We didn't get enough touches in the second half to get our offense going," Schmitt said. The Dukes ran just 27 plays from scrimmage after taking 48 snaps in the first half.

Albany, picked to repeat as NEC champion, played its fifth consecutive game on the road with the losses coming against teams ranked nationally at the time.

"I was really nervous because it's tough to judge them on films, because they were going against ranked teams," Schmitt said. "It was hard to gauge where they were. We stood toe-to-toe with them in the first half."

The Dukes dominated the total yards (278-154) and time of possession (19:19-10:41), but the Great Danes held a 20-17 advantage at halftime thanks to a fumble recovery deep in Duquesne territory and two defensive stops. Twice Duquesne went for it on fourth-and-short and twice the Danes stopped the Dukes -- on an incomplete pass at the Albany 35 and a sneak by quarterback Connor Dixon at the Albany 43.

Duquesne took a 7-0 lead on its first possession, with Cleo Williams running 20 yards for a touchdown. Albany tied it 7-7 on Colin Simmons' 2-yard run and went up 14-7 early in the second quarter on Vinny Esposito's 2-yard run.

The Dukes pulled into a 14-14 tie on Dixon's 42-yard pass to Conrad Carter and made it 17-14 on Mark Troyan's 20-yard field goal. Albany completed the scoring in the first half on Esposito's 24-yard touchdown pass to McCarty.

The second half belonged to Albany.

The Dukes made a final frantic gasp on Dixon's 41-yard touchdown pass to tight end Sean Bunevich to make it 33-23 with 1:13 remaining. The Dukes recovered an onside kick but went nowhere. Bunevich, a 6-4, 230-pound junior, had career highs of eight catches for 163 yards, but the touchdown was his only reception in the second half.

Dixon had an erratic performance, completing 21 of 46 for 338 yards and two touchdowns. He was intercepted three times and sacked four times.

Duquesne linebacker Nathan Totino, a sophomore from Seton-LaSalle, had 23 tackles, forced a fumble and recovered the onside kick.