Engineers finally come through
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"I was ecstatic that we won obviously," the WPI coach said, "but it was like, 'where have you guys been all season?’ Why did you wait until tonight to play a great football game?' "
In the most stunning development of the Freedom Football Conference season to date, WPI came from behind in the second half Saturday to upset No. 13 Western Connecticut State 22-15, potentially sending the conference championship race toward chaos.
While Western (6-1, 4-1) can clinch its second FFC title in three years Nov. 10 with a victory at Norwich, a win by Norwich and WPI victories against Coast Guard and Plymouth State could create a four-way tie for the championship and the conference’s AQ to the NCAA tournament. Western, WPI, Plymouth and Springfield would be the four teams tied at 4-2. Springfield would also have to beat Norwich at home this week.
Or if Norwich beats Western and Plymouth wins at WPI on Nov. 10, Plymouth would win the Freedom title and advance to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1995.
Either way, WPI’s upset has injected new life and excitement into a conference race that was seemingly headed for a drab pre-Halloween finish prior to Saturday night’s shocker. Western would have clinched the 2001 championship had it beaten WPI.
But WPI quarterback Chris Busso, who had been removed in the second half of the Engineers’ previous game, scored on a 9-yard run with 5:12 to play, snapping a 15-15 tie. WPI (3-5, 2-2) then survived one final drive by Western as linebacker Jim Beaudoin intercepted a pass in the end zone with 2:39 remaining.
WPI defensive back Nick Williams added his school-record eighth interception of the season with 18 seconds to play.
"It was one of those games that sometimes makes football difficult to figure out," said Zaloom. "We finally played the way I thought we were capable of — and maybe a little better — and obviously Western Connecticut did not play its best game of the season. Plus we got a little lucky. Western dropped a couple of balls that they normally catch and we had a couple of balls bounce our way."
Nobody was in a better position to catch those two fortunate bounces than WPI wide receiver Andre King. After making just 11 receptions in the first seven games, King made two gigantic catches off deflected passes from Busso in the second half.
The first catch, with seven minutes to play in the third quarter, resulted in a 45-yard TD reception that rallied WPI into a 15-12 lead. Busso’s pass to the left flat was intended for Mark Vandette and hit off Vandette’s hands and into the arms of a streaking King.
The second, with six minutes to play, resulted in a 24-yard gain that set up WPI for a first down at the Western 10 and led to Busso’s game-winning score. This time, King caught a ball that Western cornerback Mike Smith had dove for and batted toward the ground. Smith claimed it hit the ground and bounced up.
No matter. Teams make their own breaks.
Despite being plagued by turnovers all season, WPI turned the ball over just once against Western, which came into the game leading the nation in turnover margin (a plus-24 previously). The Engineers had hurt themselves as well by not being able to stop the run, something that showed horribly in their 47-20 loss to Springfield the previous week. WPI held Western to 56 yards rushing.
WPI had earlier in the season lost games to RPI, Union and neighborhood rival Worcester State, teams that have a combined 22-1 record.
"After the Springfield game, I was looking for a knife to fall on; it was that embarrassing," said Zaloom.
"If you don’t have good players and don’t have the potential, you don’t worry about such things. But we have some talented kids and we’d shown the potential on both sides of the ball to be a good team. When you have that and don’t play up to your potential, it’s frustrating. I’m not saying we would have beaten RPI or Union if we’d played as well as we’re capable of, but we would have given them better games."
WPI’s unique option/I-pro offensive blend produced a combined 192 yards rushing against Western’s vaunted defense from Preston Robert and fireball Eric Thiboutot. King caught three passes for 79 yards and Vandette added five receptions from Busso (11-for-29, 163 yards).
On defense, all-FFC defensive end Jerome Hunter had eight tackles, two tackles for a loss and a sack. Linebackers Dale Horsman and Chris Decker also had big games while Vinny Scott joined Williams and Beaudoin in intercepting Western quarterback Mike Scipione.
"Who knows where this (conference race) is headed now," said Zaloom. "But we really can’t worry about it. We have to concentrate on trying to prepare for Coast Guard and trying to duplicate what we did against Western. That’s plenty right there."
FFC tiebreakers
Should the aforementioned four-way tie ensue in the Freedom Conference, WPI would come out the unlikely winner based on head-to-head competition among the four tied teams. WPI and Western would both be 2-1 against the other tied teams, while Plymouth and Springfield would be 1-2. That would eliminate the latter two, leaving WPI and Western to break the tie. WPI would win based on Saturday's 22-15 victory.
If Western beats Norwich on Nov. 10, nothing else matters. The best Plymouth could do is tie Western, and the Colonials would win the tiebreaker via head to head. If Plymouth wins its final two FFC games and Western loses to Norwich, Plymouth would finish a game ahead of the pack at 5-1.
NEFC Boyd race over
While the New England Football Conference Bogan Division title will be decided on Saturday, when Worcester plays at Westfield, there will be no much drama in the Boyd. There wasn’t even a win Saturday by Boyd champion Nichols to mark the occasion.
While Nichols was dropping a 14-7 inter-division game to Westfield, Boyd Division hopeful Salve Regina was taking itself out of consideration by losing to UMass-Dartmouth, leaving it with two defeats. That means the worst Nichols can do is finish in a tie with Dartmouth and Curry, and the Bison have already beaten the latter two Boyd rivals.
Thus a year after missing the NEFC title game despite wins over both 2000 contestants, Nichols will be playing for 2001 championship Nov. 10 and a berth in the NCAA tournament. Ironically, Nichols has already lost to both Westfield and Worcester, one of which will advance to the NEFC final at Worcester's Coughlin Field.
Westfield remained unbeaten at 8-0 overall by using a 14-play, 95-yard drive to score the winning points in the fourth quarter against Nichols. Quarterback Chris Lapointe ended the drive when he found Matt Yvon from 14 yards out on a slant pattern to put Westfield (5-0 Bogan Division) ahead to stay with 12:46 to play.
Yvon finished with six receptions for 81 yards, including three catches on the game-winning drive.
"It's kind of a pick play that we practice all week," Yvon said of the winning catch. "We use it quite a bit in games; it's a timing pattern and Chris just got me the ball."
The Owls' defense stiffened in the fourth quarter, limiting the Bison to 24 total yards on their final three drives.
"We did a great job today," said Westfield coach Steve Marino. "A lot of people weren't sure how good we were, but I think we proved today that we can play with the best teams. But we've still got a lot of work to do and we have a tough game ahead of us."
Worcester tunes up for Westfield
The teams have been primed for over half the season for this. Now it’s time. Undefeated Worcester vs. undefeated Westfield for the Bogan Division title Saturday at Westfield’s Alumni Field.
“It's come down to what we wanted,” said Worcester coach Brien Cullen, after his team defeated Maine Maritime 43-13. “It can't get any better than this. We were hoping we'd be one of those teams (in the NEFC title game). I can't ask for a better ending.”
Worcester, which rolled up 538 yards of total offense vs. Maine Maritime, captured three consecutive NEFC championships from 1995 to 1997, but was never invited to the NCAA tournament under the old 16-team format. Now the NEFC winner gets an automatic bid.
The loser of Worcester-Westfield will probably receive an invitation to the ECAC playoffs, possibly against a team from the Freedom Conference.
“I've never been there (playoffs) before, so I don't know what it's like,” sophomore quarterback Cean Oksanish told the Worcester Telegram. “I'm looking forward to playing Westfield State. I've got some friends who go there.”
Massahos making a bid
Plymouth running back Russ Massahos won his third FFC offensive player of the week award Monday, making him a strong candidate for conference offensive player of the year honors.
The 5-11, 200-pound workhorse carried 31 times for 150 yards and one touchdown, helping Plymouth remain in the FFC title hunt with a 42-19 win against Coast Guard. Massahos also went over the 3,000-yard mark in career rushing, improving his four-year total to 3,123 yards. He’s the second PSC player and 22nd Division III back in New England history to reach the milestone.
The only other player in Plymouth history to rush for over 3000 yards was 1985 Heisman Trophy candidate Joe Dudek, who ran for 5,570 yards, second to Maine Maritime’s Steve Tardif (6,093) in New England history.
Langley, WNEC stay hot
Western New England lost its first five games of the season before winning its next two, thanks mainly to senior running back Marvin Langley, who has rushed for a combined 516 yards and eight touchdowns in victories over Framingham State and MIT.
The 5-10, 190-pound Langley leads the NEFC in rushing with 1,065 yards (152.1 per game avg.) and all-purpose yards (210.7 per game avg.), and is among the national leaders in both categories. He has scored 12 touchdowns.
Entering his final game Saturday at Fitchburg State, Langley has 3,372 career yards rushing and 41 touchdowns.