Western New England College hosts Salve Regina in Homecoming contest
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Western New England
College reaches the halfway point in its season by hosting Salve
Regina in a New England Football Conference (NEFC) Boyd Division
contest during Homecoming starting at 1:00 p.m. Saturday (Oct.
2).
The Golden Bears are 3-1 after defeating Nichols 28-10 in their
division opener last Saturday (Sept. 25). The Seahawks dropped to
1-3 after suffering a 29-28 loss against Endicott.
Junior quarterback Bryce Brown (Guilford, CT) made
his first start a successful one by accounting for 183 yards
against the Bison. He completed 12-of-21 passes for 111 yards and
ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns (16 and 7 yards) in leading
WNEC to its third straight win.
Junior running back JJ Jachym (Milford, CT) added
108 yards on the ground and two scores as the Golden Bears scored
28 unanswered points after trailing by 10 with five minutes left in
the second period. He ranks fifth in the conference in rushing
(102.8 avg.).
This was the second straight week that the Western New England
College defense held an opponent to just 10 points. The Golden
Bears also picked-off three passes and compiled four tackles for
losses against Nichols.
"We didn't start the game very well," said
Western New England College coach Keith Emery.
"It took a long time, but we got it going in the right
direction in the second half."
Although encouraged with his team's performance, Emery noted
there is still a lot of room for improvement.
"We are still trying to figure ourselves out in all three
phases," he stated. "We haven't quite figured out
what we do best yet. We are looking to be much more
consistent."
The Golden Bears have four players with 20 or more tackles led by
sophomore free safety Phil Tsopanides (Fairfield,
CT) with 35 stops (ninth in the league) and senior linebacker
Justin Bailey (Northborough, MA) with 25. The
defensive backs have 15 breakups with sophomore Corey
Brown (Worcester, MA) (five) and senior Pat
Lesko (Seymour, CT) (four) leading the way.
Western New England College is second in the NEFC in both scoring
defense (15.2 points per game) and rushing offense (220.0 avg.),
and sixth in both total offense (300.2) and scoring offense (tied
with Plymouth at 20.5).
Salve Regina looks to break
three-game skid
After opening its season with a 6-3 win over a good WPI team, the
Seahawks have lost three straight, including two contests by a
single point.
"Salve is the best team we've have seen yet. We need to
defend their skill players who have had success against us in the
past. We also need to find a way to run the ball against their
tough zone pressure schemes on defense," commented Emery.
Western Massachusetts native senior running back Rob
LaRiviere-Tougas (Easthampton, MA) heads the list of
several talented players with 268 yards on the ground and two
touchdowns. Sophomore back Trey Scales (Boston,
MA) is right behind with 226 yards and a pair of scores.
Senior quarterback Mitch Roshong (Verona, NJ) has
passed for 293 yards and a TD. Junior receiver Michael
Dargan (Meriden, CT) has a team-best 11 catches for 91
yards while junior wide-out Patrick Keenan
(Harrisville, RI) has nine receptions for 136 yards and a TD.
Salve Regina ranks third in the conference in rushing defense
(113.2 avg.) and sixth in scoring defense (16.5). Junior linebacker
A.J. Albert (Franklin Park, NJ) is 10th in the
NEFC with 34 tackles.
Both teams have two of the top place-kickers in the
league in case the game is close.
Western New England College senior Jake Field
(Long Valley, NJ) is 10-for-11 in extra points and two-of-three in
field goal attempts. SRU sophomore Brendan Deasy
(Quincy, MA) has been perfect on all four PATs and is three-of-four
in three-pointers.
This will be the 17th meeting between the teams with the Seahawks
leading the series (which started in 1993) by a 13-3 margin. The
Golden Bears took last year's meeting in Newport, Rhode
Island 17-14.
