Springfield, Mass. - September 23, 2023 - The Springfield College football team put up the most rushing yards in a single game in program history as it rolled past Coast Guard, 63-14, on Saturday afternoon at Stagg Field in both teams New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) opener.
The win lifts Springfield's record to 3-1, 1-0 in conference play, while Bears are 2-2, 0-1.
It was a historic offensive performance by the Pride as it rushed for a program record 686 yards on 71 carries, averaging 9.7 yards per rush. The performance bested the previous record of 676 yards that was set against Merchant Marine in 2010. In fact, it marked the most rushing yards by a Division III squad since Galludet churned up 716 yards versus Anna Maria in 2017. The Pride finished the day with 33 first downs, all on the ground, as it held the ball for 35:44 and had nine student-athletes with at least 20 rushing yards.
Jacob Silvester (Lancaster, Mass.) had his best game under center so far this season as he found the end zone twice and rushed for 124 yards, while Arsen Shtefan (West Hartford, Conn.) racked up 140 yards and score. Blane Hart (East Lyme, Conn.) also scored twice as he rushed for 96 yards, and Joseph Cannizzaro (Lincoln Park, N.J.), Johnell Fillippini (Plymouth, Mass.), and Drew Heenan (Londonderry, N.H.) added rushing scores of their own.
Christian Hutra (Holmes, N.Y.) made all nine of his extra point attempts, while both Joe Maurer (Wilbraham, Mass.) and Will McKay (Tewksbury, Mass.) each notched six tackles and a pair of pass break ups.
After the Bears forced a fumble on Springfield's opening drive, Springfield responded with their first score of the game following an 11-play, 80-yard drive that was capped off by a Hart 12-yard score for what would prove to be the only score of the first quarter at the 5:02 mark.
Springfield would erupt for 28 points in the second quarter to start to pull away, with Silvester punching in a one-yard score two seconds in the stanza following a 48-yard scamper from Shtefan. Springfield added a special teams touchdown just over a minute later as Nick Peterson (Kingston, Mass.) broke through the line for a punt block that Sean Brown (Westford, Mass.) was able to recover and score from inside the five yard line.
After Coast Guard turned the ball over on downs on their next drive at the Springfield 21, the hosts needed just three plays to find paydirt as Hart busted out a 60-yard scoring run at 8:14. After forcing a Coast Guard off the field on a three-and-out, Springfield took over from the Bears 34 yard line and scored four plays later off a Shtefan eight-yard run to make it 35-0 with 5:44 to play.
It would be a 35-7 score entering the half as Coast Guard struck with under two minutes to play on a 16-yard strike through the air fom Joey Armentrout to Chase Politte.
Springfield kept up the pressure in the third, getting a 32-yard run from Silvester at 9:34 and a 51-yard burst down the sideline from Cannizzaro at 7:34 to make it 49-7 entering the fourth. Fillippini pushed the lead to 56-7 inside the opening two minutes of the fourth for his first career score before Dennis O'Shea was able to lean over the end line for the Bears second score with 10:20 left in regulation. Heenan finished off the scoring 59 seconds later as the first-year made several defenders miss en route to a 54-yard touchdown jaunt. Springfield would put the game away with a 12-play drive that lasted the final 7:40 of the game, with Stanford Davis (Montague, N.J.) barrelling for a four-yard run late in the game to push the Pride to a new program record for rushing yards in a game.
Springfield continues conference play next Saturday when it travels to WPI in a 12 pm tilt.
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