Remember when?

Do you remember August 30, 2008? On that day, Southern Connecticut beat WV Wesleyan 26-21 on the road. Why does it matter? It is the last time that the Owls won a game outside of the NE-10. They fell to Bryant, IUP twice, Central Connecticut and West Liberty.

Southern Connecticut broke the streak with the help of eight West Liberty turnovers to pick up their first victory of the season. It is an important win for the Owls as it shows that they have the ability to compete with good teams outside of the conference. And history shows that out of conference wins help if you are in a position for a playoff spot.

Southern Connecticut also needed the confidence that they are a good team and can win tough games. They have the talent but have made too many mistakes to win non-conferences games.

They kick off the NE-10 portion of their schedule this weekend when they travel north to St. Anselm.

First Career Win

It took two seasons and ten games but Pace head coach Chris Dapolito finally grabbed his first career coaching win. It was not easy as Pace went to overtime before they were able to win the game.

It is also the first win for the Pace football program since October 31, 2009 when they upset AIC 20-19. They have struggled since the team opened 3-0 in the 2008 season. Since that point, they are 3-25 in their last 28 games. But when Coach Dapolito was hired, the program saw a jump in recruiting and excitement.

He brought in a large freshmen class and football seems to be moving in the right direction at Pace. They are not going to be at the top of the league this year but they are going to give some teams a run for their money. And if recruiting continues to build the program from the ground up, it will only be a matter of time before Pace is competing for a league title again.

Overtime success

There has been a lot of extra football played in the first two weeks of the season. Four overtime games have been played and the NE-10 has been successful in all of them.

If you throw out the Pace-Stonehill overtime game, the NE-10 is 3-0 in extra session games. Two of the wins are over PSAC teams and one over a WVIAC team. That might be very helpful when playoff selection season rolls around in a couple of months.

Non-Conference

The D2 non-conference portion of the schedule is done and the NE-10 was a respectable 5-5 in those games. Not bad for a conference that has struggled in those games in the past couple of years and that has directly resulted in no NE-10 teams making it in the playoffs.

After an opening weekend 2-3 record, Week 2 saw a 3-2 record and some potential momentum for the upcoming season. The biggest surprise was the ease that New Haven beat CIAA member St. Augustines. Both teams were on the cusp of the playoffs last year and will help the NE-10 if both teams are fighting for a spot in November.

The NE-10 finishes 2-3 against the PSAC, 2-2 against the WVIAC and 1-0 against the CIAA. I am ignoring the D1 FCS and D3 results as they do not have a bearing on the playoffs. The league still has three non-conferences games to play but they are all against D1 FCS schools.

Big time rally

It seems that another young team took a big step last Saturday as Assumption rallied from a 14 point deficit to win in overtime on the road at Seton Hill. Yes, it is not the same Seton Hill team that made the playoffs a couple of years ago but for a young Assumption team, it was a big confidence builder.

The Greyhounds have a decent backfield with the emergence of Matt Pedone and returning contributor Uly Gibson. The duo combined for 200 yards on the ground and found the end zone three times including highlighted by Gibson with the overtime winner.

Pedone is a surprise as he totaled just 76 total yards last year, mostly on kickoffs. He is listed as a wide receiver on the roster but has carried the ball 34 times in two games with 6.8 yards per carry average.

Assumption will open their NE-10 schedule this weekend with a trip to AIC.