Road Warriors

Assumption is quickly making their mark on the 2013 football season. Two weeks ago, they defeated Bentley on the road on a Friday night. Last Friday night, they went to preseason favorite AIC and walked away with another victory. Two of the toughest places to win in the NE-10 and the Greyhounds walked away with victories in both places.

Sandwiched between the two road wins was a tough loss at home to Stonehill. Assumption was minutes away from being undefeated in the league but dropped a heartbreaking game in overtime to the Skyhawks. Not bad for a team that was picked eighth by the coaches in the preseason.

The Greyhounds are getting solid contributions from a number of players and a brand new coaching staff is making their mark on the league. Bob Chesney is no stranger to success as he built the Salve Regina program.

Now Assumption faces another big task as they host defending champion New Haven this Friday night. They have matched up well with the Chargers over the years and are one of only a handful of teams that have won on the blue turf.

The remaining opponents should take notice that Assumption is a team not to be taken lightly. The coaches in this league know that every week is a grind and there are no pushovers.

500 Yards

Southern Connecticut was back to their usual offensive self after racking up over 500 yards of total offense in their victory over St. Anselm. The Owls wasted little time moving the ball up and down the field.

They jumped out to a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter and never looked back as they won their second straight game. The Owls had two 100 yard rushers in the game and that was with Vaughn Megee still sidelined. John Moscatel and Dequane June both crossed the century mark as well as finding the end zone twice each.

Jacob Jablonski was very efficient at quarterback as he completed 18 passes on 22 attempts and seems to be starting to develop a good relationship with his receivers on the field. The defense also stepped up and limited the up tempo style of St. Anselm all night long.

Southern Connecticut welcomes Pace this weekend and then have a tough five weeks to close out the season. The Owls are starting to gel now on the field and should competitive down the stretch.

Touchdown Passes

It is another weekend of football for Merrimack quarterback Joe Clancy and another game with several touchdown passes. In the Warriors' 66-14 victory, Clancy tossed seven touchdown passes to five different receivers. His favorite target was Shane Ferguson who hauled in three of them to go along with his team high nine catches.

Merrimack has scored 192 points in the first four games of the season. They have been scoring at a lightning pace and nobody has been able to slow them down. Clancy has been putting up numbers that most quarterbacks have for an entire season.

He is averaging 397 passing yards per game and has thrown 22 touchdowns in those four games. He has tossed more touchdown passes than every team but one has scored this year. New Haven is the only team that has scored more than Merrimack at this point of the season and it has been mostly in three league games.

Clancy is certainly enjoying his final season of eligibility and made the right decision to come back to the team. He is the top quarterback in the league and making an early run for offensive player of the year again.

Statement Game

New Haven looked like the defending champs last Saturday when they defeated LIU Post. Mike DeCaro took the opening kickoff for a touchdown and the Chargers were in full control. The Pioneers rallied to take lead late in the first quarter but New Haven turned it into another gear.

They outscored Post 34-7 over the final 46 minutes to make a case for being the best team in the league. After blowing out the bottom two teams in the league, the Chargers still had a lot of questions but a lot of them were answered Saturday. They played well when faced with a little of adverity and contained one of the better offenses in the league.

Ronnie Nelson continued his solid play with over 400 yards of total offense. DeCaro was limited to just four yards on the ground but the Chargers are seeing players step up when needed. Nine different receivers caught passes led by tight end Mike Flacco.

The road does not get easy for New Haven. They are at upstart Assumption on Friday night and then travel to Merrimack the following weekend.

Statement Game # 2

Stonehill is taking names in the league and showing everyone that they are the real deal. They crushed Bentley last Saturday night 30-3 and remain as one of two undefeated teams in the league.

The Skyhawks got the lead early and never looked back. Logan Meyer continued his stellar play but the defense was the story of the night. They held the Falcons out of the end zone and forced numerous turnovers.

Bentley was close to finding the end zone but fumbled on the one yard line and never seemed to be able to handle the Skyhawk defense. Stonehill had six sacks, caused four fumbles and recovered two of them and picked off two passes. They held Bentley to only one conversion on third down and stopped all four attempts on fourth down.

Stonehill has a tougher schedule in the month of October. They welcome AIC this weekend before consecutive weekends in New Haven, first at Southern Connecticut and then at New Haven. They close the month with a home date with LIU Post.

If they are able to come out of the month with at least a .500 record, they will be in solid position to be playing for a league championship in November.

Standings

It is still early in the season as we are about to hit the halfway point this coming weekend of games. But the standings are upside down from what fans are used to.

First, Stonehill is 3-0 and tied with New Haven for the top spot. AIC, Southern Connecticut and Assumption are then tied at 2-1 in the league. The Owls and Greyhounds are the surprises as they were picked for seventh and eighth in the league but are playing very well right now.

Now come the biggest surprises. Bentley, LIU Post and Merrimack are all 1-2 in the league. All three had high hopes for the season and they all sport losing losing records in the league right now.

The league is wide open right now and many teams still have a shot at playing for a championship in November. There is a lot of football left to be played but it is showing that the league is more balanced than years past.