Elm City Trophy

Despite losing for the first time in three years in NE-10 play two weeks ago, the New Haven Chargers rebounded nicely with a 40-21 victory over Southern Connecticut. The Chargers were solid in all three phases of the game and were too much for the Owls to handle.

The game was decided after two punts were blocked and returned for touchdowns in the first half. Both times, Cory Jasudowich found a seam in the Southern Connecticut line to get a hand on the punt and DeeJay White and Anthony Tillman scooped up the ball to take them back for the score. When Jasudowich is not blocking punts, he is kicking off for the Chargers.

Quarterback Ronnie Nelson was unstoppable for New Haven as he had over 300 yards of total offense. He was the leading rusher with 52 yards and a score. He also threw for another 259 including two touchdown passes. 10 different receivers hauled in a pass for the Chargers as they looked very good in the victory.

It was also New Haven coach Peter Rossomando's 40th victory at New Haven in just his fifth year at the school. He is a mere 130 victories behind the coach across the field last Friday night.

This week, they have another big game as AIC comes to town in a game that will help to determine who plays in the NE-10 championship game. The winner has the inside track for an appearance in the game and the loser will be looking on the outside.

Road Streak

Despite New Haven dropping the game to Stonehill two weeks ago, they still own a long winning streak in the league. They have not dropped a road game within the NE-10 since their inaugural season of 2009.

The Chargers have not lost on the road to a NE-10 team since October 17, 2009. In that game, they fell to Merrimack on the road by the final of 48-20. That is a stretch of 17 consecutive road wins for New Haven and they have wrapped up the regular season portion of their road schedule. The final two games are at home against AIC and Bentley.

It shows that New Haven is very well prepared when they hit the road. Four straight years of winning on the road within the league is very impressive.

Points Galore

When Merrimack takes the field, points are going to be scored and last weekend was not different. They put up 40 points against a good Bentley defense in a 40-34 victory on their home field.

The story is usually Joe Clancy and his unbelievable stats. But it was the legs of Quinn McDonough that was as instrumental in the victory as Clancy's arm. McDonough had 158 yards on the ground and a score in the victory.

In the first five plus minutes of the fourth quarter, the teams combine for four touchdowns for 27 points and it looked like it was going to be a shootout. But both defenses clamped down and did not allow any more points in the game. They had some chances for points but were not able to find their way into the end zone or onto the scoreboard.

It is now the sixth time this season that Merrimack has put up at least 40 points in a game. They are 4-2 in those games. The lowest scoring output for the Warriors this year is 26 in their victory over LIU Post.

You need to go back to October 14, 2000 to find the last time that Merrimack was shutout in a game. CW Post held them off the scoreboard in a 41-0 whitewash. Since that point, Merrimack has scored in over 130 straight games. The only NE-10 team with a longer streak is Bentley who is over 140 games right now.

Comeback Kids

It has been the theme of the Stonehill football team this year. Let the opponent play well in the first half of the game and then storm back for the victory. It has worked all season long so why change the plan now.

The latest example was last Saturday as they spotted LIU Post 14 points but scored 38 of the next 48 to grab the victory. The Skyhawks remain in a first place tie with AIC and New Haven with a 6-1 record.

Stonehill picked off four passes including two in the end zone to thwart potential scoring drives for Post. Colin Markus continued his solid play as he topped his performance from last week with 203 yards and a score. Nate Robitaille continues to rewrite the record book as he is now the single season receiving yard holder with still three games to play.

Stonehill remains in a great position to play in the NE-10 title game but can't overlook this week's game against Pace. Despite their 0-8 record, the Skyhawks need to play their game and not look ahead.

Don't Look Now

The Assumption Greyhounds were not high on most preseason lists except for their own. First year head coach Bob Chesney has done a great job as the Greyhounds won again for their fifth league victory. This time it was over Pace 55-21 on the road. It seems that the only thing that has slowed down the Assumption team thus far this season is an elevator.

Several members of the football team were trapped for a little bit in the team's hotel last Friday night but that did not affect their play on the field. They broke open a 14-14 tie in the second quarter with 34 straight points to win the game.

Assumption is on the outside of the NE-10 title game chase right now but is in prime position in case any of the teams ahead of them stumble. They own the tiebreaker over AIC based on their win earlier in the season.

All-Time Great

Former Bentley wide receiver Dallas Mall was recently inducted in the NE-10 Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2013. Mall played for Bentley from 2001-2004 and still holds numerous NCAA records.

He is the all-time leader in touchdown receptions with 78 across all divisions of NCAA football. He holds the Division II record for most touchdowns by a freshman (24) and most yards (1,313) in a single season. He had a five touchdown game against AIC that season which is still a Bentley single game record.

Mall finished his career with a touchdown reception in 39 of the 44 games he played, an amazing 1.8 touchdowns per game. His final career stats were 283 receptions for 4,347 yards and 78 touchdowns. Current head coach Thom Boerman was an assistant when they recruited Mall and were very happy when they won the recruiting battle.

"I remember when we were recruiting Dallas and he decided to attend Bentley," said Boerman in the release. "There were high fives going around the coaches' office that day! Dallas was an exceptional athlete in high school and prep school. We knew we had something special, but we didn't know just how special until our first game. He made an immediate impact on our program, starting as a freshman and catching the winning TD pass in the final minutes of his first start. This was a scenario often repeated over his four-year career.

"I remember so many instances of Dallas making insane catches in big moments, often double, and on occasion, even triple covered, that we started to take his ability for granted. He was the most feared receiver in the league. I personally think that Dallas would have made a fine NFL player."

Congrats to Mall on the induction as he is the second Bentley football player in the Hall of the Fame. Ben Nassar is the other Bentley football player currently inducted. The next one should be Mall's quarterback during his amazing run, Marc Eddy.

Tiebreakers

The biggest topic on my Twitter account over the weekend was the NE-10 tiebreaker scenario. With a possibility of three teams finishing 7-2, it is an important topic to discuss and figure out what might happen.

Based on the 2013 NE-10 Football Manual, you will need to read rule 1.11 Standings/Seedings. If three teams are tied, they are considered a "mini-conference" per the manual. That means, they will look at the record between the three teams this year against each other. Whoever has the best record in the group will have the higher seed. It will then revert to head to head record against the remaining two teams to break the tie.

For example, AIC, Stonehill and Assumption all finish the season 7-2, tied for second place. They will look at the records between the three teams between each other. Since Assumption beat AIC, AIC beat Stonehill and Stonehill beat Assumption, all of the teams are 1-1 in that scenario.

So the next step is who beat the highest seeded team in the league. In that scenario, New Haven is 8-1 in first place and Stonehill is the only team to beat them in the group. So Stonehill would play in the championship game against New Haven.

If New Haven, Stonehill and Assumption all tie in the final standings, Stonehill has the advantage as they were 2-0 in that "mini-conference" and Assumption is the worst as they were 0-2 against those opponents.

With two weeks left in the season, there will be plenty of chances to avoid this "mini-conference" scenario. Teams can't rely on the tiebreakers as some of them will not benefit as others. It is still important to win on the field and not to have to worry about the tie-breaker scenarios.

Final Two Weeks

Two weeks to go in the regular season and four teams are vying for two slots in the NE-10 championship game. Let's look at the remaining schedule for all four teams:

AIC

11/2 @ New Haven
11/9 vs. Southern Connecticut

New Haven

11/2 vs. AIC
11/9 vs. Bentley

Stonehill

11/2 vs. Pace
11/9 vs. @Merrimack

Assumption

11/2 vs. Merrimack
11/9 vs. @LIU Post

The team that has the chance to play the role of spoiler is Merrimack. They still have a game at Assumption and they host Stonehill in the final game of the season. Based on record, Stonehill has the easiest schedule with Pace still on the schedule. New Haven will play two home games but both of them are tough opponents.

We will know a lot more this weekend after AIC and New Haven battle each other. One team will be one game away from the championship game and the other will be relying on the tiebreaker scenarios mentioned above.

This is the most exciting final two weekends of the season since 2006 when four teams tied for first place and three of them made the playoffs. We might get four teams tied with 7-2 records but will not get three teams into the playoffs this year.