Championship GameFive in a row

AIC continued their dominant run with a 43-34 victory at New Haven. The Yellow Jackets were down 21-3 with 5:30 left in the first half. The Chargers were in full control of the game. But AIC marched down the field and into the end zone. They missed the extra point but had some life.

New Haven got a decent return from Mike DeCaro and started the next drive at the 50 yard line. AIC forced a fumble on the first play of the drive and picked up the fumble, getting the ball down to the 28 yard line. A New Haven personal foul moved the ball down to the 14 yard line and the momentum swung in the favor of AIC.

Two plays later, quarterback Kevin Arduino rushed the touchdown and the Yellow Jackets were back in the game. 27 more points in the second half and AIC was in full control of the game. They scored on four of six possessions in the second half and one of those drives featured knee downs to run out the clock at the end of the game.

Arduino was the offensive star again for AIC. He finished the game 19 for 31, 243 yards and two touchdowns. He was also the leading rusher for the Yellow Jackets with 166 yards and three more touchdowns. He now leads the league with 14 rushing touchdowns on the season and has vaulted to second in rushing yards.

AIC is playing solid football right now. They have won five games in a row since they dropped a Friday night home game to Assumption. The Yellow Jackets have played with purpose and crushing their opponents. AIC has outscored their opponents by 99 points during the winning streak and are prime position to host the NE-10 championship game.

"Sucks"

That was the word that New Haven quarterback Ronnie Nelson used after the game to sum up his feelings after the loss to AIC last Saturday. The Chargers are in a very unfamiliar territory as they lost their second straight home game and will not get a chance to defend their NE-10 title.

Penalties and turnovers doomed New Haven at the wrong time of the game. Head coach Peter Rossomando said that his young team struggled at times and gave all of the credit for the victory to AIC.

After winning 22 consecutive league games, New Haven has lost two of their last three games. Both losses were at home which was a place that teams feared to play them on the blue turf.

They will finish the regular season at home against Bentley and then host the third place game during championship weekend. The NE-10 championship trophy will have a new name engraved on it for the first time since 2009.

Offensive Line

It is not often that offensive lines get the credit that they deserve. They are lost in the hype of an exciting play but very often, they are the reason that the big play just happened. The AIC offensive line dominated the New Haven front four on Saturday and deserves a lot of kudos for the victory.

Viondy Merisma, Dan Naja, George Grosz, Shawn Schellenger and Geoff Thompson make up the biggest and arguably the best offensive line in the NE-10. They range in size from 6'2" to 6'8" height wise and tip the scales anywhere from 285 to 330 pounds.

They opened up massive holes for the AIC running game all day long. They allowed Arduino to stand in the pocket for what seemed like minutes to find an open receiver down the field. The Yellow Jacket offense was as balanced as you can get. They had 486 yards of offense with 243 through the air and 243 on the ground.

They are a big reason why AIC is 7-1 in the NE-10 and playing for a championship.

Offense

The final Friday night game of the season lived up to the hype as both offenses put on a clinic. LIU Post scored in the final 24 seconds to win the game 41-40.

Besides the 81 points on the scoreboard, both teams combined for 1,246 yards of total offense. 172 plays were run in the game and they averaged 7.2 yards each time an offensive player touched the ball. 873 yards of passing as both quarterbacks passed for over 400 yards. They also combined for seven touchdown passes.

Four receivers had over 100 yards each, two from each team. LIU Post tight end Sean Binckes had only 99 yards receiving but accounted for four scores including the game winner.

Friday night games are unique to the NE-10 at the Division II level. A chance to shine under the bright lights are the reason why the league plays those games.

Clancy

How good of a season is Merrimack quarterback Joe Clancy having in 2013? Pretty darn good.

He has more touchdown passes (42) than seven teams in the NE-10 have total touchdowns this year. Stonehill will play for the NE-10 championship and as a team have scored only 38 touchdowns in nine games. They are fourth in the NE-10 right now.

Only New Haven and AIC have scored more touchdowns than Clancy has touchdown passes in 2013. Merrimack also broke New Haven's team record for most touchdown passes in a season and they still have two games to play.

Clancy will find his way in the all-time record book for the NE-10. He is 39 completions behind former Bentley great Marc Eddy and should break that record before the end of the season.

Clancy is third all-time in touchdown passes. Eddy is the leader with 121 and former New Haven standout Ryan Osiecki is second with 91. He has a shot at passing Osiecki with two games remaining in his career.

Clancy is on pace to break his own single season passing yards record. Last year, he had 3,945 passing yards and is only 340 yards behind that pace with two games to play. He could be the first passer to eclipse the 4,000 yard mark in a season.

For this career, Clancy is 746 for 1,166 for a 64% completion percentage. He has 83 touchdowns and 29 interceptions. He has 8,797 passing yards in 46 career games.

The ironic part of his career is that he was only the starter for the past two seasons in which he had 73 of the 83 touchdown passes. If he had started all four seasons during his career at Merrimack, we might be talking about the greatest quarterback ever to play in the league.

Heroes

In case you missed the earlier posts this week, several Assumption assistant coaches stopped a mugging during their recent trip to Pace. They were staying at a hotel in Stamford, CT and decided to go out after all of the team meetings were concluded the night before the game.

Paul McGonagle, Matt Sidebottom, Anthony Barese, Chris Grautski, Todd Parsons, Todd Warmington, Mark Ledbetter and Jonathan Jean-Louis were looking for a place to go in the nearby area.

As they were walking down the street, they saw the assault happening and ran over to help the victim. The assailants saw the coaches running at them and fled the scene. The coaches chased them down and then gave their story to the police who were very happy for their assistance.

The coaches did not share the story with head coach Bob Chesney until after the Pace victory. They didn't want to bother him when they returned to the hotel or the next morning before the game. Chesney received emails from the police chief of Stamford as well as the victim praising his coaches for their help.

The coaches should be thanked for their bravery and willingness to help when most people would have walked the other way. Next time you are at an Assumption game, make sure that you shake their hand and congratulate for their quick thinking and bravery.

Championship Weekend

Now that the two teams are settled for the NE-10 championship game, eight other teams will play that weekend to close out the season. A slightly different format is in store for 2013.

It will not be a traditional best against worst as the third seed will host the fourth seed, fifth seed will host the eight seed, sixth seed will host the ninth seed and the seventh seed will host the tenth seed.

Here are the current standings after nine weeks of the regular season:

1. AIC 7-1
2. Stonehill 7-1
3. New Haven 6-2
4. Merrimack 5-3
5. Assumption 5-3
6. Bentley 4-4
7. LIU Post 3-5
8. Southern Connecticut 3-5
9. Pace 0-8
10. St. Anselm 0-8

The match ups would shake out this way:

2. Stonehill @ 1. AIC
4. Merrimack @ 3. New Haven
8. Southern Connecticut @ 5. Assumption
9. Pace/St. A winner @ 6. Bentley
10. Pace/St. A loser @ 7. LIU Post

New Haven and Bentley are the only teams assured of a home playoff game right now. The Chargers are locked into third place as they lose any tiebreakers with teams ahead of them and win them against the two teams right below them.

Bentley is also locked into sixth place and a home game. They lost to the two teams directly above them and beat the two teams right below them. They will host the winner of the Pace/St. Anselm game.

Since Merrimack beat Assumption last weekend, they own that tiebreaker right now. Same goes for Post as they beat Southern Connecticut earlier in the season.

The only tiebreaker not known is the Pace/St. Anselm one. The winner of this weekend's game will be the ninth seed and the loser will be the tenth seed. Neither team has a chance to play a home game and will travel during championship weekend.

All of the championship weekend games are scheduled for November 16th.