Upset

How often do you get to use the word upset and New Haven in the same sentence? Since the Chargers brought their football program back in 2009, this might be the first time.

New Haven trailed by seven points in the final two minutes on the road at AIC and somehow escaped with a 31-24 victory. It was the first loss in the NE-10 for the Yellow Jackets and the four straight win for New Haven.

Joey Bradley tossed two touchdowns in those final two minutes and the New Haven defense forced two fumbles to pull off the upset victory.

It was a huge win for the Chargers as they are still in the hunt for the NE-10 championship game. They are now 4-2 in the league and sit one game behind LIU Post and AIC. They now hold the tie breaker over AIC and have a very favorable schedule down the stretch.

They host Merrimack next weekend before traveling to Pace and closing out the season at home with St. Anselm. While the teams ahead of them play each other over the next several weeks, the Chargers just need to take care of business in their games.

Bentley Duo

Danny Guadagnoli continues to move up the charts of the Bentley football records after another solid performance last Saturday. He led the Falcons to a 38-7 victory on the road over Southern Connecticut. He finished the afternoon going 23 for 39, 342 yards and four touchdown passes.

For the season, Guadagnoli leads the NE-10 in touchdown passes with 19 and is second in the league in passing yards with 2,134. Not too bad for a graduate student who is quickly moved up the record book for Bentley.

He is currently second all-time in total offense with 8,401 yards. He is also fourth all-time in touchdown passes and completions. He is third all-time in passing yards and has a shot at moving up to number two in each of those categories.

He will finish behind former great Marc Eddy who owns all of the passing records in Bentley history. Guadagnoli's favorite target is Jeff Hill who is also quickly moving up the record books as well.

Hill is now fifth all-time in total touchdowns and third in both touchdown receptions and receiving yards. Hill had another solid game in the win over Southern Connecticut as he hauled in a team leading seven catches for 140 yards and two scores.

The duo of Guadagnoli and Hill have had a lot of success in their time at Bentley and will go down as the second best passing duo ever. They trail only the combination of Eddy and Dallas Mall in the history books in Waltham. Eddy and Mall own all of the passing and receiving records at Bentley and also brought the team to a couple of playoff appearances.

The duo will be honored this Saturday when Bentley hosts Pace in their final regular season home game during Senior Day.

Road Warriors

It was quite the weekend for the road teams in the league. The visitors were a combined 4-1 on Saturday and most of the games were not even close. Except for New Haven's seven point victory, the other three wins averaged a margin of victory of 30 points.

LIU Post was the only home team to win over St. Anselm. If the Hawks did win, it would have been the fifth state that they would have recorded a victory in. They already own wins in the states of Maryland, Connecticut, Massachusetts and of course, New Hampshire.

Road Warriors, Part Two

Assumption continues their road dominance under second year head coach Bob Chesney. Since he took the helm in Worcester, his team has not dropped a regular season road game. The latest victory came at Merrimack last Saturday by the final of 41-13.

Assumption has won at each of the NE-10 stadiums in the past two years except for Stonehill. They will get a shot at winning there on November 8th which is their next road game.

That is an amazing 8-0 record for the Greyhounds on the road in that stretch.

Road Warriors, Part Three

Another team also owns a pretty impressive road winning streak in the NE-10. That is the American International Yellow Jackets. They have not lost a regular season road game since 2011.

That day, they fell to New Haven by the score of 34-20. That was October 15, 2011. Since then, they have won 12 consecutive games away from Springfield in the regular season. They have won at every stadium in the league except one as well, LIU Post.

They will get the chance to extend the winning streak to 13 next weekend when they travel to Long Island to take on the Pioneers in a huge game for first place. They will look to improve on their other trip to Long Island early in the season when they fell to Division I member Stony Brook.

No Home Cooking

Merrimack has been very good on their home turf but the past two games have not seen the best of the Warriors. It started a couple of weeks ago when St. Anselm defeated Merrimack 55-24 in North Andover.

Despite a pick six at the end of the first half to cut the lead to 24-21, the Warriors struggled in the second half and lost to their neighbor from the north 55-24.

It was a similar situation on Saturday as Assumption traveled to Merrimack and walked away with a 41-13 victory. The Greyhounds scored the first 10 points of the game but the Warriors scored the next 13 points to take a 13-10 halftime lead.

Assumption took the opening kickoff back for a touchdown and preceded to score 31 consecutive points in the second half. Merrimack was kept off the scoreboard over the final 30 minutes and has scored just three points in the last two second halves at half.

That is not typical of the high powered offense that Merrimack usually puts on display. Things will not get any easier for the Warriors as their next home game is against AIC on November 1st.

Lack of Defense

St. Anselm was the talk of the NE-10 over the first five weeks but has crashed back to earth in the last two. They have faced two solid teams and two solid quarterbacks. They were not able to contain either one of them and it showed in the final score.

Two weeks ago at home, it was AIC quarterback Kevin Arduino lighting up the St. Anselm secondary for four touchdown passes in a 48-26 victory in Manchester.

Last weekend, it was LIU Post quarterback Steve Laurino accounting in all seven touchdowns in a 49-21 victory over the Hawks. Laurino had three rushing touchdowns and then added four passing ones as well.

The St. Anselm defense has shown signs of improvement this year and has been a big part of their 5-2 overall record. But they struggled like most teams have this year to contain the best two quarterbacks in the league, Arduino and Laurino.

Huge Game

Speaking of the best two quarterbacks in the league, they will go head to head this weekend when AIC travels to face LIU Post on Saturday. Both teams are 5-1 in the league and the winner will get the inside track to hosting the NE-10 championship game on November 15th.

Both are dual threat quarterbacks who can run the ball as well as stretch the field with their arms. Both are completing over 60% of their passes. Laurino is first in touchdown passes with 19 and Arduino is seventh with nine scores.

Laurino leads the NE-10 in rushing touchdowns with 13 while Arduino has called his own number five times to get into the end zone. Laurino is sixth in rushing yards while Arduino is currently ninth in the league.

Their respective defenses will be well prepared as they see that type of quarterback day in and day out at practice. They will just need to contain them and not let them make their typical big plays that lead their teams to victory.

Who will win? I will reveal my pick later in the week.