Defense

People always say that defense wins championships. It was on full display Saturday afternoon as New Haven completely shut down the Stonehill offense and won the game 28-14.

The Chargers are now tied for second place in the NE-10 with Bentley and LIU Post. All of them are 4-2 and trail Assumption by one game. New Haven used a fast start to beat Stonehill and it was their defense that was there the entire afternoon.

"The defense played great," New Haven head coach Chris Pincince said. "They did exactly what we asked them to do. We tried to take away the run and play physical. We took away the deep ball. I am proud of those guys."

The Stonehill offense generated just 179 yards of offense and 75 of those yards were on their final scoring drive late in the game. The Chargers were all over the field and allowed nothing the entire afternoon.

Tyler Condit (14 tackles) and Matt Zakrzewski (11 tackles) continue to be forces in the middle of field and in on almost every tackle. Condit is leading the league in tackles with 104 and a mere 26 tackles ahead of second place.

Zakrzewski is fifth in tackles with 69 on the season to go along with a sack, forced fumble and two pass breakups. Both of them are all over the field either tackling ball carriers or pressuring the opposing quarterback to make bad decisions.

The New Haven defense is yielding a mere 19.6 points per game and seems to be starting to play well during the right time of the season.

"We understand where we are right now," Pincince said. "We control our fate. If we do what we are supposed to do, everything will be OK."

New Haven is in the middle of a huge three game home stand. They entertain LIU Post in a huge match up next weekend before finishing the home run with a game against Pace.

Defense, Part 2

Bentley is right in the middle of the conversation about playing in the NE-10 championship game. After a tough loss to Merrimack to close out September, the Falcons have won three straight games and earned their spot near the top of the league standings.

The latest victim was American International as they won 10-6 in a defensive battle. Bentley allowed just 139 yards of offense and capitalized on an AIC mistake for the difference in the game.

Early in the third quarter, AIC snapped the ball over the head of their quarterback Kwame Jarvis and Craig Hanley emerged from the pile with the ball for Bentley. On the next play, George Craan blasted over the left side of the defense for the touchdown and Bentley never looked back.

The Bentley defense was credited with four sacks, seven tackles for a loss, five quarterback hurries, five pass breakups, a forced fumble and an interception by Sam McDonald. For McDonald, it is his fourth pick of the season which has him tied for first in the league.

The defense also found a way to bottle up AIC running Maurice Easterling who had averaging 180 yards per game over the last three weeks. He was held to 64 yards with his longest run going for 11 yards. The Bentley defensive line matched up well with the big, physical AIC offensive line and definitely won the battle in the trenches.

As discussed last week, the Falcons play the iron of the league down the stretch but clearly control their own fate. They travel to struggling Stonehill this weekend before a Friday night battle at Assumption. They close out the regular season with a home game against LIU Post.

Two of those three teams are tied or ahead of Bentley in the standings right now so those games will have a say in who play in the championship game on November 14th.

Stats Lie AgainBright Future

Lost in the amazing comeback that Assumption had on Saturday night was the play of Southern Connecticut quarterback Robert Nittolo. The red shirt freshman played his best game of the season after struggling the week before.

Nittolo was pulled in the second half against Pace but it seemed to help him refocus and play his best.

"Everyone has a bad day," Southern Connecticut head coach Tom Godek said of his performance a week earlier. "I am very happy for him. He came back this week ready to go."

He finished with 357 yards passing and three touchdowns. He also gained 85 yards on the ground and found the end zone three more times. His 442 yards of total offense is a new Southern Connecticut record that has a very solid history of great quarterbacks.

"Southern is lot better than people think," Chesney said. "Nittolo did a very good job. His running around back there pulled our guys off the receivers and then he found them open."

Southern Connecticut nearly pulled off another Saturday night upset in the league. Three weeks ago, they defeated Stonehill who was in first place at time. And a near upset of the now first place Assumption Greyhounds would have served notice to the league that Southern Connecticut is again a team to be reckoned with.

Godek is very excited about the future of Southern Connecticut football. Despite struggling the past couple of seasons, he is in the middle of changing the attitudes and direction of the football to get them back to the top of the NE-10.

September vs October

It is amazing what a month has done for the NE-10 standings. Teams that seemed like world beaters are now struggling and teams that seemed out of it are now world beaters.

Welcome to the crazy 2015 NE-10 season.

First, Stonehill has fallen on hard times. They were 3-0 in the league (4-0 overall) after an improbable comeback on the road at LIU Post. Since then, they are 0-3 and are struggling with consistent play and injuries.

Two other teams, St. Anselm and Pace are also winless in the month of October. The Hawks were 2-1 in the month of September and looked like contenders. But injuries and inconsistent play have also doomed St. Anselm to the outside of the championship game talk right now.

Two teams, Assumption and Bentley have run the table thus far in the month of October. Both are 3-0 and very much in the championship game mix. The most consistent team of the two months is LIU Post as they are 2-1 in both months right now.

Two teams that turned around their fortunes this month were Southern Connecticut and Merrimack. The Owls upset then undefeated Stonehill to open the month. The Warriors also upset then NE-10 undefeated New Haven on the road and both teams are 2-1 in October.

So what are the final three weeks of the regular season going to bring us? Your guess is as good as mine. The league is very balanced right now and anyone is capable of winning each week. That makes the league very competitive and a great brand of football.