First Victory

St. Anselm head coach Joe Adam was given the game ball on Saturday afternoon after his team earned a 42-7 victory over Pace for his first career coaching victory. It was a nice moment for a team that took eight tries to get that elusive victory.

"I am proud of our guys," Adam said. "The season hasn't gone the way we thought. We have practiced well the past couple of weeks and I challenged the guys to get back focused on things that are important to us."

The star of the game was senior quarterback Yianni Gavalas. He was the typical dual threat quarterback that the Hawks have seen for his entire career as he threw for two scores, 262 yards and ran for another 50 yards and two scores. He also did not turn the ball over for the first time this year.

"He is a great kid and has great leadership on and off the field," Adam said of his quarterback. "He is proven commodity in this league. He is well respected and executed the game plan today well."

St. Anselm used the second quarter to pull away from Pace. They scored 22 points in the quarter including a mini Hail Mary right at the end of the half. Facing a fourth and long, Gavalas rolled out of the pocket and found Connor Schoske in the end zone for the 24-yard touchdown pass.

The defense for St. Anselm was very strong as well. Except for the lone Pace scoring drive in the second quarter, they forced seven punts, held them to 1 for 10 on third down and just 189 yards of total offense.

St. Anselm will look to extend the winning streak to two when they host Merrimack this weekend.

Second Quarter

Assumption has been a first quarter team on Friday night but they turned into a second quarter team on Saturday. They scored 24 points in the second quarter to power them past New Haven 38-24 on Saturday.

Trailing 7-0 at the end of one, it become the Dylan Oxsen show over the next fifteen minutes. The first play of the quarter was a two-yard touchdown run by Oxsen to tie the game at seven. Two drives later, Oxsen scored on a one-yard run and it was 17 unanswered points in seven minutes to take the lead for good.

Oxsen capped off the scoring by taking a short kickoff back 64 yards right at the end of the half and his amazing quarter helped propel Assumption to the lead for good. He capped off the scoring in the final quarter with his fourth trip to the end zone with a two-yard run. All told, he finished the game with 84 rushing yards and four trips to the end zone.

Assumption will look to continue their march back to the NE-10 championship game when they travel to Stonehill next Saturday.

Second Quarter, Part II

Bentley has been one of the most opportunistic teams in the country this year. They take advantage of what is given to them and that was the reason why they defeated Stonehill 27-7 last Saturday. And the difference occurred in the second quarter.

After a short punt and return, quarterback Mack Lowrie found Michael Correia from 27 yards out for the first points of the game. Two plays later, Lamar Hardy picked off a pass and sent up the offense for another short field.

Lowrie found Sean Myers for the score and Bentley extended their lead. Then the Falcon special teams blocked a punt and set up the offense inside the 10-yard line again. Matt Montalto took the handoff into the end zone and in the blink of an eye, Bentley was up 20-0 and never looked back.

That was three scoring drives for a total of 46 yards in nearly six minutes of game time.

Bentley improved to 5-3, 5-2 in the NE-10 and are in sole possession of third place. They will look to continue their magic as they have back to back trips to the Greater New Haven area to finish the regular season. First stop is at Southern Connecticut this Saturday.

Defense

For the first time in about five years, the Southern Connecticut has a winning league record this late in the season. That is because of their 35-15 victory at Merrimack last Saturday. They are 4-4 overall and 4-3 in the NE-10.

The defense and the play of Ray Catapano helped them to their latest victory. The defense held Merrimack in check with a mere 163 yards of offense including just 13 through the air. It also kept the offense off of the board as the Merrimack special teams and defense scored both touchdowns and accounted for a safety.

Catapano continues to play well as he threw for two scores and ran another two in for the Owls. He has filled in nicely for the injured Rob Nittolo. It is a good dilemma for a coach to have when you have two capable players at the position of quarterback.

Southern Connecticut hosts Bentley this weekend in a game that is always exciting when the two get together.

No Kidding

Even without starting quarterback Jeff Kidd, it was more of the same as LIU Post defeated American International 22-7 to stay undefeated at 8-0, 7-0 in the NE-10. It was the ground game that was the key for the Pioneers to win the game.

Post ran for 294 yards in the game to help take the pressure off of their backup quarterback Matt Brennan. David White, Malik Pierre and Tim Marinan were all over 70 yards apiece as Pierre found the end zone twice.

The Pioneers defense was also a big part of the victory. They held American International to 165 yards of offense with 81 of them coming on the lone score drive for the Yellow Jackets in the fourth quarter.

Post will look to stay unblemished when they host Pace this weekend.

Championship Weekend

We are starting to get a clear picture of the championship match-up as two teams have the inside track to meet again for the hardware.

LIU Post has clinched a spot in the championship game with their win over American International. They will earn home field advantage with a win over Pace this weekend. The Pioneers win the tiebreaker of Assumption and Bentley and thus will make their second trip to the championship game in the past three years.

Assumption will clinch a spot in the game for the second consecutive season with a win over Stonehill this weekend. The Greyhounds defeated New Haven and now in the driver's seat to defend their title. They have an outside chance to host the game but will need to have Post lose both of its games and of course, win out themselves.

If the season ended today, here are the other match-ups:

# 4 New Haven at # 3 Bentley

# 6 American International at # 5 Southern Connecticut

# 8 Merrimack at # 7 Stonehill

# 10 Pace at # 9 St. Anselm

New Haven and Southern Connecticut are tied so the Charger victory in Week 5 is the difference. As well as American International's win over Stonehill in Week 6 breaks their tie in the standings.

There are still two weeks left so the final standings will become a fluid situation. Teams have a chance to climb or fall based on their results ahead of the November 12th championship weekend.