A promising start to the out of conference schedule for the NE-10 saw a quick turn and a nightmare end to it. Last Thursday night, Pace and Southern Connecticut scored key road wins over PSAC foes to make it look like it was going to be a great weekend.

But four straight losses on Friday and Saturday and it was a quick return to reality. Stonehill, Assumption, Merrimack and New Haven all lost, and it was a lost weekend for the NE-10.

They wrap up the weekend 2-5 overall and 2-4 against Division II foes. That is going to cause some issues in November as the playoff pairings are announced. The teams on the bubble use that out of conference success to keep themselves in the hunt are going to have a tough time getting to play an extra week of football.

All is not lost as the NE-10 still has one more out of conference game. LIU Post travels to Shippensburg on October 6th as the NE-10 takes a break in the season for second straight season. And Shippensburg has an opening because of Cheyney dropping their football program late last year.

Setting the Pace

The first most impressive victory over the weekend was courtesy of Pace. The Setters took the trip to Millersville and left with a 23-10 victory. It was the second straight season that they opened the season with a victory over Millersville and look to keep the momentum going.

The Setters were strong in all three phases of the game. The defense was solid and led by the experience of the defensive line. Kadeem Langhorne and Prince Unaegbu were a force in the tackling department and not allowing any room up front for the Marauders. Joe Mendez tallied three sacks and Harrison Moran-Fernandez had a pick six to seal the game for the Setters.

Brandon Simmons emerged in the preseason to become the starting quarterback and you saw why. He threw for 160 yards and run for another 55 including a touchdown. Most importantly, he didn't turn the ball over and directed the offense to 350 total yards.

Pace has another tough test this weekend as they host New Haven. You might remember that they nearly knocked off the Chargers as a late field goal was missed a year ago. We will see if Pace is ready to compete in the NE-10 for nine straight weeks.

Owls come out at night

Southern Connecticut had a bunch of questions heading into the season, but all of those questions were answered last Thursday night. They made the long trip to Gannon and enjoyed the ride home after a 35-32 victory. Head coach Tom Godek knew that the team was going to respond and is happy with week one.

Eli Parks was the workhorse for the Owls and also visited the end zone four times in the game. He nearly matched the Harlon Hill candidate on the other side of the field with his 7.5 yard average per rush. Matt Sanzaro won the starting quarterback job and played with confidence. He hooked up with six different receivers and limited the turnovers to pace the offense.

The game was sealed by David Campbell in the final minute with his 40 yard pick six. It was an important score as Gannon marched down the field and scored with no time left. That touchdown was the difference in the final score.

The Owls had 21 points in the fourth quarter, so they just needed some time to get going.

Southern Connecticut has no rest for the weary as they open league play Thursday evening against Bentley.

Clipped Wings

Speaking of Bentley, they were crushed in their opening game by West Chester 44-6. But the real story of the game is the health of the Falcons. Austin Ryan didn't play for Bentley and Drew Mahoney was hurt during a kickoff return, not returning to the game. That is two of the key targets for Stephen Sturm, but he didn't have a lot of time to throw the ball downfield.

"This game will be behind us in five minutes," head coach Bill Kavanaugh said. "We don't have kids that quit. We got beat by a really, really good team that is extremely physical on both sides of the ball."

Several other Falcons were nicked up during the game and a normal week of preparation might be tough with some of the players spending extra time in the training room.

They will face another physical team in Southern Connecticut this Thursday night and then get some extra days to rest up.

Hole Too Deep

Assumption was expecting to pick up where they left off last season, but Kutztown had other ideas. The Golden Rams jumped out to a 26-0 lead, withstood a furious comeback and made a key late scoring drive to upset the nationally ranked Greyhounds 32-28.

The offense for Assumption looks mundane on the first six possessions as they were not able to move the ball at all. All of those drives ended with punts and that is not typical of the Greyhounds.
Cody Williams started the game under center and Marc Monks saw time in the second quarter.

"It was the plan to play both of them," head coach Andy McKenzie said. "Cody and Marc had an unbelievable football preseason. They supported each other 100%. Cody was the one that got the start, but they are both starters in my mind."

A late drive before the half seemed to spark the team. They found the end zone for the first time and then repeated that success on the following two possessions in the second half. They eventually took the lead with four minutes to play but Kutztown answered quickly to win the game.

"We beat ourselves today," McKenzie said. "Credit to Kutztown for not doing that. We had errors in all phases of the game. We are going to learn from this game and our kids are ready to look forward to league play."

Assumption hits the road next week as they travel up to Merrimack for a Saturday night game.

QB of the Future

Merrimack has a very young team and head coach Dan Curran is looking for leaders out of kids that just stepped onto campus several weeks ago. The first one to emerge was true freshman Christian Carter.

He got the call to start against Bloomsburg and did his job. The Warriors fell 30-16 but are excited about the development of their new quarterback. He threw for 237 yards and a score. He also rushed for 32 yards, but the best stat of the day was zero turnovers. Per the radio broadcast, there were a number of drops by the wide outs, so the result could have been better for the Warriors.

Carter will get another shot this weekend as the defending NE-10 champs Assumption come to town for the home opener.

Tough Opponent

Stonehill had glimpses of success but were not able to string together long stretches of solid football. They lost to Fairmont State 34-19 as they were not able to dig out of first half struggles that saw them down early.

"We left some opportunities out there on all three sides of the ball," head coach Eli Gardner said. "We didn't take advantage of those opportunities and they did."

James Lam was able to direct the offense at times, but the Fighting Falcons knew to limit Andrew Jamiel. He was often double teamed and bumped off the line of scrimmage. Lam and Jamiel only connected four times in the game but there were times that the ball was just out of the reach of Jamiel because of the bump at the line of the scrimmage on the timing patterns.

"It is easy for them to see that he is the guy to stop for us," Gardner said. "The key for us is to run the ball better and find the other open guys in single coverage."

The Skyhawks will need to find a way to get out of the gate early as they travel north to face St. Anselm.

Hanging Tough

New Haven would have enjoyed playing Bryant year after year in the NE-10. But when Bryant left over 10 years ago, it was New Haven that replaced them. The teams met on the football field for the first time and the Bulldogs emerged with a 41-31 victory.

New Haven was in the game most of the day and had to fight from behind all game long. It started with a 100 kickoff return for Bryant and the Chargers fell behind 27-7 late in the first half. But interceptions and penalties really hurt the Chargers from pulling off the upset on the road.

The game was a nightmare for secondaries as both teams combine for over 600 passing yards. But Bryant defense was able to pick off Ajee Patterson four times to stall drives. Patterson also found a new favorite receiver in Ju'an Williams as they hooked up 12 times in the game. Williams is a transfer from American International as a graduate student.

New Haven will hope for a better road performance this weekend as they travel to undefeated Pace.

NE-10 Proud

Most of the fans in the NE-10 were tuned in Sunday evening for the LSU-Miami battle in primetime on ABC. And they were tuned in to see the new LSU kicker, Cole Tracy.

That is the same Cole Tracy that starred at Assumption for the past four seasons. Tracy is a graduate transfer for the Tigers and won the starting kicking duties.

He picked up right where he left off at Assumption. He opened the scoring in the first quarter by hitting a 43 yard field goal to give LSU an early lead.

As LSU pulled away in the first half, it was Tracy marching onto the field to make extra points in AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

Tracy hit a school tying record 54 yard field goal in the fourth quarter and there was an eruption in the city of Worcester after the kick glazed off the upright and fell over for three points.

Tracy finished the game four for four on PATs and three for three on field goals. Not bad as he probably kicked in front of more people Sunday night than his entire career at Assumption.

Tracy will see the Tiger home opener this weekend against SE Louisiana before another test on September 15th when LSU is on the road at # 9 Auburn