Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
WESTFIELD, Mass. – Western New England quarterback Anthony Service (Sachem North/Ronkonkama, NY) completed 19 of 24 passes for 288 yards and four touchdowns to lead Western New England University to a 38-6 win over Westfield State University in the annual Presidents' Cup game between the two school at Alumni Field on Friday night.
Service led an efficient Golden Bears offense that totaled 466 yards of offense on 67 plays, and scored on its first three drives.
Service found Mark Dietrich (Cheshire, Conn.) on a 2 –yard pass to cap a 10-play, 65-yard drive to open the game to give WNE a 7-0 lead. After forcing a fumble on the Owls opening possession, the Bears capitalized with a quick 4-play, 46-yard drive that was capped by a 19-yard Peter Hoff (Shelton, Conn.) touchdown run to lead 14-0 with just 5:02 elapsed in the opening quarter.
Western New England added third score of the opening stanza on Service's 40-yard scoring strike to Chris Jusczyk (Minnechaug/Wilbraham, Mass.) , hitting Jusczyk on a deep route down the right sideline and he bulled his way into the end zone at the pylon for a 21-0 lead.
The Golden Bears added an 80-yard scoring strike to Steven Fedorchak (Guilderland, NY) , and Kieran Lombard (Dover, N.H.) kicked a no-doubt 44-yard field goal as time expired at the half with a 31-0 Western New England lead.
The two clubs traded scores in the second half, with Service adding a 5-yard TD toss to Chris Renaccio, before the Owls got on the board with 8:33 left in the fourth quarter, as Travon Holder (Cheney/Hartford, Conn.) scored on a 7-yard run. Holder's score was set up by a key 49-yard rush by linebacker Zach Howard (David Prouty/Spencer, Mass.) on a direct snap fake punt. Howard rushed down the right sideline to the 7-yard line before being pushed out of bounds.
Fedorchak finished with four catches for 99 yards. Jamyre Soberanis (Newton South/Dorchester, Mass) and Hoff each finished with 41 yards rushing.
For Westfield, senior quarterback Phil Cohen (Valley Regional-Old Lyme/Old Lyme, Conn.) completed 24 of 38 passes for 262 yards, a career best. Evan Cain (Hudoan/Marlborough, Mass.) was on the receiving end of eight passes for 145 yards.
Defensively, Brandon Rivera (Amherst, Mass.) led Westfield State with 12 tackles. Howard and Leo Clinton (Ledyard/New London, Conn.), Jr. each added eight tackles. Western New England got 10 tackles from Kurtis Jolicouer (Windham, NH) , including 3.5 losses and he forced a fumble.
Westfield State falls to 0-2 on the season. The Owls will travel to UMass-Dartmouth for the first Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game of the season next Saturday. Western New England, which was ranked 24th in the nation in the season-opening poll before a loss to Springfield College last week, improves to 1-1. The Golden Bears will travel to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. for a non-conference game next Saturday.