Owls Bite Bears Late, 24-17

WESTFIELD, Mass.  –  Westfield State senior QB Gabe Fernandez (Holyoke, Mass.) tossed a 22-yard touchdown pass to senior WR Conor Schlittler (Walpole, Mass.) to lift the Owls to a 24-17 win over Bridgewater State in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference opener for both schools.

Westfield improves to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in the MASCAC, while Bridgewater Starts 0-2 and 0-1 in the MASCAC.

Westfield trailed 17-10 at the half, then got a series of clutch plays.  

A muffed punt return by the Bears set the Owls 1^st and 10 at the Bridgewater 40, and four plays later Westfield's Jacob Swinehart (Holyoke, Mass.) darted 24 yards down the right sideline on a pitchout play to cut the lead to 17-16 after the Owls could not convert the extra point.

The Bears offense stalled late. Another muff on the ensuing kick return buried the Bears' drive start inside their own 10 yard line on the next series.  A series later Zach Allen (Chelmsford, Mass.) intercepted a deep sideline pass by Bridgewater QB SP Pragano (Northford, Conn. /Lyman Hall) to stall that series, and then the Owls marched 58 yards in 6 plays to set up Schlittler's TD.   Fernandez found running back Curtis Dion (Seymour, Conn.) in the flat for the two point conversion with 6:53 left in the game.

Westfield's defense held the Bears to -5 yards and a punt on the next series.  The Owls worked almost four minutes off the clock before turning the ball over on downs, with 2:19 left in the game, and while the Bears drove to the Westfield 24, on fourth down the Owls flushed Pragano out of the pocket and Owls DT Dylan Zuerblis (Wethersfield, Conn.) knocked Pragano out of bounds for a sack to give the ball back to the Owls.

Sean Willis (Schenectady, NY/ Mohonasen) hammered the ball seven yards on first down, and battled for a first down a few plays later and Westfield was able to run out the clock for Westfield's first win over the Bears since 2011.

Westfield was led by an efficient 6-10 passing performance for Fernandez for 96 yards and a pair of touchdowns, as he tossed a 7-yard TD to Jordan Lanoue (Belchertown, Mass.) in the first half.  Willis finished with 67 yards on 18 carries.

Blake Simpson (Bellingham, Mass.) and Cade Nelson (Shrewsbury, Mass.) each made seven tackles to lead the Owls.

Pragano finished 11-26 passing for 122 yards.  Trevor Nunes (E. Falmouth, Mass./Falmouth) carried 13 times for 42 yards and a TD.  Jack McCarthy (Braintree, Mass./Archbishop Williams) was the Bears leading receiver with two catches for 47 yards.

The win is also head coach Lou Conte's first as an Owl, as he took over the reins of the Westfield State program this summer.

Bridgewater's defense was led by Mark DeGirolamo (Mansfield, Mass.) with 13 stips and Nicolas Canales (Lake Ronkonkoma, NY/Sachem) made 12 tackles.   Jorge Aquino (Bergenfield, NJ) finished with eight tackles and 1.5 sacks.

The Bears got out to leads of 7-0 and 14-3, sandwiching a 1 yard run from nunes on the first drive, and a 14-yard Dallas Murphy keeper TD out of a wildcat set early in the third quarter around a 25-yard field goal from Westfield's Andrew Currier (Attleboro, Mass.).

Westfield ran more offensive plays than their opponent for the second straight week, getting 69 snaps to the bears 55.  Westfield held the ball for 40 of the 60 minutes in the game.

Westfield will be back in action at home with a 2:00 p.m. kickoff against Western Connecticut State University on Saturday, Sept. 21, while the Bears will stay on the road with a matchup at Plymouth State that same day at noon.   Both games are MASCAC Conference tilts.

Conor Schlittler's game winning TD catch !