Westfield State travels to Bridgewater State to take on the Bears on Bridgewater's homecoming on Saturday at 4:00 pm in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game. The Bears come into the game first in the MASCAC with a 4-2 overall record and a 4-0 mark in the MASCAC, while the Owls are 1-5, and 1-3 in the MASCAC.
LAST YEAR: Bridgewater State defeated the Owls with a final score of 42-7. Bears' running back Adam Couch rushed for 167 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns. Quarterback James Cahoon passed for 283 yards with two touchdowns for Bridgewater. For the Owls, Jordan Smith (Coventry, Conn) caught the only touchdown for the Owls which was a 79-yard pass from quarterback Gabriel Fernandez (Holyoke, Ma). On defense, Tyler Cooley (Randolph, Ma) led all tacklers with 20, and Bridgewater State's Brendan Albert led the bears with 10 tackles.
LAST WEEK: The Owls suffered an overtime loss to UMass Dartmouth with a final score of 26-23. Cooper Harvey (Niskayuna, N.Y.) hit a field goal on the first possession of overtime, but UMass Dartmouth responded scoring a 25-yard touchdown pass to win the game. Bridgewater State defeated Worcester State 35-7.
WESTFIELD STATE ON OFFENSE: Quarterback Gabriel Fernandez threw for 231 yards and two touchdowns completing 50% of his passes. Jordan Smith had a game high 119 rushing yards on 25 rushes. Michael Foley (South Windsor, Conn) turned three catches into 105 yards and scored two touchdowns for the Owls. Foley is now averaging 45.8 receiving yards a game. Owen Thompson (Plympton, Ma) also had one catch for 47 yards.
WESTFIELD STATE ON DEFENSE: Cade Nelson (Shrewsbury, Mass.) was named the MASCAC's defensive player of the week, after recording 13 tackles, 2.5 TFL's, a sack and a blocked extra point. Tyler Cooley and Cameron Danahy (Plympton, Ma) led all tacklers with 17 each. Cooley leads the Owls and the MASCAC with 73 tackles this season. Danahy bumped his average up to 8.5 tackles a game on the season. Defensive back Marckus Allen-Nesmith (Glassboro, N.J.) forced a fumble that was recovered by Max Margeson (Littleton, Colo.). Margeson also had an interception that he returned for 14 yards.
WESTFIELD STATE ON SPECIAL TEAMS: First-year Cooper Harvey made his only field goal attempt from 37 yards away. Harvey has now made two out of his three attempts on the year. Adam Legere (Bedford, Ma) punted five times with an average of 36.8 yards per punt
BRIDGEWATER STATE ON OFFENSE: Bridgewater State quarterback, James Cahoon leads the MASCAC averaging 261.8 passing yards per game. His favorite target is sophomore Ryan Coonan, who has 21 catches and 279 yards and two touchdowns in just four games. Adam Couch leads in rushing for the Bears, averaging 72.3 yards per game. Couch has six touchdowns on the year.
BRIDGEWATER STATE ON DEFENSE: On defense the Bears allow 22.2 points per game and have forced seven turnovers this season. Their leading tackler is senior linebacker Brendan Albert who is averaging 6.5 tackles a game. Defensive back Zachary Souza leads the team in interceptions with two, and defensive lineman Nicolas Canales averages four tackles a game and has 4.5 sacks on the year.
LIVE COVERAGE: The game will be livestreamed on WestfieldStateOwls.com and on the MASCAC.tv channel, which is available on Roku and Apple TV devices. Live stats are available on WestfieldStateOwls.com.
A LOOK AHEAD: Westfield will host Plymouth State on Saturday, October 28 at 12:00 p.m. The Bears will host UMass Dartmouth on Saturday, October 28 at 12:00 p.m.
-- written by Anthony Franco, sports information intern