WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State Owls football has been picked to finish sixth in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference in the league's preseason coaches' poll.
The Owls will open their 2019 campaign with a non-conference game on the road at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. on Saturday, September 7.
The Owls finished with a 5-5 overall record and 4-4 mark in the MASCAC year ago, finishing in a tie for fifth in the league standings.
Defending league champion Framingham State was picked to win the conference with 63 points (of a possible 72) and seven of nine first place votes. Western Connecticut was picked second with 53 points and the other two first place votes. Westfield topped Western Connecticut in the final game of the regular season in 2018.
Westfield returns a strong nucleus on offense, including a veteran offensive line that includes seniors Chris Saba (Methuen), Connor Gregoire (Waterford, Conn.), Kevin Joyce (Newton (North)), and Saul Cabrera (Methuen) . Senior QB Jake Cassidy (Lawrence Acad./Salem, Mass.) will trigger the Owls' offense once again, and he returns a top receiver in WR/KR Evan Garvey (Waconah/Dalton, Mass.). Cassidy, Garvey and Saba join senior defensive back Jack Buckley (Tyngsborough) as Westfield State's team captains for the 2019 season.
Westfield State will open the season with a rugged stretch of games that includes Union (7-2 in 2018), local rival Western New England in the President's Cup and the Owls' home opener on Friday, Sept. 13, and then travel to Framingham State on Sept. 21 before returning home for homecoming the following weekend.