WESTFIELD, Mass. – Bridgewater State jumped out to a big first-half lead en route to a 42-7 win over Westfield State in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference football game at Alumni Field on Saturday.
The Bears spoiled the Owls' homecoming, improving to 4-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play. Westfield slips to 0-7 overall and 0-5 in the league.
Bridgewater tallied four first half scores to lead 28-0 at the half. The Bears sandwiched a pair of TD passes from James Cahoon (Buzzards Bay, Mass.) around a 10-yard TD run from Adam Couch (Winchendon, Mass.) to lead 21-0 with 1:10 left in the half.
The Bears used a pair of time outs to force Westfield to punt before the half, and got a big play when Drew Donovan (Abington, Mass.) returned the kick 52-yards for a touchdown. Some confusion reigned on the play as Donavan appeared to wave his arm before making the catch and the Owls defenders pulled up before Donavan scampered up the left sideline for the score. The officiating crew ruled no fair catch was called and allowed the score to stand.
Couch tacked on a 5-yard TD run in the third quarter.
Westfield finally got on the scoreboard with a big play, as QB Gabriel Fernandez (Holyoke, Mass.) rolled left, then threw back to the right side, where he found RB Jordan Smith (Coventry, CT) wide open at the Owls own 40 yard line, and Smith made the catch and raced down the sideline, just beating a pair of Bears defenders to the right pylon for a 79-yard TD reception.
The Bears added a late 3-yard TD run from Greg Demetri (N. Reading, Mass.) with 2:00 left in the game for the final margin. Bridgewater outgained Westfield 489-187 on the afternoon. Cahoon finished 23-38 passing for 283 yards and two TD's. Couch carried 27 times for 167 yards. Kyle Torres (Waltham, Mass.) (3-74) and Michael Nocera (Cumberland, RI) (4-73) were the top receivers for the Bears.
For Westfield, Fernandez came in to pilot the Owls in the second half and completed seven of 14 for 139 yards, including the big TD to Smith. Smith carried 17 times for 51 yards, and added two catches for 84 yards. Owen Thompson caught a pair of passes for 42 yards.
Defensively, Westfield was led by 20 tackles from Tyler Cooley (Randolph, Mass.) and 11 from Cullen MacNeill (Northbridge, Mass.) . Peter Spinale (Ipswich, Mass.) finished with six tackles and a sack, and Zachary Allen (Chelmsford, Mass.) came up with an interception inside the Owls 10-yard line that thwarted another Bridgewater drive.
The Bears 10 tackles including a sack from Brenden Albert (Canton, Mass.), and nine stops from Steven Silvia (Dighton, Mass). The Bears sacked Owls QB's a total of six times on the day, led by 1.5 sacks from Dan Cataldo (Wakefield, Mass.). Zachary Souza (Tyngsboro, Mass.) picked off a pass at the goal line to stop a Westfield State drive.
Westfield will be back in action next Saturday at Plymouth State, while Bridgewater will travel to UMass Dartmouth for a show down between two of the top teams in the MASCAC.