WESTFIELD, Mass. - Westfield State senior Jordan Smith (Coventry, Conn.) ran for 167 yards and a touchdown to punctuate a 30-12, senior day win over Worcester State for the Owls football team in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game at Alumni Field on Saturday afternoon.
The Owls garnered their second win of the season to improve to 2-5 in the MASCAC and 2-7 overall. Worcester State dips to 1-8 overall and 1-6 in the conference.
The Owls got off to a quick start, forcing and recovering a Lancers fumble on the opening kickoff return, and six plays later QB Gabriel Fernandez (Holyoke, Mass.) found fellow senior Jacob Swinehart (Holyoke, Mass.) on an out pattern in the left side of the endzone for a 7-0 Westfield lead less than 3 minutes into the game.
Westfield extended the lead to 14-0 midway through the first quarter, when defensive tackle Dylan Zuerblis (Wethersfield, Conn.), who has been serving as a lead blocker in short yardage situations, took a handoff from Fernandez and plunged into the endzone from two yards out to score the touchdown and give WSU a 14-0 lead.
Worcester cut the lead to 14-6 as QB Mike Loveless (Nashua, N.H.) snuck in from 2-yards out to cap a methodical 11 play, 68 yard drive with 3:24 left in the second quarter.
Westfield took a 17-6 lead into the half after Cooper Harvey (Niskayuna, N.Y.) booted a 35-yard field goal late in the second quarter.
The Owls lead ballooned to 24-6 on Smith's touchdown run, as he tried to get outside to the left side, cut back through a host of defenders and scampered 21 yards almost untouched into the endzone with 13:19 eft in the game.
The Lancers trimmed the deficit back to 12, after Loveless found Deion Osei-Sarpong (Holden, Mass.) down the right sideline for a 19-yard touchdown pass, but the kick failed, leaving Worcester in a 24-12 deficit with 5:01 to play.
Worcester aimed for an onside kick, but the hard one-hopper was snared by Owls linebacker Cameron Danahy (Kingston, Mass.), who secured possession for Westfield at the 46-yard line.
Senior QB Colby Pires (Milford, Mass.) came in to close out the game for the Owls, and he engineered a 46 yard scoring drive that was capped by back to back completions to senior TE Joe DiBlasi (Norwood, Mass.), who caught a swing pass and rambled five yards into the end zone for a 30-12 Westfield final.
Smith finished with 167 yards on 28 carries, giving him 853 yards on the season with one game remaining.
Swinehart led Owls receivers with four catches for 40 yards and a TD, while DiBlasi caught three balls for 14 yards. Fernandez and Pires combined to complete 13-of-20 passes for 93 yards and a pair of scores.
Defensively, Tyler Cooley led the Owls with 13 tackles, running his season total to 106 stops. Danahy added nine stops and broke up a pair of passes.
John McMasters (Raynham, Mass.) led the Worcester State defense with 13 tackles. Nathan Winco (Sturbridge, Mass.) made a pair of interceptions for the Lancers.
Running back Nico Holmes (Mansfield, Mass.) was effective in the ground game, gaining 139 yards on 24 carries. Loveless completed 10 of 25 passes for 103 yards and 1 TD. Osei-Sarpong led the receiving corps with three catches for 40 yards.
Westfield will play its final game of the 2023 campaign next Saturday at Noon at Fitchburg State. Worcester will play out the season by hosting Framingham State on Saturday in another noon start.
Westfield honored its 2023 seniors and grad students before the game. Danahy, Hernandez, Swinehart, Pires, Smith and Diblasi were all recognized, along with DL's Dylan Clark (Bellows Falls, Vt..) and Cade Nelson (Shrewsbury, Mass.) DB's Brendan DeBarber (Enfield, Conn.) and Christian Julian (Hingham, Mass.) , WR's Corey Jackson, Jr. (West Hartford, Conn.) Danny Farrell (Milford, Mass.), Michael Foley (S. Windsor, Conn.), and Owen Thompson (Plympton, Mass.), OL Alvin Yvon (Randolph, Mass.) and Gilberto Rodriguez (Springfield, Mass.), and LB Alec Rodriguez (Westfield, Mass.). (See photo album link above)
