HALLOWEEN CLASSIC: Owls Travel to MMA for Rare Thursday Tilt

WESTFELD, Mass. — Welcome to a spooky MASCAC matchup as Westfield State football hits the road to face the Massachusetts Maritime Academy on Halloween night.

Westfield enters the game with a 2-5 overall record and a 2-4 mark in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, while he host Buccaneers are 4-2 overall and 4-3 in the league.

LAST WEEK: The Owls suffered a 35-7 loss at the hands of Plymouth State on Saturday, with the only Westfield score on Saturday coming from the ground in the form of a Matt Varteresian four-yard run. Westfield produced over 250 yards of offense, including 172 through the air. Ryan Scott was the signal caller for most of the matchup as he went 10-17 for 125 yards. Westfield had three receivers with over 30 yards including Connor Schlittler (36), Curtis Dion (35), and Jacob Swinehart (32). The Owls defense held the Panthers to under 200 yards of offense, with only 53 from their run game.

Mass Maritime won last week in a 21-6 game on the road at Framingham State on Saturday.  The Buccaneers posted 232 yards of offense last week with 190 of them coming from the run game. The run game was spread out amongst Mass Maritime ball carriers but was spearheaded by Daniel Molloy with 74 yards on seven attempts. The Buccaneers only allowed Framingham to get 158 yards on offense on Saturday and noticeably forced the Rams to -14 net rushing yards all-day.

THE SERIES: Westfield has a winning record of 21-16 all-time versus the Buccaneers, and the Owls have won five of the last six meetings between the teams.

WESTFIELD STATE ON OFFENSE: Scott led the Owls in passing yards and completed close to 60 percent of his attempts on Saturday.  Scott has the highest completion percentage on the team as he has tallied 245 total yards this fall on 16 completions with a touchdown this season.

The run game has been the bread and butter for the Owls on offense as they were fourth in the league with rushing yards per game before senior Sean Willis  (424 yards rushing) went down with injury. Disabella has been carrying the load since the injury to Willis as he led the Owls in rushing on Saturday. Disabella is top ten in the MASCAC for yards per game, yards per attempt, and 13th in total yards in only a few games as the workhorse back.

WESTFIELD STATE ON DEFENSE: The Owls held the Panthers to under 200 total yards on Saturday in the loss. Of the 197 total yards, 53 of them came from the run game in which Westfield stopped well. The Owls the best ranked defense in the MASCAC against the rush with allowing fewest rushing yards per game (73.1).

Linebacker Blake Simpson has been the Owls' leading tackler all season, he has made 39 stops with 1.5 sacks so far this year.   Cade Nelson and Tafari Proctor rank second on the team with 31 tackles, with Nelson leading the team with 3.5 sacks and Proctor has snagged three interceptions to lead the team.   Senior DT Anthony Messore shared the team lead with five tackles against Plymouth and has 4.5 TFL's this season.

WESTFIELD STATE ON SPECIAL TEAMS: Cooper Harvey only got one chance to kick on Saturday and he did not miss it as he was one-for-one in extra point tries.  He is 11-for-12 on point-after tries this year.   The Owls returned six kickoffs which was headlined by Logan Gallagher who returned two kicks for 46 yards and a long of 26. Gallagher also led in punt returns as well with two of those that went for 12 yards.

MASS MARITIME ON OFFENSE: Proctor is the team's leading rusher this season as he has 349 total yards on 76 rushes for an average of 4.6 yards per carry. Proctor is fourth in the MASCAC for yards per carry and top ten in total yards and yards per game.

For the season, Mass Maritime quarterback Evan Pierce has thrown for 244 yards on 16 completions and four touchdowns. Pierce throws to a committee of wide outs but the leader in receiving for the Buccaneers is Brennan Keefe. Keefe has 71 yards on the fall in four catches including one touchdown grab.

Although the Buccaneers only had 42 passing yards last week Pierce was two-for-three with a touchdown.

MASS MARITIME ON DEFENSE: Mass Maritime is third in the MASCAC in points allowed per game and yards allowed per game is second in rushing yards allowed per game. This being said, the Buccaneers are ninth in the league in pass defense, giving up 191.7 pass yards per game.

Liam Hines leads the Mass Maritime defense in total tackles with 34 and is in first for fumbles forced. Buccaneers linebacker Jackson Mahoney is the leader in the clubhouse with seven tackles for loss. The defense has forced seven interceptions this year, second highest in the MASCAC, as Keiran Glover has a pair of picks.

MASS MARITIME ON SPECIAL TEAMS: The Buccaneers have three different kickers that have attempted extra points in games this season. James Sansone took kicking responsibilities on Saturday and went three-for-three in points after attempts. Andon Werling has gone six-for-nine in point after attempts while Logan May is the only kicker for Mass Maritime to attempt a field goal but is 0-1 on the season.

The Buccaneers have returned 20 kicks this season as kick returning specialist, Brooks Moss, has returned ten for a total of 153 and a long of 26 yards.

COVERAGE: Live stats and video are available at WestfieldStateOwls.com.  The game is also live streamed via the MASCAC.tv app on AppleTV, Roku, AmazonFire, and most major streaming devices.

NEXT WEEK: Westfield will return home after a long road stint as they take on the currently undefeated Corsairs of UMass Dartmouth on Saturday, November 9 for a noon kickoff. Dartmouth ranked third in the New England Regional Rankings for Division III this week,

Mass Maritime will hit the road on Saturday, November 9 as they will face off against the Lancers of Worcester State for a noon kickoff as well.

-- written by Hunter Briggs, sports info graduate assistant