Springfield, Mass. - September 2, 2022 - Competing under the lights in their home opener for the first time since 2018, the Springfield College football team put together a dominating season-opening performance to power past Western New England, 42-14, on Friday evening.
The contest was the ninth time that these two rivals met in the Pynchon SAW Game, which is derived from city founder William Pynchon and the acronym of "SAW" is for the first initial of both schools, Springfield And Western New England. With the win, Springfield reclaimed the trophy as it earned its fourth victory in the series.
It was a balanced attack for the Pride in the victory, as the Pride had six different student-athletes find the end zone, racked up 506 yards of offense, and held the ball for over 37 minutes. Springfield had 34 first downs in the game, including 29 on the ground, and ran for 433 yards. Defensively, Springfield held WNE to 231 yards of offense and 4-of-15 on third-down conversions.
David Wells (Huntington, Conn.) threw for 73 yards and ran for 69 and a score while orchestrating the offense, halfbacks Jacob Silvester (Lancaster, Mass.) and Dante Vasquez (Rockland, Mass.) combined for 178 yards and two scores, and fullbacks Arsen Shtefan (West Hartford, Conn.), Nicholas Raneri (North Attleboro, Mass.), and Joseph Cannizzaro (Lincoln Park, N.J.) added 155 yards and three scores.
DJ Brown (Wading River, N.Y.) made a team-best 10 tackles, while both Cam Hart (East Lyme, Conn.) and Tyler Pohlman (St. James, N.Y.) contributed seven stops apiece, Will McKay (Tewksbury, Mass.) forced a pair of fumbles, Christian Hutra (Holmes, N.Y.) connected on all six of his extra point attempts in the victory.
After forcing WNE off the field on three plays to start the game, Springfield put together a 14-play drive that lasted over seven minutes, but the Golden Bears came up with a goal line stand on their two yard line to keep the game scoreless. Springfield again force a three-and-out, and three plays later, Vasquez tiptoed down the sidelines for a 31-yard score to give Springfield a 7-0 lead with 3:47 left to play.
The Bears punted again on their next drive, and behind a key fourth down and third-down conversions from Vasquez, Springfield punched in its second score of the day as Shtefan blasted in from two yards out with 10:18 remaining in the first half. Following another punt by the Bears after a six-play drive, Silvester found daylight and raced past the Golden Bears defense for a 27-yard touchdown run at 4:31 as the lead grew to 21-0.
After WNE's next drive stalled and Springfield took over on their own 40-yard line following an 11-yard punt, the Golden Bears were able to pounce a Springfield fumble to take over inside the Pride's red zone. On fourth and seven, Tyle Millerick found De'Andrew Harris in the end zone for a 16 yard touchdown strike with nine seconds remaining to make it a 21-7 contest heading into the half.
Springfield opened up the second half with a methodical, 12-play, 75-yard drive that lasted over six minutes and featured three-third down conversions, including a critical 12-yard catch by Noah Wagnblas (Ansonia, Conn.). Wells would finish off the drive with his four-yard score at 8:49 for what would prove to be the only score of the third quarter.
In the fourth, Raneri, conlcuded a nine-play, 70-yard drive with a three-yard score with 11:53 left in regulation before Cannizzaro got in on the scoring action with a two-yard run of his own with 6:35 on the clock. WNE would add their only score of the second half on a Dillon Kohl 22-yard burst up the middle with under four minutes to play.
Springfeild will play on Stagg again next Saturday when it hosts Rowan at 12 pm.
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