Newport, R.I. – October 26, 2024 – The Springfield College football team pulled away with a 31-7 victory at Salve Regina in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) meeting on Saturday.

Springfield, which was ranked 23^rd in the most recent AFCA Division III National Poll, improved to 7-0 on the year and is now 4-0 against conference teams. The loss dropped Salve to 4-3, 3-1.

The Pride finished the game with 354 yards on the ground, with Arsen Shtefan (West Hartford, Conn.) totaling 135 yards on 20 carries.  Jacob Silvester (Lancaster, Mass.) rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns and threw for 69 yards and a score.  Defensively, Joe Maurer (Wilbraham, Mass.) tied a single-game program record for interceptions as he became the eighth player in program history with three picks in a game. Billy Carr (Southington, Conn.) tied his career high for tackles with 12 and Nick Gonzalez (Parsippany, N.J.) posted 10 tackles of his own. 

After Springfield turned Salve over on downs in their first drive of the game which lasted more than five minutes, Springfield struck on third down as Sean Brown (Westford, Mass.) got free behind the Seahawks secondary and Silvester found him for a 56-yard catch and run to give the Pride a 7-0 lead with 6:37 left in the opening quarter. 

Springfield would add to its lead early in the second quarter on an electric run by Silvester as he sliced through Salve's defense before racing off for a 50-yard touchdown run with 6:18 remaining in the half.  Salve's next drive was thwarted by Maurer's first pick of the day on the Pride's eight-yard line with just over two minutes remaining.  Fueled by a 47-yard run by Shtefan, Springfield's next drive went 88 yards in just eight plays and resulted in Ian Wernik (Plymouth, Mass.) connecting on a 21-yard field goal with 24 seconds remaining to give Springfield a 17-0 halftime lead. 

The Pride was unable to score on its opening possession of the second half, and Salve responded with their lone score of the game at the 7:57 mark on a two-yard rush for what would prove to be the only scoring of the quarter.

After the teams traded a pair of possessions in the fourth, Silvester took the first play of Springfield's third drive and raced 48 yards up the middle for his second score of the day to make it a 24-7 game with 5:54 on the clock. Springfield would again turn Salve over on downs, setting up a game-ending drive where Shtefan served as the closer and carried the ball five times for a bruising 41 yards and got free off tackle for a 17-yard score with under two minutes to play.  Maurer sealed the game with his third interception on Salve's next drive to provide the exclamation point on the conference win. 

Springfield will play in its regular-season home finale next Saturday for a 12 pm kickoff.