Football to Close Season on the Road at Fitchburg State

Westfield State University will close out their season on the road at Fitchburg State, taking on the Falcons on Saturday at noon in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference game. The Owls come into the game with an overall record of 2-7 and they are 2-5 in the MASCAC. The Falcons are 0-9 and 0-7 in the MASCAC.

LAST YEAR: The Owls defeated Fitchburg State with a final score of 50-0. Quarterback Colby Pires (Milford, Ma) completed eight out of his 13 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. Westfield had five different rushers reach the end zone, including Shane Clark, Jordan Smith (Coventry, Conn), Blake Simpson (Bellingham, Ma), Sean Willis, and Gabriel Fernandez (Holyoke, Ma). Christian Julian (Hingham, Ma) also returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown, and the defense held the Falcons to a shutout and got sacks from Peter Spinale, Cameron Danahy (Plympton, Ma), and Dylan Zuerblis (Wethersfield, CT).

LAST WEEK: The Owls got their second win of the season against Worcester State with a final score of 30-12. Jordan Smith got his career high in rushing yards with 167. Westfield got touchdowns from Smith and Dylan Zeurblis on the ground and seniors Jacob Swinehart (Holyoke, Ma) and Joseph DiBlasi (Norwood, Ma) both caught touchdowns on senior day. Tyler Cooley (Randolph, Ma) led in tackles with thirteen and forced a fumble as well. Cade Nelson (Shrewsbury, Ma) added on 1.5 sacks on the day.

WESTFIELD STATE ON OFFENSE: After Smith's career day last week, he is now third is the MASCAC in rushing averaging 94.8 yards per game. Michael Foley (South Windsor, Conn) leads the team in receiving with 18 catches on the year and averaging 40.6 yards per game. The Owls are now averaging 13.7 points and 211.8 yards of total offense per game.

WESTFIELD STATE ON DEFENSE: The Owls are allowing 26.3 points and 378.8 yards of total offense per game. For the Owls, Tyler Cooley is leading the team in tackles averaging 12 a game, Cooley also stands at the top of the MASCAC in tackles as well. Cameron Danahy is now fifth in the MASCAC averaging 7.8 tackles per game. Senior defensive linemen Cade Nelson leads the team in sacks with 4.5 on the year and freshman defensive back Christian Julian has the most tackles out of the secondary averaging 5.5 a game.

WESTFIELD STATE ON SPECIAL TEAMS: Senior Owen Thompson (Plympton, Ma) averages 34.9 yards per punt and has put a total of 12 punts inside of the 20 yards line. Christian Julian averages 22.9 yards per kick return, while also averaging 5.6 yards per punt return. Freshman kicker Cooper Harvey (Niskayuna, N.Y.) is 3/6 on field goals for the year, with his long being a 39-yard field goal.

FITCHBURG STATE ON OFFENSE: The Falcons are averaging 9.4 points and 200.2 yards per game. Freshman quarterback, Rocky Marchitelli completes 54.5% of his passes and averages 124.8 yards per game with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. Freshman running back Oriowokite Fatoke leads the team in rushing averaging 35 yards per game and sophomore wide receiver Sahir Gomez leads the team in receiving averaging 36.8 yards per game.

FITCHBURG STATE ON DEFENSE: The Falcons are allowing 37 points and 320.6 yards per game. Linebacker Camren Topkin is averaging 8.1 tackles per game and defensive linemen Cameron Monette is averaging 4.5 sacks per game. From the secondary, Muhammed Camara averages 5.6 tackles per game.

LIVE COVERAGE: The game will be live streamed on WestfieldStateOwls.com and on the MASCAC.tv channel, which is available on Roku and Apple TV devices. Live stats are available on WestfieldStateOwls.com.