Football Hosts Worcester State, Saturday 2:00 pm on Alumni Field

WESTFIELD, Mass.  --     Westfield State University football hosts Worcester State University on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Alumni Field as part of Westfield State's Family and Champions Weekend.

Westfield State enters the game 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the league after a dominating 48-6 win at Dean College last weekend.   Worcester State is still looking for their first win of the year, as the Lancers are 0-2 overall and 0-1 in the league.

LAST WEEK:  Westfield got three TD's from Aidan Patterson – two on the ground, and one through the air.  Owls QB Miles Foerster was a perfect 10-10 passing for 137 yards and three scores, setting a single game mark with the perfect 1.000 completion percentage.  FB Manny Mengata ran for 126 yards as the Owls dominated time of possession. Defensively, Westfield held Dean to -53 yards rushing and just 60 yards of offense overall.  Justyn Gardener had a pair of sacks to key the defensive effort.

Worcester comes in off a 48-13 loss at Western New England.  Jack Poirer highlighted the Lancer offense with five catches for 99 yards.  QB Cam Ayotte was 16-34 passing for 171 yards and 3 INT's.  MJ Bakaysa came on to lead one scoring drive late and tossed a 35-yard TD pass to James Azzinaro.   Brian Melendez was in on seven tackles and recovered a fumble.

LAST YEAR:  Westfield's Curtis Dion had a pair of touchdown runs to help lead the Owls to a 35-27 win at Worcester.    The Owls grabbed the lead late on a touchdown from Sean Willis with 1:47 to play, then held on late as Worcester drove all the way to the Owls 12-yard line before Westfield's Corey Henderson picked off a pass as time expired to secure the win.  Deion Osei-Sarpong had a pair of TD catches for the Lancers, while Ayotte was 3-5 passing for 66 yards in limited duty.

WESTFIELD ON OFFENSE:   Westfield is averaging 305 yards of total offense a game, 189 on the ground and 116 through the air.  Mengata is the key to the rushing attack, averaging a shade over 100 yards per game through the first three games of his career.   Foerster has been efficient in the passing game, completing 57.4 percent of his throws, a figure that is good for third in the MASCAC, and his 4-1 TD to interception ratio is the best in the league.  Casey Tang has been Foerster's top target, catching 9 balls for 114 yards, while Will Brewster has nine grabs for 109 yards.

WESTFIELD ON DEFENSE:  The Owls are allowing opponents just 17 ppg and 184 yards of total offense per game.    Linebacker Budder Ferreira leads the team in tackles with 21, and has created chaos with a pair of sacks, a forced fumble a recovery, a broken up pass and a blocked kick.   His running mate  Justyn Gardener leads the MASCAC with four sacks.  Defensive backs Tafari Proctor and Eric Lovell each have 14 tackles, and Lovell has one interception on the year, which he returned 80 yards for a TD.

WESTFIELD ON SPECIAL TEAMS:  Brandon Paquette has highlighted the return game, averaging 15 yards per return on punts and 26 per takeback on kicks.  Andrew Currier and Dino Stellato have split duty in the kicking game, and are a combined 9-10 on extra points, but have yet to kick a field goal.      Brian Carlin has handled punts, with a 32.9 yards average and stuck 3 inside the 20 without a touchback.

WORCESTER ON OFFENSE:  The Lancers are gaining 317 yards per game and are averaging 29.5 points per game.  QB  Cam Ayotte leads the league with 210 passing yards per game, and has tossed four TDs to three INTs.   Most of their damage has been done through the air. Lance Williams has caught 15 passes for 172 yards and Jack Poirer has 10 catches for 159 yards. Williams leads a modest run game with 11 carries for 53 yards through two games.

WORCESTER ON DEFENSE:  Senior DL Aaron Becker leads the team in tackles with 14, and has batted down a pair of passes and blocked a kick.   DB Griffin Metcalf is second on the club with 12 tackles and has the Lancers' lone interception through two games this year. LB Brian Melendez has 11 tackles.

WORCESTER ON SPECIAL TEAMS:  Kicker Louie Freitas is 6-6 on extra points and 1-1 with a 33-yard field goal.    He's averaging 27.3 yards on punts.  Gavin Hatfield has had a impact in the return game with 25.5 yards per return.

NEXT WEEK:  The Owls have a date with Anna Maria on Saturday, Oct. 4.  Kickoff is set for high noon at Alumni Field.   Worcester will host Bridgewater State in the Lancers' homecoming game, a 1:30 kickoff at Coughlin Field.

AROUND THE LEAGUE:  MASCAC football is in full swing this weekend, as Plymouth State hosts Mass Maritime, Framingham hosts Bridgewater in conference games, while Dean steps out of conference to play at Curry, and Anna Maria hosts UMass-Dartmouth.

COVERAGE:  Live stats and video stream are available on WestfieldStateOwls.com, and the livestream can also be found on the MASCAC.tv channel on Roku, Amazon and Apple TV streaming devices.   Westfield State student Zach Peters and alumnus Evan Levrault have the call of the game.   

TICKETS:  $8 for adults, $4 for senior citizens or non-Westfield State students, children 12 or under are admitted free.   Westfield State students, faculty and staff are admitted free.