By Brittany Burke
The CCSU Blue Devils (3-2, 3-0 NEC) gained their first road win Saturday against NEC opponents, the Sacred Heart Pioneers (1-4, 0-3 NEC) in a 24-14 victory.
The Blue Devils haven’t lost to the Pioneers since 2003, with a 9-4 series record, but despite the two teams’ history CCSU had to be prepared for a battle given Sacred Heart’s shut out record in the conference.
“We’re three and two; we played two tough opponents; this is about where I thought we’d be. Its good; the most important thing is we’re two and oh in conference and we won a road game which is huge that’s what we got to do,” said Head Coach Jeff McInerney. “We got to get better playing on the road and we know that. Our home record speaks for itself, and we always got to protect that, you never could take that for granted, so we got to keep on grinding.”
Sacred Heart is no longer conference contenders, but as the team’s homecoming got underway the Pioneers managed to get on the board first early in the opening quarter with an initial 72-yard scoring drive.
With less than nine minutes remaining, CCSU went on the counter attack, but two incomplete passes from Jespersen led to a field goal for the Blue Devils. Jespersen’s accuracy was off against the Pioneers as he was battling the wind. He was 10-for-17 with 114 yards and one interception on the day. The Pioneers did a good job at shutting him down on the run, containing him to only 75 yards.
“They’re a real physical team, a good opponent. Offensive line did a great job up front. We got the runnin’ game going, opened up the passing game,” said Jespersen. “Passing game should’ve been there a little more, a lot of that was on me. I just wasn’t throwing the ball like I should’ve been, something I’ll clean up in practice this week.”
The Blue Devils were explosive in the second period, scoring two of their three touchdowns. Senior running back Eric Richardson rushed for 20-yards for CCSU’s first touchdown and lead of the game with 9:05 remaining in the half.
Less than five minutes later Everette Benjamin put CCSU in the position to score again with three consecutive carries. This time the completed touchdown pass came from wide receiver Richie Martin, who found Deven Baker for 39-yards and another seven points.
Benjamin had another big day, rushing for 145-yards following his 188-yard game against Bryant in CCSU’s NEC opener. Benjamin fought to find luck driving up the middle as the Pioneers’ defense struggled to keep him contained, a method Coach McInerney refers to as B.Y.O.B; be your own blocker.
“It was tough but you got to expect that in a game take some shots here and there and down there at the goal line at the end I def took a few shots but it comes with the territory,” Benjamin said.
The third quarter was a game dominated by defense. Both the Blue Devils and the Pioneers were going three and out, which led to a scoreless 15 minutes and CCSU still up 17-14 entering fourth quarter.
“Defense held them at a crucial moment,” Jespersen said. “They let them go a little bit early and then came back strong in the rest of the game and that’s when you need them. It’s good to have them; offense wins games, defense win championships.”
CCSU kept Sacred Heart from finding the end zone for the remainder of the game, allowing for only 75 yards rushing and 261 net offensive yards.
CCSU bounced back after a lackluster third period showing. A missed field goal by Sacred Heart allowed CCSU to keep its three point lead, which was lengthened to 10 by a touchdown from Benjamin with 3:21 remaining.
“We had a good drive in the fourth quarter but we’ve been a team that’s been able to get out there in the third quarter which we didn’t do today,” said Coach McInerney.
The Blue Devils return to Arute Field for CCSU’s homecoming weekend, Oct. 9 where the team will take on Duquesne at 12 p.m.