By Brittany Burke
The win against St. Francis (PA) at Arute Field cemented the Blue Devils’ share of the NEC title, but it also capped off a hard-fought season and groundbreaking careers.
The final home game of the season was the last game for fifteen graduating senior members of the football team including captains Jeff Marino and Alondre Rush, transfer Everette Benjamin and place kicker Joe Izzo. For most of the graduating class, winning at home to secure another ring in front of a huge crowd is completely opposite from how they began their time at CCSU.
“Since I’ve been here, to see things change from the first year I’ve been here to my final year. I mean my first year, second year we were playing for a championship and there was no one in the stands and it’s amazing to see how the program changed four years down the road and there’s no better way to go out as a fifth year senior than on top,” said senior P.J. Borawski.
The Blue Devils began the season facing some major adversities. The reigning NEC outright champions had lost its two quarterbacks, and head coach Jeff McInerney and the offensive vouching staff were trying to create a top NEC quarterback out of junior college transfer Gunnar Jespersen.
“I remember telling [Sports Information Director] Tom Pincince and everybody, we’ll go as far as we develop our quarterback,” said McInerney. “We have to give Gunnar a tremendous amount of credit to make the transfer from junior college to college. He’s a fabulous, wonderful student coming up from that distance. He’s a good fit here, he’s a tough guy he represents us well.”
Gunnar finished his first season as a Blue Devil completing 145 of his 243 attempts with 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions in eleven games. He was also the team’s second leading rusher, gaining 612 yards with a net gain of 495 yards.
Jespersen was ranked second behind fellow transfer Everette Benjamin. Benjamin had a lucrative career, not only transferring from Hofstra, but simultaneously making the switch from fullback to running back. Benjamin recorded 1,330 yards on the season, averaging 120 yards a game. Benjamin finished the season rushing for over 100 yards in eight games. The only times he was held to under 100 was during the team’s losses to the University of New Hampshire, Youngstown State and Robert Morris. Benjamin’s most productive game was against Bryant on Sept. 25 when he rushed for 188 yards.
With two major positions uncertain at the beginning of the season CCSU opened with a tough road game against nationally ranked New Hampshire, dropping the decision 33-3. The team managed to bounce back and take its home opener against Bentley before losing to Youngstown State the following week.
With NEC play picking up after the loss to YSU the Blue Devils remained undefeated until Nov. 6. The team fought hard and made some unbelievable comebacks, such as 30-27 overtime defeat of Albany and a 49-48 win over Monmouth, but Robert Morris was too much for the team. RMU handed CCSU its one and only NEC loss and with identical 7-1 records, the two teams would inevitably share the NEC title.
“I think we had a couple games that looked like football. The Sacred Heart game looked like football, the Wagner game looked like football and this game [St. Francis (PA)] looked like football. We had our moments in the Bryant game but it was good to see them and the coaches and the kids rally up and make some plays and gain some confidence,” said McInerney.
CCSU got major contributions from the returning defense and remained undefeated at home the entire season, increasing the home winning streak to 14, which is the third longest streak of its kind in the country.
The graduating class is saying goodbye with 30 wins and two conference championships. Ushering in a new era of football for the Blue Devils will be the 25 new seniors lead by a more comfortable Jespersen.
“Being a quarterback, it’s already kind of a leading position but we already had four or five senior captains ahead of me this year and15 seniors in the locker room leading and they did a great job,” said Jespersen. “I picked up a lot from them and it’s gonna help me lead the team next year…we have 25 seniors next year so I think my leading role is not gonna be as big of a deal. I’m going to be a leader regardless but I’m gonna have 24 other guys backing me up in that leading position and they’re gonna help push the whole team.”
CCSU may no longer be outright champions, but the title of co-champion only fuels the fire for the outright distinction in the 2011 season.