WORCESTER, Mass. – The Western Connecticut football team ran for 444 yards and eight touchdowns, seven of them by sophomore Mack Driver (Mastic Beach, N.Y.), who set a program record for rushing scores as they defeated Worcester State 56-30 in Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) football on Saturday afternoon at Coughlin Memorial Field.
Sophomore Ke'Vaughn Davis (Utica, N.Y.) scored three receiving touchdowns, giving him a conference-leading 11 on the season, but Driver, who leads the MASCAC with 19 rushing scores, led a West Conn offense that averaged 8.4 yards per rush.
Western Connecticut jumped out to a 14-0 lead when Driver scored from 1 yard and 7 yards out, but the Lancers got on the board with a 1-yard run by Mike Loveless (Nashua, N.H.) before the end of the first quarter.
They cut the deficit to 8 points again when Davis caught his first touchdown of the day, a 6-yard pass from Aaron-Moses Williams (Springfield, Mass.), but Driver punched in two more scores before the end of the half, including a 4-yard run to cap a 9-play drive with under a minute left in the half, giving the visitors a 35-12 lead at the break.
Williams completed 18-30 passes for 262 yards and four touchdowns. He found Keith Smith Jr. (Ware, Mass.) for the Lancers' final score of the day, a four-yard pass that made it 49-30.
It was more of the same in the second half for Western Connecticut, who saw three players rush for more than 100 yards. Driver, who was one touchdown shy of tying the NCAA Division 3 single-game record, went for 136 yards on the ground. Chad Blaszky (Seldon, N.Y.) gained 149 yards on 19 carries, and Roy Penn-Consentino (Liberty, N.Y.) added 104 yards on 11 carries, while also finding the end zone once.
Quarterback John Giller (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) added 105 yards in the air to bring the visitors to 549 all-purpose yards. Messiah Diggs (Rahway, N.J.) and Julian Ferguson (Enfield, Conn.) each had 40-yard pass receptions from Giller.
Nico Holmes (Mansfield, Mass.) rushed 15 times for 65 yards for the Lancers and also caught 4 passes for 46 yards, while Deion Osei-Sarpong (Holden, Mass.) hauled in three passes for 54 yards.
Mason Broyles (Millbury, Mass.) led the Lancers defense with 11 tackles, also recovering a fumble and breaking up a pass. John McMasters III (Raynham, Mass.) had ten tackles, one for a loss.
Matt Forti (Bronx, N.Y.) had seven tackles for the West Conn defense. Jahzaari Mullings (Bridgeport, Conn.) had a pair of pass breakups. Raquell Davis (Mastic Beach, N.Y.) had a strong game as well, forcing a fumble on a sack and then recovering it to set up West Conn for one of their early touchdowns.
Worcester State (2-6, 2-4 MASCAC) plays their last road game of the year next Saturday when they travel to Westfield State for a 12 pm contest.
Western Connecticut (4-5, 3-4 MASCAC) travels to Fitchburg State on the same day.