Worcester, MA- The Worcester State Football team began their 2022 season at home Friday night at John F. Coughlin Field with a cross town match up with WPI. It was a tough back and forth battle for both teams before WPI managed to pull away in the second half for their first win.

Worcester State opened the night with a fast past 10 play drive of 74 yards that ended with their first score of the game when DiVerdi snagged a pass from Williams in the back of the end zone to tie the game up at 7 apiece, in what was a back and forth first half between the teams.

Worcester State had a strong performance during the first half of Friday night's game, but WPI managed to capitalize on some costly turnovers. Worcester State had 351 yards of total offense in the game, with most of it coming off the arm of Aaron-Moses Williams who passed for 212 yards and two touchdowns on the night. Mike Loveless contributed his own touchdown to the night with a one yard run to the left side to sneak past the WPI defense. Deion Osei-Sarpong was the receiver of the night for the Lancers with five receptions for 71 yards. Also finding themselves with multiple receptions tonight were Dan DiVerdi, Drew von Klock and Ke'Vaugn Davis. Brodie Jacques had the biggest catch of the night early in the game with a 44-yard reception to push the Lancers quickly into the offensive

WPI had 587 yards of total offense on the night, but managed to find Worcester State's weakness in the running game with five touchdowns coming from the ground. Hunter Cary had a dominating night for the Engineers with 157 yards off of 19 carries and two touchdowns.

Amir Mells led the running core tonight for the Lancers with 53 yards off of 10 carries and Davis, the All-Conference Wide Receiver, along with teammates DiVerdi and Loveless helped keep the passing game alive all night in the endzone.

Santiago Rodriguez-D'Atri went a perfect three for three on extra points tonight after an early field goal attempt went just wide of the posts. Kyle Wall had a strong performance on special teams with an average of over 44 yards punting, with the longest extending to 58 yards. von Klock was an additional bright presence on the special teams with 68 return yards, averaging 17 yards a return on the night.

WPI now sits at 1-0 while Worcester State moves to 0-1. The Lancers are back in action next Saturday when they travel to New York to take on Union College.