Luke Whitehouse
@Lwhitehouse12
Springfield opened up conference play with a bang, defeating Coast Guard 63-14 Saturday afternoon on Stagg Field.
The Pride ran for a program record 686 yards on 71 carries (9.4 YPC) – beating the previous record of 676 set in 2010. They also had four players with at least 90 yards – Arsen Shtefan (140), Jacob Silvester (124), Blaine Hart (96), and Joe Cannizaro (92).
“It all starts with the offensive line,” Silvester said. “They always figure out how to get it done.”
But it wasn’t pretty early.
After receiving the opening kick, the Pride started their drive from their own 35 and moved the ball well,
Until Springfield’s Arsen Shtefan had the ball knocked clean out of his hands, and Coast Guard’s Ryan Vigo fell on it — giving the ball to the Bears.
This marked the Pride’s first of two fumbles on the day.
“That was probably the only disappointing thing,” Springfield head coach Mike Cerasuolo said. “We turned the ball over twice, and you can’t do that. We work on it every day, and we’ll continue to.”
But the defense picked up the offense and Coast Guard was forced to punt.
On the ensuing drive, the Pride game plan was run flawlessly as a Blane Hart twelve-yard rushing touchdown to put the Pride up 7-0.
After getting another stop, the Pride regained possession on their own 20 yard-line and once again slowly maneuvered their way down the field and into the red zone. This time it was Jacob Silvester who found the end zone to put the Pride up 14-0.
The junior play-caller ran for a career-best 124 yards and two touchdowns.
“I just took what the defense gave,” Silvester said. “We knew they were going to [key in on] the fullback, so I was ready for it.”
After forcing yet another punt, it was time for the special teams unit to make their mark.
Springfield’s Nick Peterson got his hands on a Matthew Hagerty punt allowing teammate Sean Brown to pick it up and run it in for six points.
“[Special teams] are such a big part of the game,” Cerasuolo said. “If you look at the statistics, if you block a punt, you have an 87 percent chance of winning. And we’ve won the two games we’ve blocked a punt.”
From that point on, Springfield ran away with it – literally.
After second-quarter scores from Silvester, Hart (two), and Shtefan, the Pride held a 35-7 halftime lead.
The second half offered much of the same.
After stopping Coast Guard on a fourth down to start the third quarter, the Pride went 61 yards on just five plays as Silvester broke free for a 32-yard touchdown.
The scoring barrage continued with Springfield scoring on their next three drives to bring their total before taking a knee inside the red zone to end the game.
“We have a lot of kids that are dynamic with the ball in their hands,” Cerasuolo said. “But, it was a total team effort with everyone blocking and reading the holes.”
The Pride improved to 3-1 and will travel to Worcester to take on WPI next Saturday at noon.