Beverly, Mass. - November 19, 2022 - The Springfield College football team powered its way past Endicott, 17-14, in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
Springfield has now strung together eight-consecutive victories to improve to 9-2 and advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship Second Round for the first time since 2006. The Gulls, ranked No. 22 in the most recent D3football.com National Poll, suffered its first loss of the season to fall to 10-1. With the win, Springfield will next play at No. 10 Ithaca on next Saturday.
Competing in back-to-back national tournaments for the first time since 2002-03, Springfield held the ball for 35:32 in the contest as it totaled 371 yards of offense, including 321 on the ground. Arsen Shtefan (West Hartford, Conn.) carried the ball 23 times for 156 yards and a score as he led a fullback group that combined for 47 carries and 257 yards. Defensively, Will McKay (Tewksbury, Mass.) made seven tackles, including two sacks, while DJ Brown (Wading River, N.Y.) and Aiden Lewin (Orlando, Fla.) added seven stops of their own. Christian Hutra (Holmes, N.Y.) converted a 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter as he set the program's single-season mark for field goals with 11, which had been held by John Welling in 1985.
On the opening drive in the first-ever meeting between the two schools, Endicott forced a fumble to turn the Pride over as Springfield coughed the ball up for just the fourth time this season. The Pride's defense would step up and get Endicott off the field in three plays, and Springfield's offense would strike 2:49 later as Shtefan powered in from two yards out with 6:31 on the clock. The score was set up by a 50-yard strike through the air as Armando Torres (San Juan, Puerto Rico) connected with Noah Wagnblas (Ansonia, Conn.). That would prove to be the only scoring in the first half, despite Springfield outgaining Endicott by a 214-52 margin as the Pride possessed the ball for 20:40 and held the Gulls to 1-of-6 on third down.
The Gulls struck first just 2:06 into the second half as Clayton Marengi found Shane Aylward for a 53-yard strike down the middle of the field to knot the game up at 7-7. Springfield answered right back with a 13-play drive that took 6:31 off the clock and covered 83 yards. On third down from inside Endicott's 10 yard line, Blane Hart (East Lyme, Conn.) found the edge on the left side and scampered into the end zone to put the Pride up 14-7 with 6:22 left in the third. Endicott would respond with a 14-play drive that chewed up nearly 10 minutes off the clock, but the Pride's special teams came up in a huge spot, as Joe Burke (Sussex, N.J.) got his hand on a 35-yard field goal attempt to keep the hosts off the scoreboard.
After the Pride's next drive ended in a 48-yard Hutra punt, an Endicott illegal block backed the hosts inside their own 15 yard line. The Pride got off the field in three plays, and a 28 yard Endicott punt allowed the Pride to take over from the Gulls 40 yard line. Hutra would later make it a two-score game with a 33-yarder through the uprights with 7:25 left in regulation.
On their next drive, Endicott covered 80 yards in 13 plays, converting a pair of fourth down conversions before Marengi found Jaeden Baxter for a 27-yard strike down the right side with under two minutes to play. However, Shtefan would come up in another key spot, recovering the onside kick, before producing runs of 10 and 25 yards to seal the victory.