Senior quarterback Joe Seccareccia tied a school record by throwing his 31st career touchdown pass and it proved pivotal as the Husson University Eagles outlasted Becker College from Worcester, Massachusetts, 49-30 in an Eastern Collegiate Football Conference game at the Winkin Complex on Saturday afternoon.
Seccareccia’s 25-yard screen pass to John Smith with 4:14 remaining supplied the Eagles with a 12-point cushion in a wild affair that saw the two teams combine for 923 total yards.
Bangor’s Seccareccia completed 24-of-35 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns and ran for two more scores.
Sophomore running back Smith rushed for 197 yards on 39 carries including a 70-yard TD scamper. He also had the one important catch for the touchdown. Deon Wiggins caught nine passes for 82 yards and a TD and Joe Farrell also snared a TD pass among his four receptions. Jalen Evans-Ashton had four catches.
Husson improved to 4-1 overall with its fourth straight win. Husson is 3-0 in the ECFC.
Sophomore Nas Sinkfield-Shelton completed 23 of 42 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns for the Hawks, who are now 3-3 and 1-2. DeJahn Dawkins caught eight balls for 200 yards including three for touchdowns. Ryan McCarthy and Matthew Romasco combined for nine more catches. Sinkfield-Shelton also ran for a TD.
Dawkins caught a 10-yard TD pass from Sinkfield-Shelton with 7:05 left to cut the deficit to 35-30 but the Eagles responded with a six-play, 60-yard drive featuring a 22-yard run by Smith and the 25-yard screen pass.
“(Seccareccia) got flushed out of the pocket, threw a nice screen pass to John and John made a great run. There was also great blocking,” said Husson head coach Gabby Price.
Seccareccia added a one-yard run with 27 seconds remaining.
“It was a great game. Becker is the most improved team in the league,” said Price. “Their quarterback is a very good player and their receiver (Dawkins) was a terrific player. We knew they were good on offense. Our guys played hard and made stops when they needed to.”
He also said Seccareccia, who tied David Chase’s career record, had a great day after “having his best week in practice since he’s been here.
“And I was really impressed with how we caught the ball. We dropped one ball, maybe two, the whole game,” said Price whose team amassed 514 total yards to Becker’s 409.
Robenson Saintard’s 17-yard run opened the scoring before Dawkins answered with a 70-yard TD reception. Wiggins caught an eight-yard TD pass, Jacob Holmes kicked a 31-yard field goal for Becker and Farrell caught an 18-yarder to give Husson a 21-10 lead at the half.
Dawkins opened the second half with a 33-yard TD reception from Sinkfield-Shelton, Seccareccia scored on a seven-yard run, Sinkfield-Shelton had a one-yard run and Smith rattled off his 70-yarder to make it 35-24 with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter.
Bryant Wade, Jean Gabriel and Rick Orio were in on eight tackles apiece for Husson and linebacker Ellis Throckmorton of Bangor was in on six and set the school record for assisted tackles with 77. Josh Lawrence, Nicholas Sherman and Davin Collins led Becker with 14, 11 and 10 tackles, respectively.
Western New England 58, Maine Maritime Academy 35
At Castine, undefeated Western New England erased a 14-7 deficit by scoring 44 unanswered points en route to its victory over Maine Maritime Academy.
Western New England, now 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the New England Football Conference, ran up 568 yards of total offense while the 1-4 Mariners (0-3 NEFC) tallied 509 yards.
Graduate student quarterback Tyler Ward completed seven of 14 passes for 124 yards and four touchdowns and he also ran for a game-high 159 yards on 14 carries and a TD.
Junior Nick Connell ran for 142 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. His TD runs of two and 59 yards gave WNE a 21-14 halftime lead and triggered the string of 44 unanswered points.
Terrence N’Dabian, Collin Cioffi, Mohamed Camara and Mark Dietrich all caught TD passes and Kevin Degnan ran for one.
Dietrich’s three-yard reception, Ward’s 42-yard run and N’Dabian’s 60-yard reception came in a span of just 5:46 in the third period to build the lead to 42-14.
James Ferrar ran for 133 yards on 11 carries for MMA, quarterback Michael Fahey churned out 84 yards on 15 carries and ran for two TDs and Joe DiBiase contributed 78 yards on 16 attempts.
Fahey completed four of 10 passes for 77 yards and a TD. Derek Breunig caught two TD passes, one from Fahey and one from Corey Creeger and Kaleb Brown scored on a five-yard run.
Sam Olsson was in on 13 tackles for the Golden Bears and Kevin McLaughlin had 10 tackles and a forced fumble.
Bangor’s Cody Chapman had 12 tackles for MMA and Hampden’s Jeddy Doyon had 10 along with a pass breakup. Matt Clifford forced a fumble and had an interception.