Springfield, MA --- A 24-0 first quarter start helped the Springfield football team on Saturday afternoon at Stagg Field.  

The Engineers avoided a shutout with a touchdown pass to Jay Mezzo (Naugatuck, CT) from Dante Coccagnia (East Syracuse, NY) in the fourth quarter, but the Engineers fell to 2-5 on the year (0-3 NEWMAC). Springfield improves to 5-2 (3-0 NEWMAC). 

Springfield outgained WPI 445-194, including a 265-65 edge on the ground, where they had three players gain 50+ yards rushing. Joseph Cannizzaro (Lincoln Park, NJ) scored two rushing touchdowns for Springfield and averaged 8.0 yards on just seven carries. Quarterback David Wells (Huntington, CT) threw just six passes, completing four of them, with two of them going for touchdowns. 

Coccagnia went 20-32 for 129 yards and the touchdown, though he did throw a pair of interceptions as well. Hunter Carey (South Hadley, MA) rushed for 56 yards to lead the Engineer's ground attack.  

WPI won the time of possession battle, but went just 3-12 on third down while the Pride were 6-11 on third down and turned WPI over three times with two picks and a forced fumble. 

Tyler Pohlman (St. James, NY) intercepted Coccagnia on the first play of the game to set up  kicker Christian Hutra (Homes, NY), who got the Pride on the board with a 34-yard field goal off the turnover. 

On the next Springfield possession, Wells found Dante Vasquez (Rockland, MA) for a 64-yard touchdown pass to make it 10-0 in favor of the home team. 

Cannizzaro found the end zone for the first time with a 36-yard scamper at 2:22 of the first quarter, and Springfield go the ball back again less than a minute later when Billy Carr (Plantsville, CT) forced a fumble from Coccagnia, which was pounced on by Springfield's Aidan Lewin (Orlando, FL). Four plays later, Jacob Silvester (Lancaster, MA) scored from 19 yards out. 

After a high-scoring first quarter, the Pride found the end zone just once in each of the next three frames. Cannizzaro punched it in from one yard out to make it 31-0 at the half.

Blane Hart (East Lyme, CT) accounted for the other two Springfield touchdowns. In the third quarter, he took a 45-yard pass from Wells to make it 38-0. After the Engineers found the end zone on a 6-yard pass to Mezzo and an extra point by Brock Dubey (Dudley, MA), Hart capped a 9 play, 71 yard drive with a 5-yard run to finish out the scoring for the afternoon. 

Evan Wertz (Franklin, MA) piled up 7 solo tackles, while Joey LeClerc (Raynham, MA) had four tackles, including the only tackle for a loss on the day for WPI.

Carr led the Pride with 9 tackles, including one sack and the forced fumble. Pohlman added six solo tackles to go with his interception. 

WPI returns home for a showdown against Norwich next Saturday at noon.  Springfield is at Merchant Marine the same day at 1pm.