Football starts “new season” with conference play on the horizon

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Rowan in a game against Widener earlier this year. Photo / Multimedia Editor Christian A Browne

The Profs fell to an overall score of 0-3 this past weekend when they lost to Hobart College in upstate New York.

They had a 17-3 lead in the third quarter but lost on a last second field goal for a final score of 20-17.

This was a heartbreaking loss for the Profs given that they will head into their bye week winless. 

The bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. The next time Rowan hits the field, it will be their first conference game of the season.

The Profs get a week off to rest and really get in the right frame of mind before heading into the second part of the season.

Realistically, the Profs are in a great place. The first three games of the season, the Profs played some great teams: two ranked teams and a much better Widener team than we’ve seen over the years.

They were tested. 

“We separated the season into two seasons,” Head Coach Accorsi said. “The out of conference season and the in conference season. The nice part about the out of conference season is it doesn’t matter about the conference and we played some pretty good teams also. Right now, we’re 0-0 and we get to start over.”

The Profs get to start over against 3-0 Wesley College in Delaware. It will be a tough game but Rowan played three tough games already to start the season.

It stands to reason that they’ll be ready for a challenge.

The common trend with the Profs is that defense hasn’t played up to par, especially in the second half. They have given up a total of 52 points so far just in the second half in three games.

The effects of this statistic were evident in the blown 3rd quarter lead against Hobart. 

“Hobart made some great catches,” Accorsi said. “They beat us on the 50/50 balls too. We have to finish teams. We haven’t been able to do that. We haven’t played complete games so far this season.” 

If the Profs stayed strong all four quarters in these first three games, they could be 2-1 right now heading into conference play.

“These past three games we have been so close,” co-captain and linebacker Anthony LaRosa said. “We have to start finishing strong. We all have the same goal. We all want to win. At the beginning of the season, we wrote on the board ‘NJAC champs’. If we all work really hard, we believe we can do that. We have a second chance here with the rest of the games being conference games. If we work really hard, we believe we can do it.”

If the Profs can clean up the mistakes and finish games, the school could see a different team in the second half of the season.

They’ll hit the gridiron again Oct. 5 in Dover, DE against Wesley College at 1 p.m.

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