The Brown and Gold took down William Patterson University this past weekend 21-14 in a long fought game that was a defensive battle. 

Rowan didn’t throw the ball as much, with only 11 attempts from Michael Husni. They kept the ball on the ground with 27 attempts from Husni and Messiah Divine. The game was slow in the first half but Rowan got it going in the second half offensively. 

“I guess you go with the flow of the game,” said head coach Jay Accorsi. “We didn’t have a lot of possessions in the first half. In the second half, it was 21-7 and you want to slow the game down quite a bit so you don’t want to throw the ball as much.”     

Sophomore linebacker Mike Mascioli lead the team in tackles with 14, 11 solo, and came up with a late game interception that gave the Profs their second win of the season. 

“I read pass first and saw the slant coming,” Mascioli said. “Then I saw Gator getting to the quarterback so he would have to throw it or take the sack. Last second he threw it right to me so it was pretty easy.”

Mascioli has won New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) Player of the Week, just like Sunny Tapp did two weeks ago. 

“It’s definitely a great honor to get player of the week,” Mascioli said. “I know Sunny won it two weeks ago so hopefully we can keep it going.”

Other then the Salisbury game, this Rowan defense has only given up an average of 18 points per game in the last four games. You can see the difference on the field from game one to game seven. Within the last three weeks, Rowan has had two NJAC players of the week and two victories. You saw an offensive explosion and this past win thanks to the defense.

“It comes down to consistency. Everyday we go out to practice and practice hard with a lot of emotions,” Mascioli said. “Even though we took that tough loss to Salisbury, we stuck together and we keep playing for each other. Most importantly, we keep playing for the seniors as we are trying to win out for them.”

The Profs will be back home this weekend to take on NJAC opponent Montclair State. They both have had similar seasons playing the same opponents like Wesley and Hobart. Rowan has played both teams close but lost. 

“Montclair is a lot like us,” Accorsi said. “We had similar opponents. They just lost to Wesley in overtime. We lost to Wesley by a point. They like to run the football and set up the pass, which is what we do. They always had a very good tough noise hard defense like ours. It’s going to come down to running the football and throwing it a little more than we did this past Saturday.” 

It’s going to be a fun one at Richard Wacker Stadium this Saturday.

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