Rowan University Football played Salve Regina last Saturday, losing 50-35 after a strong first-half. 

“After looking at the film and thinking a little bit about it, man, we played such a good first half,” Head Coach Jay Accorsi said. 

Rowan quickly gained a 28-3 lead in the second quarter. According to Coach Accorsi, the contributing factor to their strong early performance was the team’s mentality. 

“I think we just played … we didn’t worry about so many things,” Coach Accorsi said. “I thought our energy was great.”

Captain and senior linebacker, Tim Hutchison, echoed similar thoughts.

“Everything just seemed to be working. We were riding high. We had a lot of energy and a lot of momentum,” Hutchinson said. “We fed off of each other and we were just playing great football.”

Rowan led 35-16 at the end of the first half and then had to hang onto that lead for the final 30 minutes of play.

Rowan has been outscored 35-7 in the second halves of their games twice. The team entered this second half with a chance to change the narrative surrounding their late game struggles, but fell victim once again, being outscored by Salve Regina 34-0.

“Too many mistakes were being made,” Hutchison said. “ Everyone [needs to] do their job no matter what the circumstances. That’s what we’ve got to do for four quarters of football.”

Just as Coach Accorsi said regarding the first half, the team’s mentality played a large role in their collapse. 

“I think it was a combination of a couple of different things,” Accorsi said. “They played better. We didn’t play as well. Then I think we just started to panic … and you just can’t afford to do that.”

Now as the dust settles from the loss, Coach Accorsi is focused on the positive takeaways and how to apply them moving forward into conference play.

“I didn’t think, this year, we could play that well of a [first] half. So, I think that’s the bright spot. Now it’s…  how do we maintain that consistency and how do we get them comfortable to play a really good second half?”

While the loss stings for Hutchison, he says the team is focused and will learn from this experience. 

“As much as it hurts, let it hurt. But we’ve got a job to do and that is these next six games coming up. It’s in conference and it’s time to get the job done,” Hutchison said. “We know what we’re capable of and I think moving forward we all kind of know what the job is and we’re up for the task.”

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