Football Heads to Sacred Heart for Conference Tilt
Central Connecticut heads to Sacred Heart for an in-state Northeast Conference contest on Saturday at Campus Field. The 1:00 p.m. kickoff features a matchup of the past two league champions.
Fans are permitted to attend games at SHU, while masking and social distancing are highly encouraged.
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TODAY'S GAME • The Blue Devils begin a stretch of six Northeast Conference games by taking the road to face Sacred Heart on Saturday at 1 p.m. Central is 1-0 in NEC play to begin the season, while the Pioneers are 1-1.
TIME OF POSSESSION • The Blue Devils control the ball for an average of 36:17 per game, which leads the Northeast Conference and the nation in the NCAA FCS football subdivision. CCSU held the ball for a season-high 53:51 in the season-opener against Southern Connecticut. Central had the ball for just 26:19 in its win at Wagner - a season-low.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS • Despite only making his first start this season, Romelo Williams has settled in to the role of QB1 being just the third starting quarterback since 2016 at CCSU. Williams went 24-of-38 for 279 yards with two touchdowns and an interception in his first start and was the first CCSU quarterback to complete more than 20 passes since Jake Dolegala on Oct. 20, 2018. He has eight touchdowns against three interceptions, while completing 55% of his pass attempts for 1050 yards. He went 29-of-51 against Columbia, marking the most attempts in a game by a CCSU quarterback since Jacob Dolegala went 31-of-51 against Bryant on Sept. 24, 2016.
IT'S BEEN AWHILE • Following its win at Wagner on Sept. 11, Central has not lost a Northeast Conference game since November 17, 2018, a streak of eight games. CCSU went unbeaten during the 2019 season (7-0) against league opponents and last dropped a conference game in the final game of 2018, 38-31 at Duquesne.
CONFERENCE PLAY • CCSU opened its conference slate with a win on the road at Wagner and is a league-best 18-2 since 2017 in NEC play. The Blue Devils finished 7-0 in Northeast Conference play in 2019 after posting a 6-0 mark in 2017 and a 4-2 record in 2018. CCSU became the first NEC team to win seven league games in 2019 since both Wagner and Albany finished 7-1 in 2012.
APPLYING PRESSURE • Senior Kelvin Apari is among the CCSU and NEC defensive leaders. He is second on the team with 35.0 tackles, which ranks 5th in the league. He also leads CCSU with 3.5 sacks, which ranks 2nd in the NEC, and has a league-best 9.5 tackles for loss. Apari had a season-best 14.0 tackles against Columbia, which included 1.5 sacks and 4.0 TFL.
BOOMING BLUE DEVIL • Freshman Aidan Clark has been strong in the punting game for CCSU. He ranks fifth in the Northeast Conference, averaging 37.1 yards per punt, while putting seven kicks inside the 20. He has a long of 60 yards that he boomed at Wagner. Against Miami, he put four punts inside the 20 and ripped off three kicks of at least 50 yards, including a long of 58 yards.
DOLEGALAS ARE A BLUE DEVIL FAMILY • Sophomore Jadd Dolegala is the third member of his family to suit up for CCSU. After beginning his career on the defensive line he moved to tight end this season and scored his first career touchdown vs. Columbia. His older brothers Jarrett (2016-17) and Jake (2015-18) played together for two seasons at Central. Jarrett made seven catches in 21 contests during his career, while Jake left school as the all-time leader in passing yardage and touchdowns, becoming just the fifth quarterback in league history to throw for over 8,000 yards. He threw for 48 career touchdowns. He set the school-record with 2,934 passing yards as a sophomore in 2016, completing 258-of-432 passes while throwing only nine interceptions. He also rushed for 452 yards in his career, including 18 touchdowns. Jake has been on three NFL rosters (Bengals, Patriots, Packers) since leaving campus in 2018.
UP NEXT • Central is back at Arute Field for a 12 p.m. kickoff against LIU.
