Football Wins Second Straight, Now 2-0 in Northeast Conference Play
Blue Devils return home to host Sacred Heart next Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Central Connecticut football team won its eighth straight Northeast Conference game with a 48-14 win on the road at Bryant on Saturday afternoon. The win pushes the Blue Devils to 4-3 overall and 2-0 in NEC action this season. Bryant falls to 4-2 overall and 2-1 in league action.
The Blue Devil offense produced another huge day, after starting slowly on Saturday. Down 14-0, Central scored 48 unanswered points to claim their third victory in the last four games. The 104 points in the last two games are the most in a two-game stretch since the 2006 season.
Senior quarterback Jacob Dolegala rushed for three touchdowns and threw for another, while rushing for 78 yards and throwing for another 225 yards while finishing 14-of-20 on the day. He started 2-of-7 with an interception and finished the game completing 12 of his final 13 passes. Junior running back Drew Jean-Guillaume rushed for a career-high 203 yards in the game to go along with one touchdown.
The offense rushed for 442 yards, the second-highest single game total in school history and the most since 462 vs. St. Francis U in 2006. They had 667 yards of total offense, nearly matching the school-record total of 699 set last week. The 667 would have been a school-record just one week ago.
The defense came up huge, allowing just seven points, coming on the first drive of the game. The other seven came on an interception return for a touchdown. They allowed only 292 total yards and forced a pair of turnovers.
Bryant got on the board first on their opening drive, taking a 7-0 lead after a six-yard touchdown run by Isaac McCray. The lead reached 14-0 with 5:37 left in the first quarter when Eulogio Portugal intercepted a Jake Dolegala pass inside the red zone and took it 98-yards for a touchdown.
The Blue Devils cut the lead to 14-6 on the third rushing touchdown of the season from Dolegala. It capped an 8-play, 72-yard drive following the Bryant defensive score. The PAT was blocked.
Dolegala led the Blue Devils to their next score, picking up a first down with a long rush and then hitting classmate Courtney Rush for a season-high 61-yard touchdown pass to cut the Bryant lead to 14-13 halfway through the second quarter. Central took its first lead with 1:51 left in the second quarter on a 7-yard run from sophomore Aaron Dawson. The run capped a 10-play, 71-yard drive that took 5:33 off the clock.
As time was running out on the first half, Bryant drove to the one yardline but senior Tymir Hinton sacked quarterback Price Wilson, causing a fumble, and sophomore Michon Hunt recovered for the turnover.
The Blue Devil lead reached 28-14 on the second rushing touchdown of the game for Dolegala. This time it came from 8-yards out and took 9-plays and 69-yards. The two point conversion rush from senior Jose Garcia was good and the Blue Devils had the 14-point lead with under two minutes to play in the third quarter.
Jean-Guillaume scored from 21-yards out to open the fourth quarter and the Blue Devil lead reached 34-14 with 11:26 left in the fourth quarter. The drive went 6-plays and 99-yards, highlighted by 113 yards on the ground from Jean-Guillaume. He was penalized 15 yards for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty negating a long scoring run earlier in the drive.
The Blue Devils ended the game with touchdown runs from Dolegala and sophomore Danley Exilhomme.
Defensively the Blue Devils were led by D.J. Exilhomme who had seven tackles, and six each for sophomore Tre Jones, junior Troy Vasilescu, senior Kevin Loschiavo and senior Kenneth Keen. Junior Grant Ibeh had four pass break-ups to lead the secondary.
The Blue Devils return home for the first time in five weeks next week hosting Sacred Heart at Homecoming beginning at 1 p.m.