PHOTO GALLERY

RINDGE, N.H. - The program's first Northeast-10 Conference championship in nearly a decade had already been secure before the members of the University of New Haven football team made the three-hour bus ride for Saturday's regular-season finale.

If the Chargers had still been basking in the glow of last week's win over nationally ranked Bentley and weren't completely ready to roll against a winless Franklin Pierce team, it would have been understandable. However, the chance to post a perfect run through the NE10 for the first time since 2012 and perhaps secure a home game when the NCAA Division II playoff field is announced on Sunday was enough to keep the New Haven players focused on the task at hand.

It wasn't an artistic masterpiece but New Haven, ranked 19th in the American Football Coaches Association Division II poll, picked up the 34-20 win to finish the regular season at 9-1 and 8-0 in conference play.

"I am happy for everyone especially Coach P [New Haven football coach Chris Pincince]," UNH senior center Mike Zecchin (Thiells, N.Y./North Rockland) said. "He has been here for eight/nine years now, the first time he won the conference and went undefeated. When COVID hit, we kind of knew that this was the goal at the end of the 2021 season. We just worked every day tirelessly in the winter of 2020, during the summer of 2021 and now we kind of put it all together during the year. I am just happy we were able to come out as undefeated conference champs, it has a nice ring to it. We will see what is in store for us."

What was in store for a Franklin Pierce team that is much better than its 0-10 record would indicate is a physical running attack.

The Chargers were coming off a 286-yard rushing performance against Bentley and followed that up by rumbling for 269 yards against the Ravens. It was the first time the Chargers posted back-to-back games with more than 250 rushing since contests against Pace and Saint Anselm in 2012.

Jake Conlan (West Haven, Conn./Trinity-Pawling) led the way on Saturday with 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) nearly joined him as a 100-yard rusher before finishing with 91 yards. Zach Mauro (Woodbury, Conn./Nonnewaug) got New Haven's running game going early in the game before Conlan and then Ais continued to pile up yards running behind the Chargers' physical offensive line.

"These guys haven't played football in almost two years up front, we had to find out what we were," Pincince said. "We watched the first game of the season because we played Franklin Pierce (in a non-conference game). We used that in our game plan and saw how bad we were in that first game. Hopefully, we will watch the film of this one and we were a little bit better.

"We have grad students up front but we didn't have a ton of experience {on the offensive line] so it took a little bit of time to get going and we are excited that we were able to run the football like that the last two weeks."

Franklin Pierce took the lead on the first drive of the game on Ty Drinan's season-long 39-yard field goal. Mauro's 37-yard run on New Haven's first possession led to Briant DeFelice's (Massapequa, N.Y./Farmingdale) 20-yard field goal.

Shawn Tafe (Bronx, N.Y./Fort Hamilton) had an interception on the Ravens' next drive to give the New Haven offense the ball at the 25. The short drive ended with Conlan's 4-yard touchdown run. DeFelice added a 23-yard field goal as New Haven led 13-3 with 9:45 to play in the second quarter. After another field goal brought the Ravens within seven points, Christopher Ais' (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) blocked punt late in the first half led to Conlan's 6-yard touchdown with 36 seconds left after he bounced off a would-be tackler at the line of scrimmage to give the Chargers a 20-6 lead.

The passing game came up with a couple of big plays in the second half as Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) threw touchdown passes of 28 yards and 36 yards to Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy). Franklin Pierce didn't go away as EJ Burgess had a 44-yard touchdown catch and added a 3-yard touchdown run but the Chargers were able to keep the host Ravens from spoiling their perfect conference record.  

"It was a challenge to come up here and finish the season after what we accomplished last week, making a long trip and playing in this environment," Pincince said. "Obviously, we didn't play our best football game but I am excited that we got the win."

It was an exciting day for Conlan, a West Haven native who stepped in when Shamar Logan (Brooklyn, N.Y./Erasmus Hall High School) was unable to play and Mauro needed to come out of the game.

"The offensive line worked hard all week, we practiced our schemes and they were holding up for me to get one on one coverage on the outside and inside," Conlan said.

New Haven needed all of its remarkable running back depth on Saturday with Conlan and Ais handling the duties after a strong start by Mauro.

"We push each other every single day at practice," Conlan said. "Coach [Pincince] tells us to make sure everybody is ready to get in because you don't know when somebody is going to get hurt or when you are going to go in so we prepared every single week to make sure everybody is on point with the schemes.

"This is probably the best place I have ever been with a group of guys and this coaching staff. I am happy I have been here with this group of guys and looking forward to continuing with what we have so far."

The next step will be revealed when the playoff pairings are announced. Kutztown, Shepherd and Notre Dame (OH) started the weekend ahead of New Haven in the Super Region One rankings while New Haven and Bentley checked in at No. 4 and 5. All five teams won so there won't be a shakeup in that region for the selection committee to deal with.

Among the teams in the AFCA national poll, No. 10 Slippery Rock, No. 13 Henderson State 

Devonte Myles (Yonkers, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) led the defense with nine tackles and he had a pass breakup in the end zone. Tafe and Jonathan Ogungbenro (Cliffwood, N.J./Matawan) had interceptions giving the Chargers 17 interceptions this season. The defense held Burgess, who came into the game leading the Northeast-10 in rushing yards per game, to 50 yards on the ground although he did add 74 yards on three catches.