When Brett Huber (Milford, Conn./Foran) decided to continue his football-playing career a mere eight miles from where he caught passes at a fast and furious pace as Foran High School's go-to receiver, he started to brush up on the history of the University of New Haven football program he was about to start suiting up for. Huber also had some catching up to do when getting to know the players he would be teammates with for the next five seasons and friends for much longer than that.

Before Saturday's highly anticipated showdown between Northeast-10 Conference co-leaders Bentley and New Haven at Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium, 22 Chargers will be honored before their final regular-season home game. The list of honorees that Huber will be sharing the spotlight with include running back and fellow Connecticut native Zach Mauro (Woodbury, Conn./Nonnewaug), defensive linemen Khalim Cisse (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro), Affiz Din-Gabisi (Somerset, N.J./Franklin) and Michael Montecalvo (Green Brook, N.J./Watchung Hills Regional), offensive linemen Michael Cappuccilli (Walkill, N.Y./Wallkill) and Michael Wilson (Atlantic Highlands, N.J./Middletown South) as well as defensive back Shawn Tafe (Bronx, N.Y./Fort Hamilton) and long snapper Tommy White (Brooklyn, N.Y./Tottenville) who all arrived on campus in the summer of 2017 with different backgrounds but the same shared goal of leading New Haven to the NE10 title.

Emotions will be flying high not only during the ceremony held in their honor before kickoff but during the game between No. 9 Bentley and No. 24 New Haven. This is the game they have been waiting for since all of them made the decision to return to the football field for one more glorious ride with the Chargers.

"It is super close," Huber said of the bond between him and other players who have been with the program since 2017 or before as is the case with offensive lineman Mike Zecchin (Thiells, N.Y./North Rockland). "Me and Fiz [Din-Gabisi], Fiz is a D-lineman and I never even see Fiz at practice but we are still close as brothers and we always go to each other with everything. It is the same thing with Shawn Tafe (Bronx, N.Y./Fort Hamilton), he is one of my best friends. We have been here for five years now, we hang outside of football, we are all best of friends so it is a close-knit family and we all want to do it for each other."

New Haven didn't have a football season in 2020 due to the global pandemic but it was not a year without football. The players practiced as hard and listened to their coaches' instructions as diligently as if there were games to play each Saturday in the fall. When they wrapped up the spring practices, there were decisions to be made. The NCAA granted an extra season to eligibility across the board so if they wanted to come back, they could. There were a few departures but most of the nucleus opted to make one last run at the conference title. The Chargers are 7-1 and 6-0 in conference play as they have led the Chargers to their 11th straight winning season.

"We had some guys who didn't come back," Wilson said. "People had different reasons for staying, different reasons for leaving but if you ask any of the guys who could have walked away, there was a lot of uncertainty with COVID, it could have gone any other route. Everyone has been saying the same thing, it is one goal. We wanted to walk away with a ring, walk away with a championship and that is the reason we came back."

That chance comes on Saturday. Yes, New Haven will have a game remaining against Franklin Pierce while Bentley will wrap up the regular season by playing host to Assumption, but both sides view Saturday's 1 p.m. tilt as the game to decide the Northeast-10 title.

"I can't wait," Montecalvo said. "I have never wanted to win a game more than I want to win this one, it is definitely a real exciting week."

The Chargers' roster leads all Division II programs in the number of graduate students. Some of them including starting quarterback Connor Degenhardt (Westford, Mass./Westford Academy) and leading receiver Dev Holmes (Troy, N.Y./Troy), arrived this year but a large number of them have been with the New Haven program since they were freshmen. The experience is especially evident on the offensive and defensive lines. When the Chargers closed out last week's hard-earned win over Assumption, the entire offensive line consisted of graduate students. Before Din-Gabisi was sidelined due to injury, the starting defensive front usually consisted of Din-Gabisi, Montecalvo and Cisse. The extra time in New Haven's strength and conditioning program as well as the comfort level of playing side by side with familiar faces has paid dividends up front for the Chargers. 

"It's been good for us to kind of have some depth wherein the beginning of the season, when you look back at previous years and saw how many guys had taken snaps, it didn't look like we had a lot of depth but now we do," Wilson said. "We are rolling some guys at guard, rolling some guys at tackle so it has been beneficial later on in the season as guys get banged up for us to get different guys in and out of there and giving some guys some breaks.

"We have a lot of grad students here, it is something that has benefitted us having guys who were here in 2018 the last time we played in a so-called championship game against LIU-Post and played in the [NCAA Division II] playoffs. There is really no moment that is too big for us, we have already been in those big-time games, those moments where the games come down to the wire, it is a one-score game and it is anybody's game at that point. I think that is going to help us going forward, it is going to help us this week, the rest of the season and if we make the playoffs. It is good to have guys who you are very close with on and off the field. In those situations, you can trust each other and have each other's backs."

The play of the defensive front has played a key role as the Chargers rank ninth in Division II with eight interceptions and also rank 13th in scoring defense as well as 29th in total defense.

"I think the years we have been here together build chemistry on and off the field, playing with guys you consider your brothers," Montecalvo said. "That goes a long way in wanting to push yourself farther for them but also on the field, just knowing tendencies, who is going to do what and where we are going to be, that is great."

What hasn't been great are the past games against Bentley. The Falcons sandwiched wins in 2017 and 2019 around the Chargers' 31-27 win in 2018.

"It is definitely a different feeling around here," Wilson said. "There are a few games that feel different every year for us. They are the only [NE10] team that since I have been here, I don't have a winning record against. The guys in my class, they have had our number the last few years and that is just something a little extra that adds onto this game."

The last time Bentley and New Haven played, the Falcons took the lead on a defensive touchdown 15 seconds into the game. Bentley happens to be among the national leaders with four defensive scores as well. A key will be how the veteran New Haven players handle their emotions as they prepare for a game they have waited months and maybe even a couple of years for.

"The whole week you are trying to stay calm and everything," Huber said. "A bunch of us, all the grad guys, we had a chance to leave but for me, once we started playing spring ball here, I said, 'I can't leave, I can't.' I don't want 20 years from now to look back and say, 'I could have played my last season and now I can't.' This was the reason that I wanted to come back. We came in second in 2018 and 2019 so all the seniors, we are trying to change it around here and be in first place, be No. 1." 

Zecchin, the nine players who came on board in 2017, 2018 arrivals Calogero Caruso (Old Bridge, N.J./Old Bridge), Matt Coury (Franklin, Wis./Marquette Univ. HS), Cody Teodosio (Ansonia, Conn./Ansonia) and Jonathan Urgiles (Hackensack, N.J./Hackensack) will be joined by Hunter Addison (Baltimore, Md./Lansdowne), Jermell Brandon (Baltimore, Md./Monroe Area), Briant DeFelice (Massapequa, N.Y./Farmingdale), Kade Glenn (Jensen Beach, Fla./Jensen Beach), Josh Jackson (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Carney), Justin Mulbah (Laurel, Md./St. Vincent Pallotti), Hobbs Parisien and Jack Steinman (North Haven, Conn./North Haven) in the ceremony as they will walk onto the field accompanied by family members.

Their collective hope is to have another celebration at game's end but regardless of what the scoreboard reveals on Saturday, all the honorees have no doubts about their decision to return to New Haven for one final year.

"It definitely is going to be a little tense, there will be nerves for some people will be higher than for most games," Wilson said. "It feels different, I don't hide from that fact."

Since the start of the 2017 season, the Chargers are 29-11, 25-7 in conference play. They enjoyed an NCAA tournament appearance in 2018 and could be headed to the postseason again later this month. The only thing eluding them is that NE10 title.

"This is why we came back so it is for an opportunity to play for a championship," Montecalvo said. "We knew that was on the table, none of us who have been here for five years have done that so everybody is locked in. We know what is at stake and we are ready to go."