During the recruiting process, the hard-working University of New Haven football coaching staff will head just about anywhere in New England, in the tri-state areas and even venture down the Atlantic seaboard a bit to find the combination of talented football prospect and student-athlete that enables the Chargers to maintain their lofty standards both on the field and off.

If a trip happens to secure a future starter, that is a winning proposition. When Chris Pincince and his coaches would make the journey to Stoughton, Massachusetts, it was a little like embarking on some holiday shopping. The Chargers were able to get not one starter, but two and they happen to not only be from the same high school program but the same family as well.

Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) is the leading rusher with 209 yards for the 2-1 Chargers while his twin brother Christian, who happens to be the older of the two by a grand total of 37 minutes, is a starting cornerback who has four pass breakups in the first three contests.

After carving out roles as freshmen, the Ais brothers have moved into starting roles as sophomores.

While not playing together in college might not be a deal breaker, having been teammates in youth football and in high school, they were hoping to continue their careers at the same college.

"It helps having somebody here," Christian Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) said. "If he wasn't here with me, it would be harder, but since he is here with me, I knew I could manage."

There were veterans ahead of them when they arrived at New Haven a season ago. As the year went on, their snap counts increased and they played pivotal roles as the Chargers won the Northeast-10 title and added a win in the NCAA Division II playoffs as well.

"My expectation was to come in, just learn and take in everything so that when the time comes, I will be really ready to go," Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) said. It was just me gaining more experience."

A year ago, Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) ran for 74 yards and a touchdown while his brother Christian had a pair of interceptions in a win over Saint Anselm.

"It definitely makes them proud knowing that they have two sons playing college football and on each side of the ball, they can hear, 'Ais, Ais, Ais' and that is what I plan on having them hear," Christian said.

New Haven coach Chris Pincince said that his staff would have gladly recruited either one of them and to be able to get two starters from a tremendous family.

"I think it was their entire family that was interested in the academic portion at the University of New Haven but really mom on the visit was interested in school, a lot of questions on school, how they were going to live a structured life here going away from home," New Haven coach Chris Pincince said.

"The football talent is there, it was obvious from the time they walked in here. They both have done a wonderful job of assimilating themselves to college, grasping the time management of it all. We anticipate great things in the next few years."

Christopher knew he was going to be a running game option for the Chargers.

For Christian, he almost joined his brother on the offensive side of the ball.

"I didn't tell anybody this but I actually wanted to come in as a receiver," Christian said. "I switched to defense, I like defense a lot more."

After a memorable debut season for the brothers both from an individual and team standpoint, they knew that the Chargers were losing key contributors at their positions. This offseason was all about putting themselves in position to take on a larger workload.

"We took a big loss with one of our cornerbacks," Christian said. "I knew I was going to have to fill some big shoes. Every day in the summer I was working hard training to make sure I could be even better than him, I knew I had to step up."

Pincince joked that the brothers worked on playing catch during their time back home because Christopher looks much more comfortable catching the ball than he did a season ago. However, it was another part of the passing game that Christopher knew he had to work on even more.

"My offseason was just thinking about the most important thing, pass pro[tection]," he said. "Knowing who to block, knowing how to read holes and that was what I was focusing on."

This is the fourth set of brothers and third set of twins who have played at New Haven during the time when Pincince has been coaching here. While they are twins, they have different emotions and unique mindsets when it comes to football.

"They are really quiet, introverted kids and both a little bit different in their own way," Pincince said. "If we didn't have talented players at running back and at defensive back, both could have been starting, both accepted their roles last year."

Their role right now is to try to help New Haven repeat as Northeast-10 champions. New Haven could take a huge step in that direction with a win at Bentley on Friday night. The NE10 title came down to a New Haven-Bentley showdown at DellaCamera Stadium in 2021 and the Chargers know Bentley will be ready for some retribution.

"They already know that we took NE10 champs from them, they are going to come down and not going to take it lightly," Christopher said. "We all have to come down and be prepared, it is going to be a really good game. We all know that."

Bentley and New Haven are first and second in the Northeast-10 in total offense. The Falcons are averaging 404.7 yards per game compared to 362.3 for New Haven. They are also the top two teams in the conference in total defense so this could be a special night for not just the Ais brothers but for both teams.