PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – It may have been after dark just north of New York City, but the lights were shining bright on junior Kha'lil Eason (Norwalk, Conn./Brunswick School) and he made the Pace Setters pay with a pair of 90+ yard returns to the house leading the New Haven football team to a 47-17 victory on Friday night at Northwell Stadium. With the win, New Haven improves to 1-1 overall and will return home to make its debut at Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium on Saturday, opening up Northeast-10 Conference play against Franklin Pierce. Kickoff against the Ravens is set for 1:00 p.m. on Family Day in West Haven.

"We were able to play a whole bunch of guys again," said head coach Chris Pincince. "Two weeks in a row we went in with the philosophy of playing two-deep on offense and defense. Obviously the special teams is a huge factor of what we did there, but I am most proud of the fact that we had another 12-18 kids who played in their first or second collegiate football game tonight."

A Nutmeg State native, Eason closed out his night with a school record 231 return yards, which came on four returns, taking two into the endzone. His 231 yards was two more than Terrell Ford racked up back in 2022 against American International which set the previous record.

"He's (Kha'lil) going to get all the accolades," continued Pincince. "He's going to be player of the week in the league, he's going to be player of the week in the country, but its probably the 10 guys up front that deserve the credit. Kha'lil is dynamic with the ball in his hands, he does a great job in the open field, but I bet if you watch that back I don't recall him having to break more than one arm tackle each time."

Offensively, it was the running game that produced the majority of the offense, with seven different players racking up a total of 241 yards, led by Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) who finished with 120 yards on 15 attempts, completing his ninth career game with 100+ yards on the ground. Zaon Laney (Hoboken, N.J./Rahway) followed with 47 yards while two other players finished with 20+, Justin Felder (Hollis, N.Y./Holy Cross HS) and Jayden Shwed (Hawthorne, N.J./Hawthorne).

Graduate quarterback Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) finished an efficient night with 124 yards, completing 8-of-12 pass attempts with a pair of touchdowns. Menard found both Mikey Caines (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) and Shwed for scores, with Caines leading all receivers with three catches for a total of 66 yards.

Defensively, Chris Campbell (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) led the Chargers with eight total tackles, including a sack. As a unit, the Chargers turned Pace over three times including a pair of interceptions, both finding the hands of Jalen Fisher (Pasadena, Calif./Chaminade College Prep). The defensive depth showed for New Haven as 24 different players all finished with at least one tackle. Overall, the Chargers finished with six tackles for loss, five of which were sacks.

After surrendering just a single yard on the opening drive of the game on defense, the Chargers offense came out showing off the run game taking to the ground for their first seven offensive plays, racking up 45 yards total in that span. Among those seven plays was a 21-yard scamper for Zaon Laney (Hoboken, N.J./Rahway), one of three players to run the ball in that stretch.

After a four-yard run from Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) set the Chargers up with first and goal, the Blue and Gold took their first attempt in the air on second down with quarterback Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) finding Jayden Shwed (Hawthorne, N.J./Hawthorne) in the right corner where he stretched out to push the ball over the line for the first score of the night.

After Pace evened the score at seven on the ensuing drive, Eason would give the large contingent of Charger fans to make the drive something to cheer about. After juggling the ball initially, he recovered and found the hole in the middle of the field, sprinting 96 yards to regain the lead.

After showing off on the ground in the opening drive and on the return from Eason, the Chargers changed the strategy up, turning to its passing game in the second quarter. Facing third and long, Menard displayed his arm found Logan Schmidt (Carlise, Pa./Big Spring) for 47 yards to set his offense up with a new set of downs at the Pace 12.

Following a pair of runs from Laney that racked up 11 yards and put the ball on the one yard line, Menard capped off the drive with a dive over the line to put New Haven ahead 21-14. Pace added a field goal midway through the second quarter to put the margin at 21-17 going into the locker room at the break.

Eason didn't let rest of halftime slow him up, coming out of the intermission to run back the opening kick-off, this time 94 yards, sparking a rally of 18 points in the first five minutes of the second half.

After forcing Pace into a quick three-and-out on the next drive, Chima Opara (Marlton, N.J./Cherokee) snuck into the backfield on the punt attempt deflecting the kick where Liam Godwin (Cranford, N.J./Cranford) scooped up the loose ball returning it 11 yards to set the Chargers up deep in the red zone. It would take just one play to cap off the scoring drive with Menard again jumping over the line for his second rushing TD of the night.

The defense came up clutch again forcing the Setters to a three-and-out, this time thanks in part to a six-yard sack from Chris Campbell (Staten Island, N.Y./Tottenville) and Davon Colon (Cromwell, Conn./Xavier). With the New Haven drive starting at its own 31 yard line, it took just three handoffs to Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) to complete another scoring drive, the last of which he broke through the right side and up the sideline 53 yards to tack on another six points.

The Chargers would add another touchdown and a two-point conversion before the quarter came to a close, with all four touchdowns in the period coming within the first nine minutes of action. The final score of the night for the Blue and Gold came on another deep ball from Menard, this time around finding Mikey Caines (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) in the middle of the field with the senior wideout completing the catch and run for 20 yards. Menard would follow that up with one more completion on the play, completing the two-point conversion to set the final margin of 47-17.