WALTHAM, Mass. – There wasn't much the Bentley defense could to stop the Chargers running game on Saturday as the Blue and Gold broke through for 406 yards on the ground enroute to a 45-34 victory over the Falcons at Peter Yetten Field. With the win, New Haven improves to 3-1 on the season and 2-0 in the Northeast-10 Conference while handing the Falcons their first loss in the 2024 season.
Leading the Chargers ground attack was senior Christopher Ais (Stoughton, Mass./Stoughton) who galloped his way to a career-high 238 yards, one of two players to rack up 100+ yards on the day as he was joined by junior Zaon Laney (Hoboken, N.J./Rahway) who finished with 186 yards. Combined, the pair also accounted for a trio of touchdowns with a pair from Ais and one for Laney.
"I just felt really good today," said Ais. "All the credit goes to the o-line. They were working crazy hard today, opening up holes for me and Laney. So all the credit to them. I told myself we don't lost to Bentley so I better show up and that's exactly what I did."
The 200+ outing for Ais is the first time since the 2015 season a Charger has run for 200 or more yards, the last being Andre Anderson against Saint Anselm. It is also the first time since that same game that the Chargers have run for 400 or more yards combined.
Overall, New Haven racked up 538 total yards with graduate quarterback Daelen Menard (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Chaminade Madonna) adding 132 passing yards going 11-of-22, slinging three touchdowns. The 538 yards is the most since the 2022 campaign when they Chargers finished with 558 against crosstown rival Southern Connecticut.
Menard relied on six different receivers for the day, with Mikey Caines (Maplewood, N.J./Columbia) collecting four passes for 64 yards and a pair of touchdowns while redshirt freshman Evan Chieca (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst), a back-up tight end, hauled in his first career touchdown on a seven-yard completion in the corner of the endzone. Logan Schmidt (Carlise, Pa./Big Spring) also finished with 45 yards on three catches.
"I thought that we played very hard but we have tons of room for improvement still," said head coach Chris Pincince. "We don't take for granted winning here, it's not an easy feat."
On the running game, coach Pincince continued, "It was impressive. We played probably another eight or nine guys on the line, but the two guys with the ball in their hands, if they're not the two best running backs in this conference, then I don't know who is."
New Haven put the first points on the board as Ais was the first to find the end zone, capping off a seven-play, 42-yard drive with a six-yard rushing score and the Chargers never looked back from that point on, taking a 21-14 lead into the first quarter break. Ais and Caines would provide the next two scores, the second one form Ais, which made it 14-7, he sprinted 60 yards to the house on the only play needed in what amounted to a 12 second scoring drive. Caines first TD of the day followed that as Menard went back-to-back with completions of 18 yards to Logan Schmidt (Carlise, Pa./Big Spring) and 34 yards down the middle of the field for Caines.
After going into the locker room deadlocked at 21, New Haven came out in the second half and scored the first 17 points of the half to take a 38-21 lead just one minute into the fourth quarter. The first score of the half came on the opening drive and was set up thanks to a 68-yard return from Eason that opened up the third quarter. Caines would be the beneficiary of the first six points as he completed a short pass from Menard that capped off the nearly four minute drive.
After forcing the Falcons to punt following a 10-play drive on their first possession of the half, New Haven would march 71 yards on the next possession to set up senior kicker Josh Hamel (New Hartford, Conn./NW Region 7) for a 25-yard field goal, adding to his total for the day which included six extra points for a total of nine points on the day.
The Chargers would get the ball back late in the third quarter and turn back to the run game with back-to-back big gains from Ais, the first for 30 and the second for 41 yards as time would expire on quarter. With New Haven opening up the final frame of the game on the Bentley 12 yard line, Ais would grab another five yards which set up Menard to find Cheica in the right corner to extend the lead to 17.
Defensively, New Haven would hold the Falcons off the scoreboard until just under four minutes remained, however the Chargers were ready for the on-side kick attempt, smothering the ball to start their next drive at the UNH 47. That drive also didn't take long, just 17 seconds as Laney followed up a short gain from Ais by sprinting 51 yards down the left sideline to the endzone to regain a 17-point lead for his squad.
New Haven will return to action on Saturday, October 5 as they open up the second month of the season at home for Homecoming on the Blue and Gold turf of Ralph F. DellaCamera Stadium. Kickoff in the Northeast-10 Conference match-up that will see American International make the journey to West Haven is slated for 1:00 p.m. with all of the action available live on NE10 Now on Flo Sports.
