Football Concludes Regular Season Home Slate with 52-6 Romp over Pace on Senior Day
Links: Box Score | Highlights
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Merrimack College football team saluted the 22-member Class of 2016 with a 52-6 rout of Pace on Saturday afternoon, as the Warriors concluded their regular season home slate on a high note to move back to .500 on the season and into fifth place in the NE-10 standings.
The Basics
Score: Merrimack 52, Pace 6
Records: Merrimack (4-4, 4-3 NE-10) | Pace (1-7, 0-7 NE-10)
Location: Martone-Mejail Field | North Andover, Mass.
NE-10 Championship Weekend Outlook
No. 1 hosts No. 2 in Championship Game | Odd-numbered seeds host even-numbered seeds
- Assumption (6-1)
- New Haven (5-2) Has wins over Stonehill, LIU
- Stonehill (4-3) Has wins over Merrimack, LIU Post & Bentley
- LIU Post (4-3) Has wins over Merrimack
- Merrimack (4-3) Defeated Bentley/New Haven; Lost to Stonehill/Assumption/LIU
- Bentley (4-3) Lost to Stonehill/New Haven/Merrimack; Yet to play Assumption/LIU Post
- American Int'l (3-4) Defeated SCSU
- Southern Connecticut (3-4)
- St. Anselm (2-5)
- Pace (0-7)
How It Happened
After splitting its first four home games of the season, Merrimack gave its fans plenty to cheer for in the final guaranteed game at Martone-Mejail Field this season, scoring 52 unanswered points – including 38 in the second half – to move a game over .500 for the first time in 2015.
After Pace opened the game with a touchdown midway through the first quarter, Merrimack responded early in the second to take a lead it would never relinquish. Senior tailback Adriell Mayes (Chesapeake, Va.) scored the first of two touchdowns on the day after plowing through the line from a yard out with 11:10 to go in the second quarter.
Five minutes later, senior Jere Brown (Freeport, N.Y.) hauled in his first of two touchdown passes from junior Nick Davis (Oxnard, Calif.), as the Warriors carried a 14-6 lead into halftime.
A one-possession game quickly turned into a rout, as Merrimack put up 28 points in the third quarter on four consecutive touchdowns.
Junior Nick Laspada (Billerica, Mass.) hauled in his first career receiving touchdown, scoring from 24 yards out and going in nearly untouched on a play-action from Davis early in the third quarter.
Five minutes later, Mayes broke from free and went in from 10 yards out to up the lead to 28-6; on Pace's next drive, graduate student Thomas Bradley (Gaithersburg, Md.) capped off a sensational afternoon with his first pick-six in a Merrimack uniform, going 56 yards to the house to up the lead to 35-6.
Brown and Davis connected from 21 yards out late in the third to wrap up the most prolific offensive quarter of the season with the Warriors on top by a 42-6 margin.
Sophomore Stephen Camarro (North Reading, Mass.) booted a 31-yard field goal early in the fourth before Davis wrapped up the scoring by scampering in from nine yards out to put a bow on a career afternoon that saw him finish with nearly 380 combined yards.
Inside The Numbers
- Senior Ben Polci (Newton, Mass.) led the defense with eight tackles, including 2-1/2 for losses of seven yards, while he and classmate Kristian Jackson (Shrewsbury, Mass.) recorded sacks
- Bradley and redshirt freshman Oladiran Isijola (Piscataway, N.J.) both recorded interceptions, as well
- Brown moved to within two receiving touchdowns of the all-time record of 38; he finished with 103 yards on nine receptions, averaging 11.4 yards per catch to go along with the two scores
- Davis, meanwhile, enjoyed his best day as a Warrior, finishing 29-of-39 (74.3%) for 310 passing yards, three touchdowns, and rushed for a team-high 68 more yards
- Merrimack was impeccable on fourth down (3-for-3) and was 8-of-17 on third downs (47%) while outgaining the Setters by a 505-206 margin in total offense
Up Next
With two games to go and some room to maneuver up the league standings, Merrimack travels to last year's league runner-up, AIC, next Saturday (Oct. 31) for a 1 p.m. kickoff.
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