The Saint Anselm Hawks had a tall task this past Saturday taking on regionally ranked New Haven on the road. While the Hawks kept themselves in the game only trailing by 7 at the half, New Haven pulled away and won by a score of 49-21 which drops the Hawks to (1-7) on the year.

The game started off rocky for the Hawks as they allowed a quick five-yard passing touchdown and a one-yard touchdown run to fall behind 14-0 at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. However, the Hawks would not go out of the first half quietly as the Hawks scored two touchdowns one coming of the Pass of Senior Quarterback Eric Fairweather and another coming on the ground from Freshman Christian Matthews-Byrd, who is having a remarkable run as of late. These Hawks scores were sandwiched between another New Haven Touchdown and the score going into Halftime was 21-14.

Out of halftime, this is where things would really turn bad for the Hawks and where the game really got out of hand. New Haven managed to score 21 unanswered points in the 3rd quarter, two through the air and one on the ground. The Hawks mediocre 3rd quarter allowed for New Haven to seize control and never look back and contributed to the 49-21 trouncing of the Hawks.

One of the biggest stories of the game came from the play of the Hawks on 3rd down on each side of the ball. The Hawks were a measly 2-14 (14%) on 3rd down and were not able to sustain many drives to help stop the bleeding from the relentless New Haven offensive attack. Furthermore, on defense the team could barely get off the field to give the offense the ball back as New Haven was 7-15 (47%) on 3rd down as well as 2-3 (67%) on 4th down. This lethal combination of not being able to extend drives or get New Haven off the field highlighted why they struggled so much and eventually would end up on the losing end of the game.

With a (1-7) record the Hawks will look to make a statement win against their next opponent, Pace University, as the game will play host to the team’s annual Senior Day. Pace enters the bout with at (6-3), but the Hawks will look to put a cap on their season for the seniors with a big victory if they can play fundamentally sound turnover-free football.