Football Posts 47-25 Homecoming Win Over Dean

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University football team opened the second half of the season by halting a three-game losing streak.

Senior Andrew Cloutman (Hanson, Mass.) scored twice and senior Isaiah Wright (Worcester, Mass.) had 93 rushing yards and a touchdown as the Bears defeated Dean College, 47-25, in the first meeting between the two programs on Saturday.

BSU's victory, its first since Sept. 13, came in front of a crowd of roughly 2,200 at Mazzaferro Field on Homecoming Weekend.

It was the seventh straight Homecoming win for the Bears, their last loss coming in 2017 to Western Connecticut State.

After having a bye week following losses to Plymouth State, Framingham State and Worcester State, BSU came back and registered a season-high point total.

The Bears are now 2-4 and 2-3 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference after stopping the losing streak.

"It was very important," said coach Joe Verria of getting a win. "We've given games away. We haven't lost games, we've given them away. We made a lot of mistakes at the wrong possible time in games.

"We had a break, a bye week. The kids worked really hard in the bye week. I think we got better in the bye week.

"This is definitely a step in the right direction."

BSU fell behind, 7-0, when Dean scored on the first drive of the game, but the Bears scored the next 27 points and were in control.

They led, 21-7, at halftime and scored 26 second-half points.

"After the first touchdown we gave up, we came back and scored right away and were playing pretty well after that," said Verria.

Five players scored a TD for BSU, which had 349 yards of total offense while limiting the Bulldogs to 198.

The Bears rushed for 220 yards with Wright getting 93 on 13 carries and Cloutman had 80 yards on 13 carries.

The BSU defense limited the Bulldogs to -3 net rushing yards.

Freshman quarterback Joseph Dube-Garrett (Fort Myers, Fla.) completed 9 of 19 passes for 129 yards and senior Mohale Mitchell (Lakewood, Col.) caught three passes for 75 yards.

Junior Lucas Lambert (Oxford, Mass.) returned an interception for a touchdown. He also brought back another interception for a score, only to have a penalty take the TD off the board.

"The ofense executed a little better today," said Verria. "The defense played a little better.''

Dean, in its first season in the MASCAC, opened a 7-0 lead after taking the opening kickoff and moving 65 yards in 10 plays.

The Bulldogs (0-6, 0-5 MASCAC) converted a pair of fourth down plays and scored with 9:13 left in the first quarter on a 20-yard pass from freshman J'Shaun Reddin (Chesapeake City, Md.) to freshman Tay Sholtz (New Haven, Conn.). Freshman Pato Flores (San Antonio, Texas) added the point after.

On BSU's first possession, it went 68 yards in seven plays to pull even, 7-7, with 5:41 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Junior Everson Quissanga (Boston, Mass.) scored on a 5-yard run and senior Joey Naso (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) added the point after.

Mitchell  caught passes of 17 and 28 yards from Dube-Garrett on the drive.

Quissanga scored on a third-and-4 play from the 5-yard line.

The Bears had a chance to take the lead before the quarter ended following an interception by junior Dkari Rodrigues (Dorchester, Mass.).

Rodrigues set BSU up the Dean 37 but the Bears were unable to capitalize and Naso missed a 37-yard field goal with 35 seconds to go.

Early in the second quarter, BSU took advantage of a high snap on a Dean punt attempt, giving the Bears the ball at the Bulldogs 14.

On the third play, Cloutman scored on a 2-yard run with 10:23 remaining in the half for a 14-7 lead with Naso's kick.

The Bears went up, 21-7, at halftime by going 80 yards on 15 plays for a TD.

BSU converted twice on third down to keep the drive alive, and Cloutman scored his second TD on a 6-yard run with 58 seconds left before the break.

The Bears went up, 27-7, with 9:28 left in the third quarter on a 1-yard run by Wright.

BSU went 48 yards in four plays with Wright having a 20-yard run and a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty covering most of the ground. The PAT failed after Wright's score.

Dean responded with a 16-play, 73-yard drive to get within 27-13 with 3:30 to go in the quarter.

A 3-yard run by junior Da'Qwon Foster (Providence, R.I.) gave Dean its second TD of the day. A roughing the passer penalty kept the Bulldogs moving on the drive.

On BSU's next possession, Wright returned a kickoff 55 yards to the Dean 27, but the Bears stalled at the 4 and received a 21-yard field goal from Naso to make it 30-13 with 14 seconds left in the quarter.

The Bears followed that with a 47-yard interception return for a TD by Lambert.

He picked off the pass and went down the right sideline for the score with 14:47 to go in the game, making it 37-13 with Naso's kick.

BSU sophomore Demetrius Sequeira (Brockton, Mass.) then blocked a punt with the ball rolling out of bounds at the Dean 2. On second down, senior Bryan Ivatts (Barrington, R.I.) scored from 2 yards out to extend the lead to 44-13 with 12:49 remaining.

Dean added a TD with 9:47 to go as freshman Yasir Moses (Daytona Beach, Fla.) caught a 57-yard pass from junior Nick Levine (Brockton, Mass.) to finish a six-play, 69-yard drive, but the kick was blocked.

Levine scored on a 1-yard run with 6:51 to go as the Bulldogs went 32 yards in five plays. The PAT was no good, leaving Dean behind, 44-25.

The scoring concluded with a 35-yard Naso field goal with 4:53 remaining. Naso's 11 points on the day increased his career total to 159 as he passed Matt Carroll (1991-94) for the Bears' all-time lead in points by a kicker.

Senior Thomas Rocha (Barrington, R.I.) had six tackles with a sack for BSU, which finished with eight tackles for a loss of 27 yards.

The BSU defense picked off Reddin three times including Lambert's two interception and one by Rodrigues. The Bears also had three blocks on the day, Sequeira's punt block and a pair of blocked PATs.

The two teams combined for 23 accepted penalties (200 penalty yards).

The Bears went 3-for-11 (27%) on third down while the Bulldogs finished just 4-for-16 (25%) on third down.

The Bears are home again next Saturday as they entertain the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at noon.

Dean will be at Worcester State on Saturday for a 1:30 p.m. game.