NEC Blitz Game of the Week: Mercyhurst at Central Connecticut
This week in NEC action, Mercyhurst travels to Hard Hittin’ New Britain to take on the Central Connecticut State Blue Devils in what is officially non-conference play. The Lakers are coming off of a 55 point win against D3 Buffalo State while the Blue Devils lost a tight game to Yale on the road, 23-22.
The conventional wisdom for this game would be that Central Connecticut might be able to overwhelm the Lakers, who are making their debut in Division I play this season. CCSU features pieces like Brady Olson at QB, a transfer from FBS UMass, and RB Elijah Howard, who ranks 5th in the conference in rushing yards. And it makes sense. Central Connecticut has been a good team all season long. Their defense has been opportunistic, forcing turnovers and even scoring off of them. Their offense is strong as well, and their combined efforts led to them gutting out a win against Saint Francis on the road. The Red Flash were coming off of an upset of their own over FBS Kent State. But when even your defense is a threat to score (like it was against the Red Flash), it’s hard to stop a team this opportunistic and aggressive. The close los to in-state foe Yale might have only added fuel to the (blue) fire.
The thing with conventional wisdom is that the Lakers haven’t had a strictly conventional transitioning team. The high-end talent on this squad is extraordinary. Cameron Barmore at WR and Adam Urena at QB are a dynamic duo that can put Mercyhurst in a position to score at anytime and anywhere on the field. It’s one thing to have a WR like Barmore, who is a touchdown machine for Mercyhurst, and could be anywhere in the country. But having a distributor like Urena, who isn’t just adept at delivering the ball, but also avoids turnovers and mistakes makes Mercyhurst’s offense unfair at times.
This sets up an intriguing matchup where an opportunistic defense goes up against a quarterback that’s effective and careful with the ball. Like the unstoppable force and the immovable object, something has to give, and we’ll get to see which it is on Saturday in New Britain. You can catch it on NEC Front Row at 1:00 PM.
