TELEGRAM: Greyhound football starts new win streak

By Jay Gearan
WORCESTER TELEGRAM
    WORCESTER, Mass. ---- On a glorious October afternoon, after his team had blanked Pace University, 20-0, Assumption College football coach Cory Bailey looked very happy standing at midfield.
    Bailey and his Greyhounds were back at home, and back winning.
    After last week’s frustrating six-point loss at Southern Connecticut snapped a four-game winning streak, the Greyhounds (5-1) rebounded from a flat first quarter and scored 10 points in each half against the winless Setters in a Northeast-10 Conference game.
    “Our defense played very well in getting the shutout,” Bailey said. “They put a lot of pressure on (Pace’s) quarterback.”
    “This was a great win after our tough game last week,” said Assumption senior quarterback Andrew Kupec, who completed 18 passes for 165 yards and two touchdowns. “Now we want to keep another winning streak going.”
    The Greyhounds’ defense held Pace to 50 yards rushing and 162 yards of offense, notching the first shutout for an Assumption grid team since 2006 (also at home against Pace, 19-0).
    Leading the Assumption defense was junior defensive back and former St. Peter-Marian star Bobby Sansoucy, who had two interceptions. The Greyhounds allowed just two third-down conversions in 11 attempts.
    The game was scoreless until late in the first half when junior Brian Nowak’s 35-yard field goal capped Assumption’s 15-play, 62-yard march. The steady drive included several solid runs by senior Herb Woodard (35 carries, 144 yards.
    The Greyhounds got the ball back before halftime and quickly scored again on a speedy four-play drive covering 47 yards. The TD strike, just 14 seconds before intermission, was a 20-yarder from Kupec to sophomore Paul Perez, who timed his leap perfectly for the grab above the right pylon in the end zone.
    With a 10-0 lead, the Greyhounds had seized the momentum.
    Nowak booted his second field goal, a 22-yarder with 4:02 left in the third quarter for a 13-0 lead. Nowak has made a team-record 10 of 11 field goal attempts and is 19 for 19 on conversion kicks.
    Assumption’s final score was triggered by Sansoucy’s interception of Pace QB Joe Romanick at the Hounds’ 38. In six plays covering 62 yards, Assumption upped its lead to 20-0 when Kupec found senior wide receiver Marcus Nichols open for a 22-yard TD reception.
    Setting up the passing game for the Greyhounds was the hard running of Woodard, the only 3,000-yard rusher in school history. He has now rushed 660 times for 3,166 yards.
    When not going to the ground game, Kupec found senior wideout David Canney frequently. The former Narragansett Regional star finished with 10 receptions for 78 yards. He has now caught a pass in a team-record 37 straight games, and has seven games with 10 or more receptions.
    With 219 career receptions, Canney is first Greyhound to reach 200. He has 709 reception yards this season and 2,675 for his career.