WORCESTER, Mass. - Another strong showing from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth football team resulted in a 41-20 victory at Worcester State Saturday afternoon.
The Corsairs improve to 3-1 and have taken sole possession of first place with a 2-0 record in the MASCAC, while the Lancers drop to 1-3 and 1-1 in the conference. UMass Dartmouth put up 675 yards of total offense, while the defense combined for nine sacks for a loss of 61 yards and one interception.
Junior QB
Dante Aviles-Santos threw for 354 yards and one touchdown on 26-of-33 passing and added 21 yards on the ground. Junior RB
Richarno Hylton rushed for 77 yards and three touchdowns and is now tied for the conference lead with four TD's on the season. Sophomore
Jalyn Aponte and senior
Luis Gonzalez each ran in a touchdown as well. Junior WR
Isaiah Cole hauled in a catch for six, while sophomore WR
Angel Sanchez finished with 120 receiving yards.
Senior
Josh Lacerte led the team with 2.5 sacks for a loss of 23 yards. Also bringing down the quarterback were sophomore
Sam Alicea twice, juniors
Logan Chappell and
Trell Best, and freshman
Kairis Codio. 5th-year senior
JP Mason came away with an interception.
UMass Dartmouth scored on their first drive. Starting on their own 26-yard line, Aviles-Santos completed six passes and ran for eight yards to move the Corsairs to the Worcester 21-yard line. Gonzalez then broke away for a nine-yard rush and pounded his way home for a three-yard score to make it a 7-0 lead with 12:16 left in the first.
Mason's pick set UMass Dartmouth up at its own 33-yard line. Aviles-Santos then connected with Sanchez for 46 yards and Hylton capped off the drive with three runs combining for 16 yards to extend the lead to 14-0 at the 4:56 mark of the first.
After Alicea's sack forced a Lancer punt to start the Corsair drive on their own 46, Aviles-Santos found sophomoresÂ
Easten Coleman for 18 yards and
Thomas Zednik for nine more. Four rushes by Aponte was capped off with a one-yard TD run to bring the advantage to 21-0 with 7:46 in the second.
UMass Dartmouth scored one more touchdown to close the half. Aviles-Santos linked up with 5th-year senior
Keenan Little for 53 yards and Hylton broke away for 18 yards on the ground and punched in a two-yard TD to extend the lead to 28-0 at the break.
A 23-yard pick six gave Worcester State its first points of the day to cut the deficit to 28-7 with 12:55 in the third. UMass Dartmouth answered with a 10-yard TD pass from Aviles-Santos to Cole push the lead to 35-7 at the 5:05 mark of the third.
On the Corsairs' final touchdown drive of the day, Aviles-Santos found junior
Malakie Simao for 22 yards, Sanchez for 33 and junior
Antonio Stakely for 25. Hylton then crossed the plane for his third TD of the day to make it a 41-7 advantage. Worcester State got its final two touchdowns on a 25-yard pass and a 68-yard rush.
UMass Dartmouth meets West Conn at 7 p.m. on Friday under the lights for a white out.
