Box Score PAXTON, Mass. (October 5, 2024) – The Western New England football team scored early and often in their final non-conference game of the season, crushing the AMCATs of Anna Maria College on their own field, taking down AMC by a final score of 44-10. While offense led the way, Thomas Gasbarro would collect three interceptions in the game on defense, helping Western New England hold Anna Maria to a season low ten points and just 273 yards of offense. 

Records:

• Western New England: 3-2
• Anna Maria College: 2-3

How it Happened:

The Golden Bears would get the ball first for the opening drive of the game against the Anna Maria College AMCATs defense, though would quickly be forced off the field on a three-and-out drive, leaving John Moss to punt the ball away. Anna Maria would start their first offensive drive on their own 36-yard line and would begin quickly moving up the field. West Springfield, Massachusetts native Ryan Russell would throw for 23 yards to open the game on a completion to Davien Atkinson. AMC running back Jamal Cariglia would begin to churn his legs, running for 22 yards over three plays to put the AMCATs in Western New England territory. Former Golden Bears, now AMCAT Treshawn Blair, would pick up the next seven yards for AMC as the AMCATs continued to run the ball down the field. The Golden Bears would find their defensive game and would see DJ Gordon, Jason Shumilla, and Joe McNamara come away with tackles that would send Anna Maria down to fourth down, forcing a field goal for the home team. Ryan Kent would put a 30-yard FG through the uprights, giving the hosts a 3-0 early lead.

On the next offensive drive of the game, WNE football would record their first touchdown of the game. A big run by Callaghan Daskam would put WNE on the Anna Maria side of the field while Matt Lamontagne would run for an additional seven yards while seeing Anna Maria pick up a 15-yard penalty to move the Golden Bears to first and ten at the AMC 19. Paul Gorry would see his first snap at the QB position in the game and would convert his first collegiate pass to De'Andre Harris, a nine-yard completion. Gorry would then run home a ten-yard touchdown for the Golden Bears, his first career touchdown, giving Western New England a 6-3 lead. Anna Maria began to move down the field on their next drive of the game, though the WNE defense would stuff the opportunity after Ryan Russell would be intercepted by Thomas Gasbarro, who returned the ball 23 yards to the Anna Maria 47-yard line, giving the Western New England offense an opportunity to take a two-score lead in the game.

With 3:05 to play in the opening quarter, Western New England would need five plays and 1:15 of clock to march down the field to score their second touchdown of the game. Ryan Carlson began the drive with a 23-yard rush and followed that up with another run, a seven-yard run, putting WNE on the AMC 17-yard line. The Golden Bears would go for it all on fourth and two, 17 yards away from the end zone, where Brady Lafferty would stripe a pass to John De Camps in the middle of the end zone, converting a touchdown, the first of De Camps' career and his first catch of the season. An extra point by Moss would go through the uprights, giving the Golden Bears a 13-3 lead. After forcing the interceptions on the last drive, the Western New England defense would quickly boot Anna Maria off their own field on the next drive of the game, forcing a punt from Anna Maria that traveled just 26 yards, setting up a first and ten at the Anna Maria 42 yard line with 26 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. The Golden Bears would move into the second quarter ahead 13-3 and driving to score to open the second quarter.

To open the quarter, Western New England would need just five total plays to travel those 42 yards down the field to record their third touchdown in just under 17 minutes of game play to take a 20-3 lead. Brady Laffety would complete the pass to De'Andre Harris, a 15-yard touchdown pass to give Western New England a 17-point lead after the John Moss extra point kick would be successful. Anna Maria would not score on their next drive of the game despite moving the ball 38 yards up the field on the ensuing kickoff, as the WNE defense would not allow a yard given up on the next AMC offensive drive. The AMCATs would be forced to put, but a fumble by the Golden Bears special teams would put the AMCATs offense back on the field at the WNE 17-yard line. Maurice Henlon would pick up a tackle for lost yardage on the first play of the drive, though Anna Maria would score on the next play as Russell would find Kevin Acosta Jr. for the touchdown pass, a 20-yard pass, putting the AMCATs back on the scoreboard, trailing 20-10.

Western New England would commit two turnovers on their next drive, saved one by a penalty on Anna Maria after the AMCATs had their first interception of the night, though they would be taken back by the penalty. Just two plays later, WNE would not be able to take care of the football as a first and ten from the Anna Maria 36 yard line would result in a fumble and turnover in possession, giving the ball back to the home team. The next drive for Anna Maria would last for over three minutes, picking up eight plays and 35 yards. However, the Golden Bears would come up with a massive sack on third down and 11 yards to go from Luciano Breneville, while the AMCATs would be unsuccessful on a fourth and 19, ending their drive. The next offensive drive for the Golden Bears turned out to be their longest of the half; an 11-play drive would result in another seven points on the board for Western New England. Matt LaMontagne would open the drive with a nine-yard rush, while Gorry would get another stab at the QB position, sending a 10-yard pass to Harris to continue the drive. WNE would move down the field and complete a 17-yard pass from Gorry to Cam LaPierre to put six more points on the board, giving the Golden Bears a 27-10 lead in the second quarter with exactly 2:00 minutes remaining in the half. The WNE defense stepped up again, picking off the Anna Maria quarterback for the second time in the game as Jason Shumilla would collect the pick on just the second play of the drive for AMC, turning the ball back over to the Golden Bears. Anna Maria would return the favor, as an interception by Jaiquan Torrence would give the AMCATs 28 seconds to look for points before the half would end. AMC would move just nine yards up the field over the final 28 seconds of the game, and a long ball thrown into the end zone from 33 yards away would be blocked down by Shumilla, ending the first half of play with Western New England coming away with a 27-10 lead. The Golden Bears picked up 15 first downs in the opening half while going 3/3 on fourth down chances. Western New England totaled 238 yards of offense in the half, 134 rush yards on 24 rushing attempts, and 104 pass yards. Both Brady Lafferty and Paul Gorry completed four of nine passes each, with Lafferty tossing for 68 yards and Gorry 36. Ryan Carlson ran for 76 yards on 11 attempts in the opening half. De'Andre Harris caught four passes for 49 yards and a touchdown, leading the way for WNE. Nick Kolifrath collected five total tackles in the opening half, with Thomas Gasbarro picking up four.

Anna Maria would open with the ball in the third quarter though would make just seven yards of progress as WNE would pick up tackles from JJ Josefik, Thomas Gasbarro, Rogan Wotherspoon, and Cayden Porter as a quick three-and-out would give WNE the ball back. As they did on their first drive of the game, the WNE offense would record a touchdown on their first drive of the second half, marching 72 yards up the field on nine plays to score. Ryan Carlson would pick up the first nine yards on the first two plays, while WNE's fourth fourth-down conversion would be a success as Carlsonwould run for another five yards. The next three plays would be unsuccessful for the Golden Bears, as WNE would bring on the punting unit on fourth down in ten at the WNE 42. The Golden Bears would pull off an unprecedented fake punt as John Moss would run the ball 55 yards down the field, converting WNE's fifth fourth down of the game. Following the fake punt, Paul Gorry would run home a three-yard touchdown, putting Western New England on the scoreboard again, leading Anna Maria 34-10.

The WNE defense would continue to get the offense back on the field after another turnover by Anna Maria would occur on the next drive. After a forced fumble by Alex Boutin, the AMCATs would scramble to recover the ball. Anna Maria would get to the ball, though the next play would result in an interception by Thomas Gasbarro, his second interception of the game, putting WNE at their own five-yard line. In just one play, the Golden Bears would move 95 yards down the field as Paul Gorry would find Cam LaPierre for the second time in the game as LaPierre would take the ball the distance, giving Western New England a 41-10 lead with 2:38 left to play in the third quarter. The third quarter would end with a bang as the Golden Bears would record their fourth interception of the game and third of the game by Thomas Gasbarro, who would return this one 22 yards to get Western New England started again. The quarter would end following one play for WNE as the Golden Bears held a commanding 41-10 lead after three quarters of play.

Western New England would burn six minutes of clock to open the fourth quarter and march up the field for 12 plays and 67 yards before the Golden Bears would pick up a 22-yard field goal from John Moss to extend their lead to 44-10. On the drive, Brady Laffert would open with an eight-yard rush, while Paul Gorry would collect 19 yards of rush early. Alex Silva and Matt LaMontagne would continue to run the ball through the Anna Maria defense. Moss would eventually convert the field goal to give the Golden Bears the three extra points. That would be the only scoring in the quarter, as the Golden Bears would roll over Anna Maria by a final score of 44-10.

Inside the Lines:

• The Western New England offense put together 471 yards of total offense in the game while holding Anna Maria's high-powered offense to just 273 yards.
• Paul Gorry tossed five completions for 131 yards while throwing for two touchdown passes. Gorry also ran nine times for 39 yards, collecting two rushing touchdowns on the ground.
• Cam LaPierre led the receiving core with 112 total yards, including a 95-yard touchdown catch and run. LaPierre's two catches were both touchdowns.
• De'Andre Harris had four catches for the Golden Bears for 49 yards and a TD.
• On the ground, Ryan Carlson picked up 14 rushing attempts for 90 total yards. John Moss's fake punt was the second most rushing yards in the game by a Golden Bear, picking up 55 yards on the run.
• Thomas Gasbarro led Western New England with seven tackles, four solo tackles, and three assisted tackles. Gasbarro collected three interceptions for Western New England in the win.
• Jason Shumilla also recorded an interception for WNE in the game while also picking up one breakup pass.
• The WNE defense had five tackles for loss, led by Maurice Henlon, who collected two solo tackles for loss.
• John Moss was forced to punt just once as WNE was five for six on fourth down conversions. The first-year was also 1/1 on field goal attempts and 5/5 on extra-point kicks.
• The ten points from Anna Maria this season are a season low. It is their lowest total since the 2021 season in the NCAA First Round game, when Delaware Valley University also held the AMCATs to just ten points.

Coaches Corner:

• Head Coach Jason Lebeau praised the work of Thomas Gasbarro and the WNE defense for their preparation heading into this week's matchup. ""Really happy for and proud of Tom. He works really hard every week to prepare and after missing last season (injury). He is making a bigger impact each week. We played physical for four quarters and we were well prepared for the AMC. That is a good offense and hopefully we can build off that performance."
• Lebeau also touched upon the play of his offense, specifically his first-year quarterback, Paul Gorry. "Paul is a really good football player and we have a lot of trust in him. Lafferty got a little banged up and we had no hesitation to put Paul in. As a freshman he is a learning a ton right now and tonight was great experience for him. I believe it was a small sample of what he is a capable of."

Up Next on the Schedule:

• Western New England will have their conference BYE week next week though will return to Golden Bear Stadium on Saturday, October 19 at 1:00 PM to open Conference of New England play on homecoming weekend against Curry College.