Husson football falls in season opener to UMass Dartmouth

September 3, 2022

Marvens Jean rushed for 254 yards and quarterback Dante Aviles-Santos tossed four touchdown passes Saturday afternoon, as the UMass Dartmouth Cosairs defeated the Husson Eagles 35-14 in a Division III non-conference season opening football game played at Cressy Field in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

UMass Dartmouth took a 7-0 lead after one quarter thanks to a 12 yard keeper for a touchdown by Aviles-Santos. The Cosairs extended that to 14-0 when Aviles-Santos hit wide receiver Antonio Brown for a 25 yard score early in the second. Husson struggled offensively for most of the first half, but would get on the board late in the second when quarterback Nic Visser found Dom Wilson for a five yard TD pass to cut it to 14-7 at the intermission. That score was helped by a Visser to Anthony Walker 53 yard passing play. UMass Dartmouth took over in the second half, as Jean picked up his running attack and the Eagles couldn’t slow him down. The hosts got touchdown passes from Aviles-Santos of one yard to Easten Coleman and 37 yards to Isaiah Cole in the third quarter to make it 28-7. Husson got their final score of the day on a 36 yard run from Elijah Garnett. The Cosairs ended the scoring when Aviles-Santos hit Brown for a short three yard score, his fourth TD pass and second TD reception for Brown.

Visser went 10-26 passing for 160 yards with one touchdown and one interception in the loss. Garnett rushed 15 times for 103 yards and the one score. Cristian Walker had four receptions for 64 yards. Sean Savage had 12 total tackles, and Adam Bertrand had 11 to lead the Eagles defense. Evan Briggs and Promise Nikwcha also each recorded a sack. Aviles-Santos completed 25-44 for 178 yards with the four touchdowns in the win for UMass Dartmouth, also adding 36 yards rushing and the first quarter TD. Jean had 26 rushing attempts for the 254 yards (9.8 average). Antonio Stakley had seven receptions to lead the Cosairs receiving core. Javier Delgado had seven total tackles in the victory. Husson opens up their home schedule next Saturday at 12 p.m. when they welcome in Plymouth State in non-conference play in the annual homecoming game.