Northeastern improved in week 2, but still lost

By Pete Mollica

The Huskies played No. 20 Maine tough but fell 17-7 last weekend.

YOUNGSTOWN — Northeastern University will come into Saturday’s contest with Youngstown State with an 0-2 record, but the Huskies played a lot better than their winless record last Saturday in a battle against No. 20 ranked Maine at home.

The Huskies will play host to the Penguins Saturday at 1 p.m. at Parsons Field in Brookline, Mass. It will be the 10th meeting between the teams and the Penguins hold a 6-3 edge in the series, although Northeastern has won three of the four previous meetings at home.

The Huskies opened their season at Boston College two weeks ago and as expected were handily defeated 54-0, but they rebounded to give the Black Bears all they could handle last week before bowing 17-7.

Coach Rocky Hager, now in his sixth season (17-41) was pleased with the team’s progress from game one to game two, but felt his team didn’t take advantage of its opportunities.

“We produced four turnovers and blocked a field goal and still came away with just six points,” Hager said. “We have to do a better job with those opportunities.”

The Huskies lost starting quarterback Alex Dulski, a junior, against Boston College and have had to go with redshirt freshman Matt Carroll (6-foot-2, 235 pounds). Last week Carroll was 15-for-24 for 112 yards, but also had two interceptions.

“He’s young and inexperienced, but he did a commendable job last week and he’s only going to get better,” Hager said of Carroll.

“We’ve got no picnic coming up this week with Youngstown State,” he added. “They are a very talented football team with some outstanding individuals, including their quarterback, who is a very talented athlete.

“Youngstown is a team that’s not going to beat themselves, so we’re going to have to create more turnovers this week and then take advantage of them,” he added.

The Huskies scored their first touchdown of the season last week using junior wide receiver Greg Abelli (5-11, 170) on an end around for a 33-yard scoring run.

The team’s rushing leader is junior tailback John Griffin (6-0, 205), who has rushed for 95 yards on 28 carries, but had 92 of them on 18 carries last week. Carroll is the team’s second-leading rusher with 53 yards on 27 carries in two games.

The Huskies will start five seniors on offense and four of them are on the line. Defensively they have four senior starters and three of those are at linebacker.

Senior inside linebacker Phil Higgins (5-11, 222) leads the Huskies in tackles with 16 including a team-high four sacks. The Huskies have recorded 13 sacks in two games this season.

Senior linebacker Jason Vega (6-5, 265) recovered a fumble and blocked the field goal last week, while junior free safety Darrly Jones (5-10, 184) has two fumble recoveries this season.

Northeastern has a pair of senior veterans in their kicking positions. Mat Johnson (6-3, 206) was 4-of-7 in field goals a year ago, while punter Ron Conway is one of the better punters in Northeastern history as he averaged 40.3 yards a punt last season and 39.9 for his career.

mollica@vindy.com