No. 11/14 Endicott Bests UNE, 39-7; Meropoulos Shatters Program Sack Record

BIDDEFORD, Maine – The No. 11/14 Endicott football team defeated the University of New England (UNE), 39-7, in Conference of New England (CNE) action on Saturday afternoon at Blue Storm Stadium.

Following a scoreless first quarter, Endicott rattled off 20 unanswered points to close out the opening half and never looked back in the contest.

Clayton Marengi (Lynnfield, Mass.) jumpstarted the Gulls with a 10-yard TD pass to Adam Goodfellow (Wayland, Mass.) at 14:12 of the second to put the visitors ahead, 7-0.

Michael Vecchione (Chelmsford, Mass.) set up the touchdown with a 78-yard burst up the middle on 3rd-and-1 from Endicott's 10-yard line.

From there, Mike Bartley (North Caldwell, N.J.) sandwiched a pair of field goals (40 yards, 10:55, 10-0 | 35 yards, 0:04, 20-0) around a Bryan Metayer (Norwood, Mass.) one-yard TD plunge at 1:51 to account for the scoring in the first half.

Goodfellow added another TD catch in the third (10:30, 26-0), while Kennedy Charles (Portland, Maine) took an 87-yard kickoff return to the house at 10:57 (33-7) of the fourth to punctuate the victory.

Markys Bridgewater (Lawrence, Mass.) sprung Charles free in the second phase of the return with a devastating block at the Endicott 42-yard line after the first unit sealed a perfect running lane for the duo to sling through up field with a full head of steam.

Charles later capped the scoring in the matchup with a 12-yard rushing TD at 6:24 (39-7).

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• Endicott is 6-0 all-time against UNE (third contest allowing less than 10 points).
• Colin Meropoulos (Monroe, Conn.) registered a 20-yard sack in the second quarter (6:25) to break the program record held by Endicott Hall of Famer Kevin Eagan '12 (West Hartford, Conn.).
• Meropoulos finished the contest with two sacks and now has 25.0 total (21 solo, 8 assisted) in 38 games played.
• Eagan ended his Hall of Fame career with 23.5 sacks (21-5/156 yards) in 43 games.
• The 20-yard sack by Meropoulos also catapulted him into first on the program record books for yards from sacks with 169 total, at the time, before his other sack bumped his mark up to 176.
• Fittingly enough, Meropoulos set the single-game sack record of 4.5 (4 solo, 1 assisted) against UNE on 10/30/21.
• Hector Johnson (Worcester, Mass.) originally broke Eagan's record of 156 yards from sacks earlier in the second with an 11-yard stop (166 yards total, 20 solo, 5 assisted, 22.5 sacks).
• Charles scored his first career kickoff return TD and seventh in program history.
• The sophomore also produced his second career rushing TD.
• The Gulls handed UNE its first home loss of the year (2-1).
• Bartley converted his first career PAT and field goal; tallied 10 points total. 
• Goodfellow compiled his third career and second consecutive multi-receiving TD game.
• Vecchione rushed for a career-high 98 yards (6 attempts, 16.3 average).
• Marengi went 11-for-25 passing alongside two passing touchdowns, no interceptions, and a career-high 94 yards rushing on nine attempts (10.4 average).
• Metayer punched in his first career rushing touchdown.

WHAT'S NEXT

No. 11/14 Endicott (5-1, 1-0 CNE) visits Western New England on Saturday, October 26 at 1 PM. UNE (2-4, 0-1 CNE) travels to Nichols next Saturday at 1 PM. 

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(Photo Credit - Tammy McManaway)