WORCESTER -- The WPI football team jumped out to a 21-0 lead and never trailed, opening the 2023 season with a 44-13 victory over crosstown rival Worcester State at H. Carr Field at Alumni Stadium on Friday night. The Engineers have now won six straight over the Lancers and lead the all-time series 20-8 and have been victorious in 11 straight season-openers dating back to 2012.
Engineers' quarterback Stephen MacDonald (Georgetown, MA) finished the game 18-25 for 177 yards and two scores with top receiver Noah Herzig (Hubbardston, MA) catching seven passes for 104 yards and a pair of scores. Jay Mezzo (Naugatuck, CT) racked up 81 yards on five catches and a touchdown, while Hunter Carey (South Hadley, MA) rushed for a game-high 75 yards on 16 carries with a score. John Chau (Suffern, NY) had 12 carries for 45 yards and a touchdown, while kicker Brock Dubey (Dudley, MA) connected for all five extra points he attempted.
Defensively for WPI, Dylan Wagner (Windsor, CA) led the Engineers with five tackles and a sack, while Zach Newberg (Barrington, RI) also notched a sack.
For Worcester State, quarterback Mike Loveless (Nashua, NH) ended his night 15-21 with 166 yards passing, while carrying the ball nine times for 24 yards and a touchdown. Nico Holmes (Mansfield, MA) accounted for the other Lancers' score, rushing 11 times for 22 yards and a touchdown. Lance Williams (Westerly, RI) caught a pair of passes for a team-high 40 yards receiving. On the other side of the ball, Mason Broyles (Millbury, MA) and Matt O'Connor (Selkirk, NY) each tallied seven tackles on the night.
WPI scored on its first possession of the game, as a 73-yard, 14-play drive ended with a two-yard Carey rushing touchdown. After forcing a Worcester State punt on the ensuing possession, the Engineers made it 14-0 with a 64-yard drive that ended with Herzig catching a seven-yard pass for the score.
Worcester State's next drive stalled and WPI pushed it to 21-0 with a touchdown on their first possession of the second quarter. The 18-play, 84-yard drive was capped by a five-yard reception from MacDonald to Mezzo to put the hosts up three touchdowns.
The Engineers had a chance for three more later in the quarter, but a missed field goal kept the score 21-0 at the break.
Worcester State got on the board on their first possession of the third quarter, as a five-yard Loveless rush made it 21-6. Loveless also threw 21 and 24-yard passes on the drive, which covered 78 yards in 5:13.
It took WPI just under four minutes to respond, with the hosts engineering an eight-play, 65-yard drive on their next possession to go up 28-6. Chau got the two-yard carry for his first score of the season, while a 19-yard Carey run on third and one continued kept the drive alive.
In the fourth quarter, a 34-yard touchdown reception from Terrence Benedict (Ticonderoga, NY) to Herzig pushed the score to 35-6, while on the next possession, a WPI safety made it 37-6.
Another WPI touchdown followed, as Sam Wing (Oxford, MA) ran it in from one-yard out to make it 44-6, before Worcester State scored on its final possession of the game on a six-yard Nico Holmes run to set the score to 44-13.
The Engineers will head to Bridgewater State next Friday for a 7pm kick-off with the Bears. Worcester State plays a day later, hosting Union at 1pm on Saturday, September 9.