Anna Maria Tops Owls 41-14

WESTFIELD, Mass.  --     Anna Maria QB Nikolay Boyce threw for 297 yards and five touchdowns to lead the AmCats to a 41-14 win over Westfield State University in a Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference football game at Alumni Field in Saturday afternoon.

Boyce's big day offset a 100-yard receiving game for Owls' senior WR Casey Tang, and 95 yards on the ground from first year FB Manny Mengata.

Anna Maria improves to 3-2 overall and 3-1 in the MASCAC, while Westfield is now 2-3 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

Westfield turned the ball over eight times on the afternoon, which led to three AMC TD's.

Westfield jumped out to a 7-0 lead on its first possession of the game, capping a 3-play, 53-yard drive with an 8-yard touchdown run from Aidan Patterson.

Anna Maria stacked up a 35-7 lead by the half as Boyce tossed TD's of 13, 67, 38 and 30 yards around a 22-yard interception return for a touchdown from Mar-Zhon Brinson.

Westfield trimmed the lead to 35-14 on the Owls first drive of the second half, as QB Miles Foerster found Teng deep downfield for a 54-yard scoring strike.

Boyce tacked on a 3-yard pass to Tyler Garretson, for Garretson's second TD catch of the day, early in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.

Boyce finished 18-30 for 297 yards with five TD's and two interceptions. He spread the ball around to five different receivers, four of whom had 60-plus yards, led by Jeremiah Cadet's 67 yards on a screen pass for a TD, and Garretson had six grabs for 64 yards.  Cadet finished with nine carries for 61 yards on the ground as well.

Westfield's Foerster completed 6 of 19 passes for 130 yards, with one TD and five interceptions.  Mengata carried 25 times for 95 yards, with Patterson adding seven carries for 58 yards.  Teng led the Owls with three catches for an even 100 yards.

Defensively, Westfield got a pair of interceptions from senior CB Zach Allen. Tafari Proctor led the Owls with eight tackles.

Brinson had a pair of interceptions for the AmCats, who were led by seven tackles from Charles DiMartino.

Anna Maria finished with 21 first downs t the Owls 20.  Westfield was 7-11 in third down efficiency compared to 2-8 for the AmCats.  Anna Maria outgained the Owls 396-349, while Westfield held a sight 31-29 advantage in time of possession.

Both teams will be idle next weekend before returning to action on Oct. 18.