After Early Defeat, BSU Rallied with Six-Game Winning Streak to Rebound

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The opportunity to gain an edge in the New England Football Conference Bogan Division slipped away on Sept. 21.

Bridgewater State University faced two-time defending division champion Framingham State University that night at Swenson Field but was unable to grab the top spot in an early-season showdown.

Frustrated by the Rams’ defense, the Bears were handed a 16-0 loss, giving Framingham State the upper hand over BSU in the division race.

For the second year in a row, the Bears lost their most important Bogan Division game and faced an uphill climb.

In 2011, BSU did not respond very well after the loss to Framingham State, dropping its next game at home to Westfield State University in an ugly performance, and the Bears wound up finishing one game behind the Rams in the standings.

This season, however, BSU was able to bounce back in a hurry after the Framingham State loss and salvaged its season.

The Bears put together a six-game winning streak for a 9-1 regular season, earning them an at-large berth in the NCAA Div. 3 tournament. BSU travels to Chester, Pa., on Saturday afternoon to face ninth-ranked Widener University.

“I think it says a lot about our team, how we handle adversity and how we have a veteran group,’’ said quarterback Mike McCarthy. “For us to overcome that, it’s something we weren’t able to overcome (last year) when we lost to Framingham.

“We had kind of a hangover week the next week against Westfield. We just really focused on that, getting back up once we got knocked down.’’

The Bears had a solid showing at Westfield State the next week, prevailing, 26-14, to begin their longest winning streak since putting together six victories in a row in 2008. The roll has taken them into the NCAAs for the third time in program history.

“It was a Friday night game, and that weekend our heads were pretty down,’’ said safety Eddie Jewel of the loss to Framingham State. “But we got back Monday and it was time to go back to work. I believe we played harder and better since that loss. We regrouped ourselves and got back to work and stayed humble.

“We love to battle back. We never got our heads down. We knew that the Framingham loss was important. But we kept our composure. We knew we had to keep fighting. Anything’s possible if you believe.’’

The Bears kept improving as the year went on and did not linger on the loss to Framingham State, which won the NEFC championship, going 9-1, including 7-0 in the division.

“It says we’re very mentally tough and we have a lot of pride in ourselves,’’ said senior defensive lineman Paul Melicharek. “That was a really hard couple of days, especially for the seniors, losing to Framingham.

“But when you have that kind of toughness and understand that your season isn’t over, it really just shows a lot of what kind of maturity we have as a team.’’

Head football coach Chuck Denune had warned BSU prior to the start of the season that if it lost any games, the Bears had to quickly refocus on the business at hand.

“We talked about how are we going to respond if a loss comes,’’ he said. “The dreams and expectations of the team were high, so one of the important questions was before we played a game, if and when a loss came, how do you respond to it? That was going to be the true measure of this team.

“They were very mature about it. They were upset they lost, but at the same time, they knew they had games to get ready for.

“It was kind of interesting where we had Westfield coming up and this senior class had never beaten Westfield, so it was nice to have a goal to dangle in front of them immediately to let them forget about the loss.’’