Bridgewater State Football Team Bound for New Jersey

By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- For the second consecutive week, the Bridgewater State University football team will be playing a team it has not faced since the early 1990s.

After facing Curry College for the first time since 1991 in the season opener last Friday night, the Bears will match up with Kean University on Saturday afternoon in their first meeting since 1993.

The second and final non- conference game on the BSU schedule will be played in Union, N.J., beginning at 1 p.m.

The Bears have been trying to gather as much information about the Cougars in preparation for the game.

Making things difficult is the fact that Kean has yet to play this season.

"We've been able to jump on YouTube and stuff like that to try and catch some stuff from last year, but there's not a lot out there right now,'' said BSU coach Chuck Denune. "We know a little bit about them. Personnel-wise, we're pretty caught up on who their personnel are.''

While there is little to go on for the Bears from a scouting perspective, the Cougars have information from BSU's 42-21 victory over Curry last week at their disposal.

"That definitely makes things interesting,'' said Denune of the lack of film on Kean. "I imagine they were probably able to catch our live-stream game the other night, so they'll have a pretty good idea about our alignment and formation and such.

"But I feel like right now we've been able to gather enough information that we'll at least be able to get lined up. We're just going to have to be able to play sound football.''

BSU had a strong start against Curry, jumping to a 35-0 lead before the Colonels got within 35-21 in the fourth quarter.

"There were a lot of pros and a lot of cons to take out of it,'' said Denune of the win. "It looked very much like a week one game. We made a lot of re al good football plays, but we did a lot of bonehead things, too.

"We showed the ability to be a big-strike team and have the talent to be exceptional. On the flip side of that, we've got to reduce the amount of mistakes that we make.''

Kean defeated BSU, 23-16, in the last game between the teams 22 years ago. The lone other meeting in the series took place in 1992 and ended, 20-20, which is the last tie the Bears had.

The Cougars were 2-8 last season, including 2-5 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. They are picked to finish seventh in the 10- team conference this sea son.

BSU departs today for Union, bound for New Jersey for a second straight year after playing William Paterson University in Wayne last season.

"It should be a pretty good bonding experience for them,'' said Denune.''

The Predictions:

• Boston College 35, Howard 10:  The Eagles show some improvement after a shaky opener against Maine.
• Michigan State 35, Oregon 31: The Spartans pick up a key early-season win.
• Colorado 31, UMass 17: The Minutemen fall in the opener.
• Bridgewater State 27, Kean 17: The Bears get a win in New Jersey.
• Stonehill 28, Merrimack 17: The Skyhawks make it two wins in a row.

LAST WEEK: 4-1

(Saturday's game will be Webcast live and Live Stats will also be available)