Worcester, Mass. (October 19) -- On Saturday night, the Assumption College football team picked up its second-straight victory with a 17-7 Homecoming win over visiting Southern Connecticut in Northeast-10 Conference action at the Multi-Sport Stadium.

After dropping the first 10 games in the all-time series, Assumption has now taken two straight from the Owls, including a 44-0 shutout in New Haven in 2012. In addition, this is the first home victory of the season for Assumption after a pair of three-point defeats in its previous two home contests.

The Owls took the opening kickoff 75 yards in 8:40 as senior Vaughn Magee scored on a run to the right side from two yards out, capping a 19-play drive for the early 7-0 lead. The game stayed that way until the final minute of the opening half as senior kicker Tad Beuchert (Danvers, Mass./St. John's Prep) nailed a 39-yard field goal with 54 seconds left to send the game into the break at 7-3.

The Hounds forced a pair of turnovers on downs in the opening 30 minutes, but also threw a pair of interceptions that didn't allow Assumption to capitalize on the Owl miscues. Behind the nearly nine-minute opening drive in the game, Southern Connecticut owned a commanding 20:38-9:22 edge in time of possession in the opening half. The two teams combined for just 185 yards of total offense in the low-scoring first half as well.

Assumption forced the first turnover of the second half as well as senior Mike Bates (Holden, Mass./Wachusett Regional) picked off the Brandon Basil pass and returned the ball to the SCSU 17-yard line to get the Hounds into the red zone. On third down, Assumption took its first lead of the game as senior Bobby Jordan (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell) found junior Eddy Frazier (Worcester, Mass./Burncoat) over the top from 17 yards out for the 10-7 lead with 11:54 left in the third.

On the ensuing drive, SCSU used a 31-yard rush from Magee to get to the Assumption 32-yard line before a delay of game penalty immediately stalled the drive. Just two plays later, Assumption junior Derrick Mann (Sharon, Mass./Sharon) picked off his second pass in as many games to give the Hounds the ball back with just over eight and a half minutes left in the period.

Heading into the fourth quarter at 10-7 in favor of Assumption, the Hounds punted and the Owls drove into Assumption territory on a 21-yard scramble by Basil on a third down and eight play with just over 13 minutes remaining. The Hounds and Mann pressured Basil on another long third down play and forced an Owl punt with 12:37 remaining and Assumption got the ball back on the 20-yard line.

Assumption extended the lead out to double digits at 17-7 with 2:56 remaining as junior Matt Heriveaux (Everett, Mass./Malden Catholic) capped a 13-play, 69-yard drive with a two-yard touchdown dive to seal the victory. The Hounds forced a turnover on downs with just under two minutes remaining in the fourth, their third turnover on downs of the day in a solid defensive effort.

After Assumption punted the ball back to the Owls with just 30 seconds left, an interception by sophomore Kendall Dardy-Jones (Dorchester, Mass./St. Sebastian's School) on the ensuing first down wrapped up the 10-point win for the Hounds.

Senior linebacker Jon Wozney (North Haledon, N.J./DePaul Catholic) led the Hounds with 10 total tackles, while junior Dane Myers (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) had four pass breakups. Assumption had nine sacks in the game, including a team-high 2.5 sacks from senior Khalid Pitts (Clifton, N.J./Clifton).

With the win, Assumption improves to 4-3 overall and 4-2 in the Northeast-10, while Southern Connecticut falls to 3-4 overall and is even at 3-3 in the league.

Assumption is back in action on Saturday, October 26th as the Hounds travel to Pleasantville, N.Y., to take on Pace University for a 1 p.m. start at Pace Field.

For the latest on Assumption College Athletics, follow the Hounds via social media on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more information, contact the Office of Athletic Communications at 508-767-7240.