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EWING – The wait is finally over for The College of New Jersey’s football team as it returns to the field today. The Lions have been off for the past two weeks.
The first week was their traditional bye week. Then, with Hurricane Joaquin approaching the East Coast, the game with Salisbury University was first postponed, before eventually being canceled.
“Salisbury’s administration made a bad decision when they closed school and forbidden traffic on campus,” Lions head coach Wayne Dickens said. “It would have been a great football Saturday and even beautiful Sunday. We should have played that contest. That’s outside of my hands. I hate having the two weeks off. I would have much preferred to have played this past weekend.”
While the head coach is frustrated that the Salisbury vs. TCNJ game was the only football game on the entire East Coast being canceled, he had to get his team ready for their new opponent, the 5th ranked Wesley Wolverines. Last year, Wisconsin-Whitewater made the long trek to Lions Stadium.
“What we were preparing for in that school down south – who shall remain nameless – in preparing for their offense, it’s completely different than the Wesley offense,” Dickens added. “We didn’t gain anything. We did gain work on stuff that we needed to work on.
“They’re (Wesley is) a powerhouse. They’re fifth in the nation, so last year, we got No. 1 and now we have No. 5. Same stuff, different season.”
Wesley is playing its second game since Monday afternoon. The team’s original Saturday afternoon, Oct. 2nd, kickoff with Southern Virginia was moved to 4 p.m. on Monday, and the Wolverines rolled in the contest with a 59-6 win.
Three of its four games have been blowouts. However, the team did play a one-point game, which came on Sept. 26th when they won 50-49 at North Central in Illinois.
This will be the first meeting between the schools, as conference members. Wesley joined the New Jersey Athletic Conference this season along with Salisbury, Christopher Newport, and Frostburg State.
“It’s definitely interesting, because I don’t think anyone expected the flip-flop that the NJAC (New
Jersey Athletic Conference) took last season,” Senior linebacker Zack Vasilenko. “But we welcome them with open arms. It’s a good healthy competition with them coming in. We brought in four playoff teams to our conference, and it increases the competition level for all the teams.”
The Wolverines are averaging 49.3 points per game, and 623 yards of offense per contest. In the Lions last game, they gave up 601 yards of offense to Kean University on Sept. 19th.
The Lions wasted two weeks on the Seagulls offense, who won’t do much to help them with the different offenses, when they face Wesley. The triple option offense rushes for 391.7 yards and 115.3’passing yards per game.
“Salisbury is a breed of their own,” Vasilenko stated. “They run a triple-option, and we were doing something completely different for those two weeks. Wesley is good overall, and they are ranked where they are for a reason. They play good football. They like to throw it deep often, too.”
TCNJ is averaging 18.7 points per game, while their opponents are scoring 29.3. In the first three quarters so far this season, their opponents are outscoring them with a 75 to 31 score.
However, in the fourth quarter, as they are trailing, the Lions have been able to out score teams 25-13 in the final quarter.
“Wesley’s always been a good team,” Vasilenko mentioned. “They always will be, but we’ll prepare for them the same as everyone else. We’ll put in our defense strategies to try to shut them down.”
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