Bowl-winning Quarterback Set to Join #NECFB Ranks

FIU transfer Christian Alexander

The 2018 Bahamas Bowl Offensive Player of the Game is heading to Staten Island.

After coming off the bench and leading Florida International to a bowl game victory, quarterback Christian Alexander has transferred to Wagner.

Alexander, a Sunshine State product, produced 292 yards of total offense in FIU’s 35-32 win over MAC champion Toledo this past December.

“I found out in the preparation for the bowl game when we found out what James’ injury was,” said Alexander after starting in place of James Morgan, the 2018 C-USA Newcomer of the Year who was sidelined by a sore shoulder.”

“I knew I had to carry the reins. James helped me along the way. Obviously he started all season long so he gave me pointers here and there, today especially. He showed me things he saw, things like that. I couldn’t have done it without my brothers.”

Upon his arrival on Grymes Hill, Alexander will enroll as a graduate student and will have one season of football playing eligibility.

“Christian is a mobile, dual-threat quarterback, who I’m confident has the chance to make a big impact this coming fall,” said Wagner head coach Jason Houghtaling.

FBS transfers to the NEC have had success in recent years at the quarterback position.

After receiving limited action at Boise State, Tommy Stuart moved east to Duquesne and went on to win the 2017 NEC Offensive Player of the Year award.

Tommy Stuart (2017 NEC OPOTY)

In 2018, Daniel Parr assumed the starting signal calling duties for the Dukes. Helping Duquesne to the 2018 NCAA FCS Playoffs, Parr, a transfer from Florida Atlantic, accounted for 27 touchdowns (20 pass, 7 rush) during his first season on The Bluff.

Bear Fenimore, who began his career at Houston, competed at Saint Francis for two seasons and threw 22 touchdowns while being intercepted only six times in 2018.

Bryant has started a FBS transfer under center each of the past four seasons. First, Dalton Easton went from Akron to Smithfield and proceeded to set the NEC single-season record for touchdown passes (28) in 2016. Over the past two years, Price Wilson has thrown for 5,685yards and 44 touchdowns in a Bulldogs uniform after transferring from Louisiana Tech.

 

.@Wagner_Football adds a bowl-winning QB as a graduate transfer.https://t.co/NKpZVnvykO

— FCS Football (@FCS_STATS) January 17, 2019

 

CCSU Blue Devils Stab Three of Six NEC Scholar-Athlete Awards for 2018 Fall Season

In addition to stacking trophies, the Blue Devils hit the books hard in hard-hittin’ New Britain.

Central Connecticut is home to three of the NEC’s six Scholar-Athlete award winners from the 2018 fall season.

Angie Rafter (women’s cross country), Charlotte Maurer (women’s soccer) and Madelyn Kaprelya (volleyball) all brought some hardware back to Hardware City.

In addition to their academic exploits, the trio of Blue Devils helped their respective teams to plenty of athletic success this past fall.

Rafter led CCSU to its first NEC women’s XC team title since the turn of the millennium. Maurer and her mates carried a 17-game unbeaten streak into the 2018 NCAA Women’s College Cup Tournament. Kaprelya was a key contributor to a CCSU volleyball unit that posted a second-place finish in the NEC regular season standings.

The other Scholar-Athlete award recipients represented Wagner, Fairleigh Dickinson and Robert Morris.

FDU’s Ahu Obhakhan (men’s soccer) and RMU’s Adam Wollet (football) were repeat Scholar-Athlete winners while also earning Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-America honors. Jon Besselink brought the men’s cross country award to Grymes Hill after posting a fifth-place finish at the 2018 NEC Championships.

All six honorees carried a cumulative grade-point average no lower than 3.50.

See all six 2018 Fall NEC Scholar-Athletes of the Year below…

 

 

#NECWBB FAST BREAK: 1/16/19

STARTING LINEUP: BATTLE OF BROOKLYN

Take two subway stops on the 2 or 3 train from Borough Hall to Nevins Street.

Or you could hop over one subway stop on the 4 or 5 train.

Or you could even take a seven-tenths of a mile walk down Fulton from Remsen Street to DeKalb Ave.

That’s all that separates the campuses of St. Francis Brooklyn and LIU Brooklyn, right in the middle of The Big Apple’s most populous borough. When their women’s basketball teams meet head to head on the hardwood, not much separates them there either.

The annual “Battle of Brooklyn” showdown is always one of the most eagerly anticipated dates on the NEC basketball calendar, and on Monday afternoon, the 2019 ‘Battle’ will have arrived.

Andy Toole: New King of the Colonials

It was a milestone eight-plus years in the making for Robert Morris men’s basketball head coach Andy Toole.

In their 52-49 win over St. Francis Brooklyn Thursday night, in front of a national television audience, Toole passed former head coach Jarrett Durham who coached the Colonials from 1984 to 1996, with his 158th victory at Robert Morris.

Thanks to tonight's victory, head coach @AndyToole picks up career win No. 158, helping him surpass former coach Jarrett Durham (1984-96) for the most wins in #RMU men's basketball history. #GRIT #ColonialPride pic.twitter.com/5dRNES3rOD

— RMU Basketball (@RMUMBasketball) January 11, 2019

When Toole took over the head coaching duties at Robert Morris before the 2010-11 season, there was immediate pressure to continue the winning ways the Colonials were experiencing.

#NECWBB FAST BREAK: 1/9/19

STARTING LINEUP: JESS KOVATCH – JOURNEY TO THE TOP

December 16, 2018 – Seattle, WA

After being held to just six points in the first half of a Sunday early-afternoon, non-conference game against Montana at the Husky Classic in Seattle, Jessica Kovatch and her Saint Francis Red Flash started the third quarter against the Grizzlies trailing by nine. After a 24 point performance the day before against Boise State on 9-15 shooting and 6-11 from three, the SFU senior started the afternoon just 14 points shy of surpassing NEC Hall of Famer Jess Zinobile’s 2,338 career points and her 18 year run as the NEC’s all-time leading scorer.

Just past the midway point of the third quarter, with the Grizzlies starting to pull away, Kovatch connected on a jumper in the paint to end a 12-4 Montana run. 8 points down, 6 more to go. Three minutes later, with 1:37 remaining in the third quarter, Kovatch calmly drained a three to pull SFU within 14 of the Grizzlies. 11 points down, 3 more to go…  

Now before we can continue any further, we must take a moment to pause and look back. A final destination can’t really be as satisfying without a special journey to get there. Before SFU senior guard Jess Kovatch was at this point in time, standing at the brink of NEC history, her journey to this moment was anything but ordinary. This is the story of how a player who didn’t receive that much attention from Division 1 programs coming out of high school and wasn’t even considered the best freshman on her own team during her first workouts, persevered with an incredible work ethic and desire to improve, to go on to have one of the most illustrious careers in league history, become a league champion, and eventually take her place as the league’s all-time leading scorer…