WALTHAM, Mass. – After two weeks of play, there is only one unbeaten football team in the Northeast-10 Conference:  the surprising Saint Anselm College Hawks.

The Bentley University Falcons will look to knock the Hawks from the ranks of the unbeaten Saturday while also attempting to bounce back from Friday night's difficult 24-17 home loss to Stonehill College. Kickoff at Grappone Stadium in Manchester, N.H. is set for 1 pm, and links for live stats and video will be available at www.bentleyfalcons.com.

Bentley fell behind early against Stonehill, facing a 14-0 deficit midway through the opening period, but battled back to get within four on a couple occasions.  Down seven and 81 yards away from a tying score with 3:07 left, Coach Bill Kavanaugh's team moved into the red zone before being denied. An apparent TD pass with about 35 seconds left was erased by an offensive interference call, and three plays later, the team's hopes for a comeback ended with an incomplete pass to the end zone on fourth down, a play that left the fans stunned defensive interference wasn't called.

The team's conference opener saw grad student Danny Guadagnoli (Framingham/Framingham HS) tie his career high for completions (30) and senior safety Nick McCarthy (Winthrop/Winthrop HS) earn NE-10 Defensive Player of the Week honors after coming up with two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

Guadagnoli, who threw two TD passes for the second straight game, distributed the ball to ten different players with senior All-Conference receiver Jeff Hill (Mansfield/Mansfield HS) topping the list with eight for 91 yards.

Getting started has been a problem for the Falcons during the first two games of 2014. Three of the six touchdowns they've allowed have come in the first eight minutes of games, and in the first half of play thus far, Bentley has converted only two of 12 third downs.  In sharp contrast, the second-half conversion rate is an impressive 58 percent.

Through two games, Guadagnoli has completed 71 percent of his passes for 506 yards and four touchdowns. He surpassed 6,000 career passing yards in Friday night's contest and will enter the Saint Anselm game 160 yards shy of 7,000 yards in career total offense.

Junior Chris Calvanese (Norfolk/Xaverian Brothers HS) leads the team in receiving with 11 for 160 yards, and Hill, who has yet to reach the end zone this year after beginning the year with 25 career TD catches, has pulled in 10 balls for 103 yards.

Senior linebacker Kyle Young (Ellicott City, Md./Centennial HS) has a team-high 21 tackles after making 13 against Stonehill, and is only five away from 200 for his career. Blaine Hopwood (New Bedford/New Bedford HS) is closing in on the same milestone as he's 11 away.

The Bentley defense has been solid, allowing 3.1 rushing yards per play and 226 yards a game total offense while limiting the opposition to a 31 percent conversion rate on third downs. Of the six TDs allowed, three have come on short fields following turnovers or lengthy kick returns.

Saint Anselm, 2-0 for the first time since 2004 (also the last time they won back-to-back games), opened its conference schedule with a 23-20 OT win at Southern Connecticut State after winning their non-conference opener on the road, 23-22 at Bowie State. Like Bentley, the Hawks have had trouble getting started, having been outscored 16-0 in the opening quarter this season.

The Hawks like to throw the ball with sophomore Yianni Gavalas attempting nearly 35 passes per game. He's thrown for 440 yards and three scores while completing 62 percent of his attempts. Senior Justin Bernard leads all active NCAA football players, regardless of division, in career receptions, with his total of 300 including 13 this year. That's tied for the team-high with Ahkeen Williams, who has averaged nearly 18 yards per catch.

Junior Elad Covaliu has had success running the ball, rushing for 129 yards with an average of four yards per attempt.

Saint Anselm's defense appears to be much improved this fall, allowing 394.5 yards and 21 points per game. Those numbers are in drastic contrast to last year, 548.6 yards and 45.5 points.

One area that the two teams have been significantly different in during the opening weeks of the season has been possession time. Bentley has had the ball for at least 35 minutes in each of the first two while Saint Anselm averages less than 25 minutes a game.

This will be the third meeting between the Falcons and Hawks in a 12-month period as they squared off twice last year, once in the regular season and again during NE-10 Championship Weekend. Bentley prevailed in the first encounter, 32-27, and rolled to a 56-41 victory six weeks later, a contest that saw Guadagnoli break both the school records for passing yards and total offense in a game.

In those two games, Guadagnoli averaged 430.5 yards total offense and accounted for eight touchdowns (six passing, two receiving). He completed 65 percent of his passes for 739 yards, with Hill pulling down 14 for 223, and rushed for 122 net yards.

The Saint Anselm passing attack was also potent in the two meetings with Gavalas completing 51 of 74 passes (69 percent), Williams catching 20 balls for 208 and Barnard 18 for 226.

The two wins last year kept Bentley perfect all-time against the Hawks, a series that includes 14 previous meetings.

Bentley's Homecoming will be a week from Saturday with the University of New Haven providing opposition for the 2 pm contest.

BENTLEY BRIEFS: Guadagnoli has thrown 108 passes since his last interception and has been picked off only twice in his last eight games … Bentley is leading the NE-10 in completion percentage (.714), fewest penalties per game (4.0), fewest penalty yards per game (37.5), fewest first downs allowed (13.0), rushing defense (85.0), pass efficiency (159.85), pass efficiency defense (102.58), time of possession (35:48), tot