WALTHAM, Mass. – Following a disappointing overtime loss at Stonehill Saturday night, the Bentley University Falcons will look to bounce back and remain unbeaten at home when they host Southern Connecticut State this Saturday. Kickoff is set for 1 pm with a free webcast available at www.bentleyfalcons.tv.

A win over the Skyhawks would have kept the Falcons within a game of Northeast-10-leading and undefeated Assumption heading into the season's final three games. However, they gave up an 18-point third quarter lead, and after scoring in the final minute to force OT, lost a fumble on a third-down play inches short of the goal line after having a first-and-goal at the two.

Stonehill, which had chosen to go on defense to start the extra session, scored on its seventh play of OT to claim a 41-35 victory and cap a 31-7 spurt over the final 25 minutes and OT.

That dropped Bentley (4-3, 4-2 NE10) to a three-way tie, with LIU Post and New Haven, in the conference standings with the trio all two games back of Assumption.

The ability to force turnovers has been a key to Bentley's success this season. In the four wins, they've come up with 16 takeaways while in the three losses, the number falls to just two, including none at Stonehill. Despite that, the Falcons rank second in the NE10 and 26th in Division II in turnovers gained.

Six of the 18 takeaways involve junior safety Nick Athy (Holliston/Holliston HS), with three interceptions and three recoveries.

While the outcome wasn't positive, the Stonehill game featured an impressive starting debut for freshman Stephen Sturm (Collegeville, Pa./Perkiomen Valley HS), who became the third Bentley offensive player this season to gain NE10 Rookie of the Week honors.

Sturm, filling in for injured senior Mack Lowrie (Foxborough/ Roxbury Latin School), completed 22 of 28 passes, a lofty 79 percent accuracy rate, for 238 yards and four touchdowns. He's thrown five TD passes in three halves since taking over for Lowrie, and in four games this season, owns a .694 completion percentage.

Two of the four scoring strikes went to classmate Austin Ryan (Foxborough/Foxborough HS), covering 66 and 32 yards. He's fourth in Division II in average yards per reception (24.3) and has the second most TD catches in the conference (8).

A trio of experienced linebackers lead the Falcons in tackles with junior Andrew Carmichael (Wayland/Wayland HS) topping the list at 53. Senior Aaron Chretien (Commerce Township, Mich./Walled Lake Northern HS) follows with 44, and classmate Brandon Brown (Oxon Hill, Md./Suitland HS) closed to within one of Chretien after a career-best 12.

The Falcons will be taking on a Southern Connecticut squad that is coming off a Homecoming Day win over Merrimack, 28-9, which halted a four-game slide. During the losing streak, the Owls (2-5, 2-4 NE10) limited high-scoring Assumption to a season-low 25 points, dropped a low-scoring game to American International (14-6) and gave up a total of 83 points in losses to New Haven and LIU Post.

Southern has been able to move the ball this season, averaging just over 400 yards a game, including a conference-leading 198.7 yards on the ground. However, scoring hasn't been a strength with the Owls sixth in the NE10 at 23.0 points per game. One reason has been red zone difficulties where they are tenth in the conference with only nine touchdowns and two field goals in 20 attempts.

Veteran QB Raymond Catapano rushed for 140 yards and two scores in the Merrimack win while also throwing a TD pass. He is second on the team in rushing this season with 451 yards, and has thrown for 1,388 yards and nine scores.

Junior Eli Parks has been the team's top rusher with 492 yards, and sophomore Paris Crawford (24 for 279) and Isaiah Dockett (23 for 327), lead Southern in receiving. Dockett recently had back-to-back 100-yard receiving games for the Owls.

Defensively, Southern has 13 sacks, nine interceptions and five fumble recoveries. The Owls are in the middle of the pack in the conference, giving up 30.3 points and 380.7 yards per game. Linebackers Jhaaron Wallace and Michael Cerisano are the leading tacklers with 57 and 55, respectively.

Outside linebacker David Spears has sacked the QB four times and recovered two fumbles, while safety Kyle Armour has picked off three passes.

Bentley leads the all-time series 12-7, but it was all Southern in last year's game down in New Haven, 35-13. The Falcons fumbled the opening kickoff and totaled only 213 yards of offense in a contest they fell behind 21-6 at the half.

After facing Southern, Bentley will remain at home for a Nov. 4 Senior Day game against New Haven before closing out the season at Assumption a week later.

BENTLEY BRIEFS: Before falling to Southern last year, the Falcons had won six of the previous seven in the series … Both head coaches, Bentley's Bill Kavanaugh and Southern's Tom Godek, are in their fourth season at the helm … Bentley is sixth in Division II in both fewest penalties per game (4.0) and fewest penalty yards (37.6), and is also eighth in fourth-down conversions (8/11) … Senior RB Martin Bannerman Jr. (Pawtucket, R.I./La Salle Acad.) reached 2,000 yards in all-purpose running yards for his career Saturday … With 131 career receptions, junior Drew Mahoney (West Suffield, Conn./ Suffield Academy) ranks seventh in program history … classmate Jordan Zlogar (Clifton Park, N.Y./ Shenendehowa HS) had a career-high six catches for 76 yards against Stonehill … Freshman Andrew Brazicki (Franklin Park, N.J./Bishop Ahr HS), Bentley's leading rusher with 428 yards, has scored at least one TD in six of seven games, including the Falcons' last four.