WALTHAM, Mass. – Exactly a week after one of the most dramatic Bentley University football wins in recent years, the Falcons will stage a rematch with LIU Post Saturday, this time as part of the Northeast-10 Conference championship weekend slate of games. Bentley will once again be the home team with kickoff slated for 12 noon.

With a 27-14 lead entering the final quarter, it appeared the Falcons were in control. However, two lengthy scoring drives (17 plays for 84 yards, 13 for 80) and a two-point conversion while down one in the final minute put LIU Post in front by one with only 30.5 seconds left.

Following an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and an 18-yard kickoff return, Bentley went back to work on its own 43 with no timeouts remaining. After the clock stopped on a couple short completions to senior wide receiver Chris Calvanese (Norfolk/Xaverian Bros. HS), junior QB CJ Scarpa (Andover/Andover HS) went back to him, this time for a 31-yard gain, with Calvanese getting out of bounds at the 14 with 7.5 seconds left.

Senior Michael Baron (Medfield/Roxbury Latin School) took over from there, sending a game-winning 31-yard field goal through the uprights with 4.4 seconds left.

The 30-28 victory left Bentley, LIU Post and Stonehill in a three-way tie for fourth with the conference tiebreaker giving the Falcons the fifth seed and the Pioneers the sixth, setting the stage for this week's rematch.

A winning record will be at stake for the Falcons with Saturday's victory putting coach Bill Kavanaugh's club at 5-5 overall. LIU Post, which will be playing on the road for the seventh time in 2015, will return to Waltham at 6-4 overall.

Bentley will be playing the same team in back-to-back weeks for the first time since 1995 and that first game was also a classic with Stonehill snapping the Falcons' amazing 30-game winning streak, 39-36 on a final-minute interception that ended a furious comeback by Bentley.

The rematch a week later at Stonehill was anything but a nail-biter as the Falcons rolled to a 46-3 victory in the ECAC Intercollegiate Football Conference Division II Bowl.

This past week's game marked Scarpa's first career start and a career performance from Calvanese. Taking over for injured senior Matt Montalto (West Yarmouth/Dennis-Yarmouth Reg. HS), Scarpa connected on his first eight passes and finished 24 of 34 for 228 yards.

Calvanese had the team's two longest TD catches of the year (42 and 44 yards) and finished 10 for 154 yards with three TDs. It was the second 100-yard effort of the fall for the team-leader in receiving yards (521 on 37 receptions).

Junior running back Martin Bannerman (Pawtucket, R.I./La Salle Academy) ran for 83 yards against the Pioneers and now has 688 for the season, the third highest total for a Falcon in the last decade. Despite fighting injuries, he's been a workhorse with his 153 carries tied for fourth most in the NE-10.

Second-year grad student Alex Farkes (Boston/BB&N) has a team-best 39 catches, second most in the conference among tight ends, one fewer that LIU Post's Sean Binckes.

The Bentley defense has been solid most of the season with the Falcons ranking first in the conference in third down conversions allowed (.313), third in takeaways (22) and rushing yards allowed (123.2) and fourth in total yards allowed (311.5).

Junior safety and CoSIDA Academic All-America candidate Sam McDonald (Norfolk/King Philip Reg. HS) had his fifth interception of the year in the LIU Post game and has had at least one takeaway in five consecutive contests. It was his 14th career pick, putting him in a tie for fourth in program history.

Bryan Hardy (Barnstable/Barnstable HS), also a junior, joined the Bentley's 200 tackle club last week. His 82 tackles on the year is 23 more than any other Falcon with senior linebacker Matt McDermott (Merrimac/Central Catholic HS) closest. Senior defensive end Paul Norris (North Attleboro/North Attleboro HS), also a candidate for Academic All-America, leads in both tackles for loss (6.5) and sacks (4).

LIU Post has one of the conference's most prolific offenses as the Falcons found out last week when the Pioneers totaled 520 yards, including nearly 200 in the fourth, and 28 first downs. Coach Brian Collins' team averages 434.4 yards and 30.9 points.

Junior QB Jeff Kidd put the ball in the air 58 times last week, completing 34 for 422 yards while withstanding four sacks. He leads the NE-10 in most passing categories with 2,494 yards and 27 TDs, four of which came on Saturday.

Kidd's arsenal includes four receivers with at least 38 catches, two running backs with over 600 yards and a huge offensive line protecting him. The starting five, which averages six-foot-five and 325, includes two six-seven players and a 370-pound guard.

Defensively, LIU Post has 31 sacks, none of which came last week. The two defensive ends, Kevin Petit-Frere and Kenny Scotland, both have seven, sharing the conference lead.

  LIU Post leads the all-time series, 12-7, but the Falcons have taken six of the ten that have been played in Waltham. This is the third time that the two clubs have met twice in the same season, the most recent time happening in 2001. Bentley won by three at home on Nov. 3, 40-37, and the Pioneers avenged that two weeks later in the Northeast-10 Championship, 43-6, down on Long Island.

Bentley made two trips to what was then C.W. Post in 1996, falling 14-0 in the regular season and 29-0 in the ECAC IFC Bowl five weeks later.

BENTLEY BRIEFS: Junior Tyler Ford (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan HS) remains on target to break his the school record for season punting average that he set last year. He's currently at 41.9, two yards beyond his 2014 norm … Bentley's 30 points against LIU Post was a season-high, as was its 426 yards total offense … Kavanaugh's teams are 8-5 when they finish with a positive turnover margin, including 5-2 this season … This year's team is only a couple seconds away from being undefeated at home … Freshman Drew Mahoney (West Suffield, Conn./Suffield Academy) had a Bentley season-high 204 all-purpose yards against LIU Post, including five kickoff returns for 137 yards (27.6 average). He's fifth in the NE-10 in kickoff returns.