Anthony Morello

LIU lost 17-10 to New Haven. Duquesne lost 13-10 to RMU. Stonehill lost 31-7 to CCSU. All 3 teams in the tie lost, and CCSU is 5-0. LIU, Duquesne, and Stonehill are 3-2. CCSU can wrap the conference up with a win @ LIU next week.

The NEC football race is heating up, and there are a lot of possibilities heading into today’s games. LIU, Stonehill, and Duquesne are all tied at 3-1 in conference play. The Sharks have already faced both teams, beating Duquesne on the road in Pittsburgh but falling to Stonehill at home two weeks ago. Meanwhile, CCSU sits alone in first place at 4-0. The Blue Devils control their own destiny. If they win their remaining three conference games, they’ll finish 7-0 and claim the NEC championship. The interesting part? Those final three games are against Stonehill, LIU, and Duquesne, in that order. Let’s break down the three-way tie: All three teams are currently 1-1 against the other two: LIU (1-1): Beat Duquesne, lost to Stonehill. Stonehill (1-1): Beat LIU, lost to Duquesne. Duquesne (1-1): Beat Stonehill, lost to LIU. The head-to-head tiebreaker is currently even, making the remaining conference games even more important. Here’s where today’s games come into play: LIU vs. New Haven (12 PM) For the Sharks, today’s game is a must-win. A victory moves LIU to 4-1 in conference play and sets up an enormous matchup against CCSU next week. A loss would drop the Sharks to 3-2 and make their path to the conference championship significantly more difficult. CCSU vs. Stonehill This might be the biggest game of the day for the conference race. If Stonehill wins, they’ll move into first place and gain a massive advantage in the standings. If CCSU wins, the Blue Devils remain undefeated in conference play and put Stonehill in a difficult position at 3-2. Duquesne vs. Robert Morris Duquesne needs to handle its business today. The Dukes also have the head-to-head tiebreaker over Stonehill, which could become extremely important as the season winds down. Their ideal scenario is a Duquesne win combined with a Stonehill upset over CCSU. So, who should LIU be rooting for? In my opinion, it’s pretty simple: LIU should be rooting for CCSU to beat Stonehill. You don’t want Stonehill moving to 4-1 and gaining the advantage over LIU in the head-to-head matchup. If LIU takes care of business today, a CCSU victory would set up a massive opportunity next week. The bottom line: CCSU controls its own destiny. LIU needs to win today to keep its championship hopes alive. Stonehill has an opportunity to take over first place, and Duquesne is still very much in the mix. Three weeks. Three massive games for CCSU. And potentially, three weeks that will determine who represents the NEC at the top of the conference. A lot of possibilities, but one thing is certain: The NEC championship race is far from over. I’ll be on the call for LIU vs. New Haven at 12 PM. WCWP.org @grening_joshua @necblitz

Huge game for LIU!

LIU Football has started 3-0 in conference. Hard-fought win Saturday @ Wagner. Literally no offense in the first half- the 3rd quarter is when all of the scoring happened. I always say the resilience of this team is so strong. After Wagner punted and downed the Sharks at the half-yard line, Wagner’s defense was able to force LIU into a safety. That made the score 9-7 in the 3rd quarter, and in a game where offense was hard to come by to that point, those 2 points could’ve seemed like 20. Wagner got the ball back, and I said on WCWP’s broadcast this is when someone has to make a play. That’s when LIU LB Jackson Barry strip sacked Wagner’s QB Ben Newman and forced a turnover. LIU already in opponent territory was able to get in the endzone via a 4 yard TD pass by Sam Slade (RB) to TE Gianni Marino. The extra point was good by K Lance Maiberg, who got the start at kicker Saturday. 14-9 Sharks. Defense held up the rest of the game, and LIU was able to take home the W. Wins in prior weeks were against Mercyhurst (0-2) and Duquesne (1-1) Heck of a win in Pittsburgh vs Duquesne. Sharks DB Trey Watkins had the game sealing pick in that one. The Sharks have a lot to look forward to as they welcome Stonehill (1-1) to Brookville on Saturday at 12pm. #FinsUp @necblitz #FCS #football

Steelers training facility before big game vs Duquesne tomorrow!!!

Coverage starts NOW on WCWP.org for LIU vs Mercyhurst!! Myself and Joshua Grening on the call.

20-3 FIU over LIU last Saturday. Finished the non-conference slate for LIU. 0-5 record. Yes, it sounds exactly what you don’t want. But there were silver linings along the way. Let’s go back to last year. LIU was 1-3 going into their conference schedule. The first week was a 55-0 loss to Florida. That lone win was the greatest win in their program history, being a 28-23 upset over EMU. Injuries struck, and that included the EMU game, where QB Ethan Greenwood went down in the 2nd quarter. The peak of the season was the first play the next game, homecoming vs Sacred Heart. The first play of the game was a 75-yard run by QB Luca Stanzani. Stanzani got hurt in that game as well. LIU also blew a 21-7 lead in that game and lost 24-21. They pivoted to backup Chris Howell, who started the last non-conference game against URI and played most in the first two conference games. LIU lost all three of those games. They were 1-5 at that point, and once healthy they turned around their season and went 5-1 the rest of the way. They finished 6-6, and I always like saying this fact. That one loss in the last six games was against CCSU, the eventual NEC champion. LIU lost 10-7. They had the ball with eleven seconds left on the two yard line and didn’t score. If they were to win that game and every other result stood in the NEC, they would’ve been conference champions with a 4-3 conference record. So let’s fast forward to this year. The injury bug has struck again with the quarterbacks. There hasn’t been a game where both were 100% since week 1. That has contributed to the 0-5 start. Leading rusher (that isn’t a QB) Nathan Gray is out as well. The competition has been tough as well. UND and Villanova are both top 25 FCS teams. (preseason, I understand Villanova may not be anymore) Kansas and FIU are FBS schools. Now, LIU gets to face teams on similar levels. There is a lot of hope for this team. The receiving core and passing game are miles better than last year. WR Josiah Brown highlights that group. As mentioned above, RB Nathan Gray is out for now, but in the meantime I think we see a Sam Slade breakout soon. He’s going to have his breakout game soon. The defense has been a lot better these last two games. 20 points against Villanova and FIU each. A pick-6 by DB Braylon Vincent headlined the game vs Villanova. DB Xavier Cannaday had an INT of his own at FIU. DL Rodney Mills has been great on the line. LB Rafael Fasolino is a tackle machine. Transfer DBs Ryan Maxwell and LJ Hall have been very productive. You can’t forget about LB Jackson Barry as well. Let’s go to special teams. Will Johnson made a 46 yard field goal at FIU. That’s some range right there. LIU is going to make their statement. The record isn’t 0-5 anymore. It’s 0-0 and ready for the games that really matter. LIU welcomes Mercyhurst to Brookville Saturday at 12pm. Pregame starts at 11:45 on WCWP.org. #FinsUp @necblitz @grening_joshua

LIU’s last non-conference game comes tonight at 6pm at FIU. It’s going to be a tough one, but we said the same thing about Villanova last week and the Sharks were 2:44 from pulling off the upset. Catch Josh and I live at 5:45 for coverage throughout the night at WCWP.org. #FinsUp

Homecoming Pregame Show 2026- The Sharks suffered a tough loss on Homecoming coming off a loss to UAlbany the week prior. That UAlbany game was a wash, the Sharks were trailing 14-7 at the half but in the third quarter the Great Danes scored 21 answered and ultimately lost 35-13. This week was different. Defenses reigned until the Sharks took the first bite and led 3-0 after a Will Johnson FG. Villanova tied that score up before the first half closed, making it 3-3. A lot of designed QB runs by Ethan Greenwood. That was my observation. Coach Ron Cooper in the pregame show said Luca Stanzani was “banged up, 80-85%” so we didn’t see much of him. In the third quarter Villanova went ahead after RB Ja’Briel Mace punched it in for 6. The extra point was good, making it 10-3. The Sharks answered back with a field goal, but again the Wildcats reciprocated that. Plus 3 to both scores… At 13-6, the Sharks had their backs against the wall. CB Braylon Vincent had the big play of the day, with a pick-6 for the Sharks to tie the game up. The Sharks forced the Wildcats to punt, and the Sharks took the lead on another Will Johnson FG to make it 16-13 with 2:44 left. That wasn’t it. The Wildcats traveled all the way down the field to take the lead 20-16. The Sharks had the chance to reciprocate that with little time, but an interception halted that. 20-16 was the final score. The Sharks had three award winners- Co-Def Player of the Week in NEC LB Rafael Fasolino, who had 3.5 TFL and a sack, Ethan Greenwood for his productive dual-threat game, and K Will Johnson for his 3/3 performance. The Sharks travel to FIU this weekend looking to pick up their first win. #NECFootball #LIUFB @necblitz

WCWP.org FINS UP #LIUFootball #FinsUp