By John Connolly, Boston Herald


Bentley coach Peter Yetten has enough talent on hand to warrant the Falcons being the second choice among league coaches in the 2008 Northeast-10 preseason poll behind Southern Connecticut. But no matter how you sugar-coat it, the team has a gaping hole on the offensive line to fill.

How big?

Try 6-foot-4, 300 pounds.

And Mackenzie Bernadeau isn’t the only missing part from last year’s 7-3 squad. Also gone are NE-10 defensive player of the year Paul Tetzel and conference defensive lineman of the year Scott Miller.

Still, with a dozen returning starters, the Falcons’ cupboard is far from bare.

“That’s the whole thing,” Yetten said about the prospects of replacing Bernadeau, who was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round of last spring’s NFL draft and still is on the roster. “We picked up a couple of young freshman linemen that might come along, so we might be OK up front.

“I think we’ll be more balanced this year between pass and run. I think we have a lot of young kids moving up that I think we’ll be all right.”

The Falcons provided evidence of offensive balance and grit on defense in staging a fourth-quarter rally to beat a tough nonleague opponent, Millersville, 35-22, in its 2008 season opener.

Senior quarterback John White, a 6-4 product of Kingston and Archbishop Williams who threw for 18 touchdowns last season, reached the 5,000-yard plateau (5,318) for his career by tossing for 371 yards and four touchdowns in the win. White’s favorite targets were again senior John Studley (10 receptions, 157 yards) and sophomore Kyle Tuthill (nine catches, 183 yards). Junior Tyler McNamara of Medway, who kicked a school-record 14 field goals last season, also is back.

“We had the Washington Redksins in last week to look at White,” Yetten said. “They like his arm strength, and Studley could be our Wes Welker. So, we have some kids we can get the ball to.”

The defense held Millersville to 267 yards, led by junior nose tackle Darryl Laforest of Roslindale and Belmont High and junior linebacker Mike Duffy of Plymouth and BC High. Duffy had a monster opener with 10 tackles, including three sacks.

“Laforest kind of slipped through the cracks,” Yetten said. “Potentially, he could be defensive lineman of the year in our league. He’s a beast. He benches over 500 pounds. He’s our next pro prospect.”

The Falcons schedule features three nonconference games before their NE-10 slate begins at American International on Sept. 20. Bentley visits Football Championship Subdivision foe Sacred Heart on Saturday before returning home to face sixth-ranked Division 2 entrant Carson-Newman.

“I think we can be pretty good,” Yetten said. “We have our work cut out for us. We’ll just have to button our chin straps and get to work.”

Coach Rich Cavanaugh’s Southern Connecticut squad reached the Div. 2 playoffs for a third straight season and recorded the program’s first postseason win, defeating Bryant, 45-28, at Jess Dow Field. The Owls will be led by preseason All-America candidate Jarom Freeman (school-record 1,906 rushing yards in 2007).

Bryant, meanwhile, has moved up the NCAA ladder to the Football Championship Subdivision.

merican International, coming off a 7-3 season, was tabbed third in the poll and has two bona fide performers at quarterback in senior Shane Murphy, who was injured for much of last year, and sophomore Rob Parent, who filled in admirably after Murphy was hurt in the opener. The wideout position is deep, led by Tyler Scaccia (50 catches, 846 yards, five TDs last season). Junior Terrence Holley (75 tackles) paces the linebackers.

Stonehill coach Robert Talley enters his second season after leading the Skyhawks to their first winning season in a decade (5-3). Nine offensive starters return led by senior quarterback Cruz Parsons and backs Jeff Payne and Eddie Vachon, a sophomore from Newton.cw0cw0

Assumption opened with a 42-21 loss to Sacred Heart and was picked sixth, followed by seventh-place Pace and last-place Saint Anselm. Both the Greyhounds (Adam Fuller) and Hawks (Patrick Murphy) feature new coaches.