Seahawks on the road for ECAC NorthEast Bowl

NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University football (6-4; 5-2 NEFC), winners of its last four games, has accepted a bid for the 2014 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) NorthEast Bowl Championship and will travel to Northfield, Vt., to face the Cadets of Norwich University (7-3; 5-2 ECFC) on Saturday, November 22 (12 p.m. kickoff at Sabine Field).

This marks the third appearance in four seasons for Seahawk football in the ECAC championships; in 2012, Salve Regina competed in the New England Football Conference (NEFC) Championship Game on the same weekend as the ECAC bowl games.

The Seahawks have appeared in five previous ECAC Bowl Championships, most recently in 2013 when they hosted the Colonials of Western Connecticut State University (lost, 48-35) at Gaudet Field. In 2011, the current seniors on the Seahawk squad were freshmen when Salve Regina hosted Worcester State University at Gaudet Field and won the championship, 26-6.

Norwich and Salve Regina have never met on a football field. The Cadets closed their regular season at home Saturday with a 48-28 loss to Castleton State University. Norwich will play in its third straight ECAC Bowl Game, the most recent of which came in 2013, when the Cadets lost to Springfield College, 28-27.

Second-year Seahawk head coach Kevin Gilmartin has some familiarity with the Cadets during his days on the Mount Ida coaching staff: "You know the personality of these players on the field or the cadets on the campus are going to match the exact description of the mindset of the team. And that is to be a very physical, hard-nosed team. And that is why they are only letting up 18 points a game."

Salve Regina enters Saturday's contest on a four-game winning streak after defeating Endicott College, 35-23, to end the regular season. Senior running back Dan Buonocore (Mahwah, N.J.) rushed for three touchdowns (7, 18, 3) and 124 yards on 30 carries to lead the Seahawks, and needs just nine more yards to become the fourth individual in school history to amass over 1,000 yards rushing in a single season (991).

Mark DeBiasio set the single-season record of 1,461 in 1998 after Jim Callahan had three seasons over the rushing milestone (1,122 in 1994; 1,105 in 1995; 1,106 in 1996). Lucas Arnold, DeBiasio's backfield mate, rushed for 1,162 yards in 2000, including the program's single-game high of 262 yards in a Salve Regina win at UMass Dartmouth (October 28, 2000).

Callahan played in the first of Salve Regina's ECAC Bowl Games on November 16, 1996, at Schenectady, N.Y., against Union College. The Dutchmen won their home game, 26-13.

DeBiasio rushed 29 times for 167 yards and three touchdowns to lead Salve Regina to a 36-6 victory over Plymouth State in the ECAC Northeast Division III Football Championship on November 21, 1998.

Other Salve Regina appearances in ECAC Bowl Games: