The University of New Haven football team will be entering their 41st season and Charger Nation is ready to fire the cannon after every touchdown. Last season, the Chargers finished 6-4 overall with a 5-4 NE-10 Conference record. Which was good enough for a fourth-place finish in the NE-10 and kept the team out of the NCAA playoffs.

The program has not recorded less than six conference wins since 2009, when the team went 4-4 and 5-5 overall. 2017 brought two heartbreaking losses to conference opponents LIU Post (34-35) and Bentley (24-27 OT) that could have changed the outcome of the season, but in football there are no excuses.

2018 is both a fresh start and another year of building, as the head coach, Chris Pincince, will be returning the majority of his roster from last year. In an interview with the members of the Charge Up in April, Coach Pincince said that his goal was to assemble the best 90-95 man roster ashe could,coming into training camp.

“After that we always want to compete for a NE-10 championship, we always want to be in the top 2 or 3 in our conference and if we can stay healthy and the ball happens to roll our way we hope to be in the NCAA playoffs at the end of every season” said Pincince.

One of the biggest factors for the 2018 season is that the Chargers will return their starting quarterback of the last three seasons, senior Ajee Patterson. Patterson will also be entering his sixth season with the program.

In 2017, he completed 60 percent of his passes for a career high of 2,611 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also led the team with seven rushing touchdowns and was named MVP.

The team will also returnone of their leading receivers, senior Devin Martin. Martin had a breakout season in 2017, recording 46 receptions for 836 yards and five touchdowns. Martin had more receptions in 2017 than he did in 2015-16 combined, while also nearly doubling his total yardage from 2016 and 2015. This quarterback-receiver combination will be exciting to watch in 2018.  

The Chargers were picked to finish fourth in the conference in the NE-10 Preseason Coaches Poll. Finishing  behind defen

ding champion Assumption, LIU Post and Bentley. Crosstown rival Southern Connecticut State University waspicked to finish fifth.

The football season will kick off September 1 as the Chargers take on Division I Northeast Conference member, Bryant University on the road. NE-10 Conference play will begin on September 8 as they take on Pace University. The Chargers’ home opener will be against crosstown rival Southern Connecticut State on September 15.