McKoy Leads Colonials to Winning Season, Final Game Saturday

This article was written by Casey Kogut, Christina Purcell and Beth Turley.

 The Western Connecticut State University Colonials are inviting Danbury to the team's last home game on Nov. 16 in the Westside Athletic Complex in what has become a turnaround season.  As the team bounces back from multiple losing seasons, the school’s top player Octavias McKoy is starting to turn some heads.  

McKoy has recently broken the all-time NCAA single game record of rushed yards at 455 yards, breaking the 441yard record set by Dante Brown from Marrietta College back in 1996.  Last season the average rushing score per game was 93.8 yards, showcasing the significance of McKoy’s contribution to the Colonial’s improvement.

“If you look back at the history of college football, he’s had the best performance. No one has ever played in a football game and rushed for more yards than Octavias,” says coach Joe Loth, the head coach of the Colonials. For more information on Saturday's game, click here.  

McKoy was also awarded the Ray Gallant Insurance New England Football Writer’s Gridiron Club of Greater Boston Gold Helmet Award for the second time this season.  This honor is given to players in the MASCAC who established themselves for outstanding contributions to their team. 

With two seasons in a row ending with a 0-10 record, the attendance at games hasn’t been impressive. The football team is more known for their 21 straight losses than for their winning streaks.  However, this season is proving to be a turn around point for the Colonials as their confidence starts to boom, and the crowds begin to pour in.

With a couple of new strategies, the team is really starting to pull together.  Loth states his formula to getting together a good team is “recruiting, retention, developing the student-athlete and running sound football schemes.”  He continues, “We will relentlessly pursue excellence in all four of these areas at Western and in its move from the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) to the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC)."

Now, as spotlight starts to shine back onto the state school’s football team, they are more than willing to show off what they got.