The sophomore running back, who had back-to-back games with more than 300 yards, has broken the Skyhawks single-season mark with 1,349 yards while scoring 14 rushing touchdowns.

BY Jim Fenton
BROCKTON ENTERPRISE

EASTON – His original plan for college was to attend Stony Brook University on Long Island and play Division 1 football.

Justin Felder lived in the Queens section of New York City and was set to go to school an hour away from home, committing to the Seawolves in January 2018 during his senior year at Holy Cross High School.

But then a running back from another Division 1 school was transferring to Stony Brook, pushing Felder down the depth chart, and he decided a month later to look for another school.

Stonehill College, a place that Felder was not very familiar with, came calling and he decided to make a trip to the campus.

"I knew nothing about Stonehill,″ said Felder. "The only thing I knew was that when I was a junior in high school, my center (Thomas DiPasquale) was a senior and he wound up going to Stonehill.″

Felder liked what he saw on the campus and with the football program, so he committed during the winter of 2018 to play at the Division 2 level in the Northeast-10 Conference.

The decision has worked out very well for both Felder and the Skyhawks.

Felder has put together the best season of any Stonehill running back, helping the Skyhawks to be part of a four-way tie for first place in the NE-10 entering the final day of the season.

The 5-foot-8 sophomore has broken program records for rushing yards in a season (1,349, seventh in the nation in Division 2), rushing and total touchdowns (14 and 16), all-purpose yards (1,964), points (96) and rushing yards in a game (314). He is the first NE-10 running back to have back-to-back 300-yard games, doing so the past two weeks.

It has been a season to remember for Felder with the final game Saturday afternoon at New Haven with the Skyhawks (6-3, 5-2 conference) needing a win to keep their NE-10 title hopes alive.

After deciding against Stony Brook and the college an hour away from home, Felder has found happiness and success at Stonehill.

"My mom reminds me of that all the time,″ said Felder. "She's like, 'If you went to Stony Brook, you probably wouldn't have even seen the field yet.' She always tells me I made the right decision and I'm in the right place.

"I think about that myself, too. I feel like I found a great place here.″

Felder was seventh out of seven running backs on the depth chart when he arrived at Stonehill as a freshman last summer. He worked his way up to the third spot behind Mike Cordova and Brian Kearns Jr., and when Cordova was able to play only five games due to injury, Felder was Kearns' backup.

He rushed for 429 yards and scored a pair of TDs as a freshman was going to be behind Kearns this season. But Kearns suffered a season-ending injury in the second game of the season on Sept. 14, and Felder has done the bulk of the running.

He surpassed the rushing record for yards in a season, set in 2000 by Tyrone Jefferson of Rockland with 1,267 yards and broke the touchdown and points records set by Eddie Vachon in 2010.

Felder had 314 yards on 24 carries against Southern Connecticut State on Nov. 2 and 311 yards a week later against Pace University. He has been the NE-10 offensive player of the week four times and was selected the Gold Helmet winner this week for the top performance in Divisions 2 and 3 in New England.

"The last two weeks, I've just been having fun, just playing football,″ said Felder, who has at least 100 yards in six of the past seven games. "I haven't been too concerned with the stats until after the game when everybody's screaming or when the announcer said over the loudspeaker how I broke a record.

"It's a dream come true. I made a goal after last season with my offensive coordinator. I told him my goal was 1,000 yards and 12 touchdowns. To be able to break that with three games left and then be able to do what I did after that is just amazing.

"I know the work I'm doing is putting me in the best position I can be.″

The Skyhawks won only two games a year ago, but they are challenging for the title one season later, and Felder's production has a lot to do with that.

"We've really leaned on him, especially the last two weeks,″ said coach Eli Gardner, "and he's obviously responded in such an amazing and historical way for both our program and the conference.

"We saw a ton of potential in him and lucky for us we're seeing that potential translate to production.″

Felder will be able to reflect on all that he's accomplished after the season and start working on his final two seasons at Stonehill. He already ranks seventh on the program's all-time rushing list with 1,778 yards.

"Coming in, I didn't know what to expect,″ said Felder. "When I got here, I saw that I was seven out of seven for running backs on the depth chart, so I knew I had work to do.

"It helped a lot playing last year. Coming into this year, I knew what to expect. It was a little shell-shocked at first as a freshman just because it was college football now and everybody's bigger, faster, stronger. The game moves quicker, but I got in a rhythm.″

The result has been a season to remember for Justin Felder with the rushing yards piling up.

Jim Fenton may be reached at jfenton@enterprisenews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFenton_ent.