The day four future members of Patriots organization touched down at Stonehill

It’s been 20 years since four members of the Patriots’ organization, including director of player personnel Nick Caserio and offensive coordinator-quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels, took part in a romp that saw the Blue Streaks of John Carroll University defeat Stonehill, 56-3, in Easton.

The date was Sept. 5, 1998 – 20 years ago Wednesday.

The John Carroll University football team made the trip from University Heights, Ohio, to Stonehill College.

“That was my first football game as SID (sports information director) at Stonehill,” Bridgewater resident Jim Seavey, now the director of athletic communications at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, recalled. “I remember watching them warm up and it was like, ‘Wow!’ They must have had more than a hundred guys out there. It was pretty impressive. I was like, ‘What have we got ourselves into here?’”

It didn’t take the Chieftains, as they were known back then, to find out.

With an offense that featured four players who are now part of the Patriots organization, the Blue Streaks, who came into the game ranked fifth nationally in Division III, lived up to their billing.

Final score: John Carroll 56, Stonehill 3.

“I remember talking to their SID before the game and he was saying, ‘We’ve got a pretty good quarterback and a pretty good receiving corps,’” said Seavey. “Yeah. It was 35-0 at the end of the first quarter.

“Connie Driscoll was the Stonehill coach at the time and he was like, ‘What are you going to do?’ Connie had everybody prepared. The kids were ready to play. It’s just that John Carroll was the better team that day and I just remember (Nick) Caserio and (Josh) McDaniels being on that team, - the quarterback and wide receiver – and lo and behold here they are 20 years later back in New England. You think back now that here there were two college guys that nobody in these parts had ever heard of and 20 years later they’ve helped shape a dynasty.”

Yes, Caserio, who joined the Patriots’ organization as a personnel assistant in 2001 and has been their director of player personnel since Feb. 21, 2008, and McDaniels, who also joined the Pats as a personnel assistant in 2001, has served two different stints with them and has been their offensive coordinator-quarterbacks coach since 2012, were central figures on the John Carroll team that routed Stonehill in the programs’ lone meeting.

Caserio put on an absolute show, throwing for four touchdowns in the first quarter, two in a span of 21 seconds, while McDaniels hauled in a 45-yard pass to set up a score.

Two other members of the Patriots organization – director of pro personnel Dave Ziegler and assistant quarterbacks coach Jerry Schlupinski – were also members of that Blue Streaks team, each hauling in a TD pass from Caserio, the former a 28-yarder, the latter a 13-yarder. Ziegler went on to become a three-time All-Ohio Athletic Conference selection as a wide receiver-punt returner-kickoff returner at John Carroll, the school record holder in career return yards, return average and touchdowns, the latter playing fullback.

As for Caserio and McDaniels, they arrived at John Carroll as quarterbacks, McDaniels shifting positions after manning a backup role to Caserio earlier.

Caserio left John Carroll second to none, throwing for a school-record 8,434 yards, one of 16 school records he set en route to earning a spot in the school’s hall of fame.

“I played receiver my last two years,” said McDaniels, “and we had a lot of fun doing it.”

The trip to New England was a mix of football and fun.

“They stayed in the area, played the game on a Saturday afternoon at old Chieftain Stadium and then they were taking their team to Boston,” said Seavey. “They wanted to make it a complete weekend, a sightseeing, educational type of thing.”

“I remember the trip being an exciting thing,” said McDaniels. “Coming from Cleveland, Ohio, coming out here, flying out here, staying overnight, that was kind of a new experience for us because we never had flown anywhere before and we weren’t really sure of what we were getting into for an opponent because you weren’t as aware of them as you were of the teams in your conference.

“It was a great trip for our team. We stayed the day after (the game) and went on the duck boats into the harbor. So it was a great experience for a bunch of young guys to try to win a football game but at the same time to enjoy a little bit of some other culture.”

The season-opening game proved to be a preview of coming attractions for both teams, John Carroll going on to finish 8-2 that year while Stonehill went 1-9.

“It wasn’t a good day for Stonehill,” McDaniels reflected two decades years later. “We had fun.”