Fumbles, upsets, the order of the day
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Liberty League contenders RPI and Hobart were both upset in their out-of-conference foes. RPI lost to Utica, a fourth-year program, 9-7. Utica played its first varsity football season in 2001. It was the Pioneers’ fourth win in as many years and first two-game winning streak in their history.
Hobart downed Franklin and Marshall 35-13. It was the Statesmen’s first loss to the Diplomats in eight games. F&M’s most recent win against Hobart was 38-24 at home in 1996.
Rowan rebounded from its loss to D-II Southern Connecticut by trouncing Western Connecticut 43-7. It was the Colonials’ first NJAC game.
The Norwich Cadets retained “The Mug” in a 24-14 come-from-behind winner against Coast Guard. It is the Cadets third win in a row.
New Jersey slogged through the mud at McCarthy Stadium in Philadelphia against Division I-AA non-scholarship La Salle, and clung to a 6-0 victory.
Utica’s the only one not surprised
Utica earned the biggest victory in its four-year football history, defeating No. 17 RPI, a 2003 national semifinalist, 9-7 on Saturday in front of a packed house at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.
The victory marks the first-ever win streak for the Pioneers, who defeated Husson 46-24 in Week 2. They now stand at 2-1 overall, the first time the team has ever been over .500.
RPI, a team ranked No. 17 in Division III and a national semifinalist in 2003, amassed 589 yards of total offense against Endicott in a 42-7 win last week. I guess Utica forgot to look at the polls.
"To be quite honest, the only ones not surprised by (the win) are the players, coaches and the program. We knew if we kept working, this would happen," said Pioneer coach Mike Kemp in the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
With two minutes into the second quarter, Utica quarterback Nick Martin, hit wide receiver James Proniewych in stride at the 3-yard line for a touchdown to cap a seven-play, 67-yard drive.
Mike Blanchfield kicked a 17-yard field goal with 6:02 left in the third quarter for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers dominated both sides of the field for much of the game. Offensively, the team had a big day on ground, racking up 207 total rushing yards. Sophomore running back Tyrell Robinson proved to be the sparkplug the offense needed, gaining 137 yards on a team-record 39 carries, and was a major reason for most of the Pioneers' 15 first downs. Sophomore quarterback Nick Martin was 8-for-23 on the day, including a 32-yard touchdown pass to freshman James Proniewych. Martin also rushed for 33 yards on 10 carries.
RPI quarterback Chad Wysocki engineered a late fourth quarter drive ending in a 5-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Jon Branche with 2:17 left in the game for RPI’s only score.
"Last year, we had a tough time," Robinson told the paper. "It feels good not only to win, but win back-to-back games. Especially against a playoff team."
Defensively, the Pioneers were able to shut out the Engineers until late in the fourth quarter. Senior Anthony Venturino led the way with 12½ stops, two breakups and one sack. He also had two interceptions, the last one coming with 1:14 left in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. Senior William Vorris put pressure on RPI's quarterbacks all game and came up with three sacks.
"(Venturino) made some absolutely huge plays," Kemp said. "He moved from outside linebacker to strong safety. We felt we had adequate linebackers. In our defensive scheme, your safety has to be your best defensive athlete."
Rowan introduces W. Conn to NJAC
Arriving in Danbury after battling two tough non-conference opponents in prior weeks, Rowan easily handled Western Connecticut 43-7 in the Colonials New Jersey Athletic Conference opener in front of 875 fans at Danbury’s Westside Athletic Complex.
Head coach Jay Accorsi tweaked his starting lineup trying to improve the performance on both sides of the ball. Senior Mike Seidenberg a tight end and backup quarterback was moved to outside linebacker. Seidenberg also handled the punting duties, replacing previous starter Jon-Michael Shaddow.
Since Western Connecticut plays a similar spread offense to Rowan’s, the Profs decided to go away from their base 4-3 defense to a 3-4. Its looks like the tweaking worked.
Rowan scored 43 unanswered points before Western Connecticut’s lone touchdown in the fourth quarter for a 43-7 conference victory on Saturday afternoon. The Profs are 2-1 overall and 1-0 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.
Using nine different receivers quarterback Mike Orihel led the Profs with 241 yards passing and three touchdowns.
Rowan had a 7-0 lead after the first quarter. At 5:25, running back Brandon Medine scored with a 26 yard run which was the third play of the drive that covered 42 yards. The Profs led 35-0 at the half after scoring 28 points in the second quarter. Pat Thompson had a nine-yard touchdown run at 12:11. The drive took 16 plays and totaled 85 yards. Berry had two catches in the drive for 17 yards and Medine had one carry for 11 yards. Orihel’s first touchdown pass came on the next drive, a 17-yarder to wide receiver Sakeen Wright at 9:12. His second was a 23-yard touchdown pass to Berry (4:26) and his third was nine yards to Silva (1:46). Berry also had a 10-yard catch in the drive that only took four plays, 50 yards. Silva’s touchdown drive was also four plays, 43-yards.
"We had a good of idea of how we wanted to play (Rowan) and what we wanted to do," said Colonial center Bucky Jordan in The (Danbury, Conn.) News-Times, "but penalties and other mistakes hurt. You can make mistakes and get away with them against the teams we played before today (Fitchburg State and Salve Regina) but you can't make them against a team like Rowan."
In the third quarter, Damian Shaddow made his first field goal of 25 yards at the 10-minute mark. The team safety came at 4:11 when cornerback Yasin York tackled running back Jason Adamson in the end zone. Shaddow ended the Profs’ scoring with a 22-yard field goal with 1:24 left in the quarter.
The Prof defense held the Colonials to 229 yards, 224 passing and five rushing on 30 rushing attempts. Seidenberg was the Profs’ tackle leader with eight followed by end Chinedu Njoku with seven. Linebacker Mike McClain added five tackles, one fumble recovery and one interception return for 42 yards. End Brian Bond and linebacker Sean Boyle each recovered a fumble.
Pat Thompson totaled 131 of Rowan’s 197 yards rushing in 19 attempts. Brandon Medine carried the ball eight times for 73 yards.
Colonial quarterback Joe DiMeglio made 28 completions in 53 attempts for 224 yards. Western Connecticut’s lone touchdown was a recovered fumble in the end zone by free safety Chris Venice. Venice ended the game with seven tackles and two fumble recoveries. David Cournoyer logged 86 yards with seven receptions. Linebacker Jason Alcin had 11 tackles.
"We had a great start on defense," Venice said in The News-Times. "We were going along so well for those first few series. Then the bottom kind of fell out."
F&M dumps Hobart 35-14
Franklin and Marshall quarterbacks Jeff Harner and Doug Hiltner combined with tailback Scott Stephen to complete 17-of-32 passing attempts for 243 yards as each tossed a touchdown as the Diplomats defeated Hobart 35-14.
At tailback, Stephen rushed for 58 yards, pulled in a 49-yard touchdown pass from Harner, returned two punts for 10 yards and completed an 11-yard TD pass to Derek Boyce to factor in nearly a third of his team's scoring as he upped his single season touchdown total to six touchdowns as he is averaging 12 points per game.
At quarterback, Harner completed seven of 14 attempts, including a 49-yard strike to Stephen, for 149 yards with two interceptions while rotating a QB with Hiltner who completed nine-of-17 attempts for 89 yards with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Boyce.
Trailing 7-0 with 10:40 left in the first quarter as Hobart quarterback Shawn Mizro hit Dan Suozzi for a 17 yard touchdown to cap a four-play, 31 yard drive following a fumble by Stephen at the F&M 31 on the Diplomats first snap, F&M fired back with a six-play, 74-yard scoring drive.
Starting at its own 26-yard line, Franklin and Marshall moved to midfield as Stephen rushed for 12 yards and Harner hit wide receiver Chris Wagner for 8 yards to move the ball to the F&M 46 yard line. Stephen rushed 5 yards before being stopped at the line of scrimmage to bring up second-and-10 from the Hobart 49 as Harner hit Stephen for a 49-yard scoring strike to knot the game at seven all with 2:07 left in the quarter.
Hobart tied the score on its next possession as Mizro found Chris Whipple with a 5-yard touchdown pass to finish a 12-play, 70-yard drive with 7:17 left in the first half.
Franklin and Marshall answered on its next possession as Hiltner took over at quarterback for Harner and led a 17 play, 80 yard drive capped by a an 11-yard halfback option pass by Stephen to Boyce on fourth-and-1 at the Hobart 11-yard line for the winning points with 55 seconds left in the half.
Late in the 4th quarter and deep in their own territory the Statesmen fumbled on fourth down. Josh Van Auken recovered the ball on the 22-yard line. The Diplomats took advantage of good field position as Hiltner found Boyce in the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown connection on third-and-10 for a 28-14 lead with 4:11 remaining on the clock.
The team put the game away following the kickoff as Hobart started at their own 14-yard line. On first down, Mizro was sacked for a loss of 9 yards by linebacker John Warnick and White back to the 5-yard line before Jack Holleran rushed for 2 yards to the 7. Facing third-and-17 from the 7, Mizro attempted to thread a pass, but F&M defensive back Paul Fields picked the pass off at the 12-yard line and raced into the end zone for a touchdown with 1:22 left on the game clock for the 35-14 final.
“Defensively we made some horrible mistakes and left people open when we were in man coverage,” said Hobart head coach Mike Cragg in the Finger Lakes Times. “There was some confusion, and they got a couple touchdowns when they shouldn’t have.
“Anybody that scores 35 against us, that’s a horrible day for (our defense).”
“We’re much, much more capable of playing a lot of better than we showed today,” Cragg concluded. “That being said, our league opens next week at RPI. That’s when the test really begins.
“Our preseason is over. This one hurts, but it shows us we’re not as good as we thought we were.”
Cadets keep mug with fourth-quarter comeback
Norwich scored all of its points in the fourth quarter Saturday, including a pair of touchdown receptions by freshman Pierre Garcon, as the Cadets defeated the Coast Guard Academy 24-14.
Coast Guard led 14-0 going into the fourth quarter, having gotten touchdown passes of 31 and 10 yards from Cory Anderson to Nick Seniuk, but missed an opportunity to make it 21-0 in the third quarter when Anderson was intercepted on first-and-10 from the Norwich 14.
The fourth quarter then belonged to Norwich, as the Cadets (3-0) scored on four of their five possessions and accumulated 174 of their 399 yards of total offense. It was Norwich's third straight victory over Coast Guard, including last year's 34-7 Freedom Football Conference victory in New London.
The teams are no longer in the same conference, with Coast Guard moving to the Liberty League and Norwich playing in the Empire 8.
Freshman wide receiver Pierre Garcon caught two touchdown passes, including a 49-yarder with 2:54 left in the fourth quarter to lead Norwich in the 70th meeting between the two schools for "The Mug," the trophy presented annually to the winner.
Norwich trailed 14-0 at the half after a pair of Coast Guard touchdown passes from junior quarterback Cory Anderson to senior wide receiver Nick Seniuk.
The Cadets (3-0) scored all 24 of their points in the fourth quarter, first on a circus catch by Garcon on a 34-yard pass from senior quarterback Matt Meehan. Coast Guard defensive back Justin Andrews tipped the pass, but Garcon ran underneath him to catch the deflection and score the touchdown, cutting the lead to 14-7 with 14:00 left in the game.
Norwich tied the game at 14-all on a 9-yard pass from Meehan to junior wide receiver Chase Jenne. Meehan scrambled on fourth-and-goal from the Coast Guard 9-yard line, retreating 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and evading three rushers, before unloading an off-balance prayer into the end zone that was answered when Jenne ran halfway across the end zone to catch the ball in traffic.
Meehan scrambled in for the two-point conversion to tie the game at 14 with 5:17 left in the game.
Norwich got the ball back after Coast Guard went three and out, with Meehan striking Garcon with a 49-yard bomb down the left side that Garcon caught at the five-yard line and ran in for the score to cap a 4-play, 71-yard drive that took just 1:48.
Senior kicker Rhett Soltas added a late 21-yard field goal for the Cadets to cap the scoring.
Meehan finished 16-for-28 for 245 yards and three touchdowns, while Garcon had six catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns.
Anderson finished 17-31 for 159 yards and two TDs. Jon Tillman had 20 carries for 95 yards for the Bears, who fell to 1-1.
Norwich won the "Little Army Navy Game" for the third straight year, but Coast Guard leads the series, 37-33-1.
New Jersey muddles on
New Jersey sophomore Cory Schoonover scored the only points of the game in an unconventional manner as the Lions defeated Division I-AA LaSalle on Saturday in McCarthy Stadium.
Schoonover blocked a punt on the LaSalle 30 yard line and returned it 30 yards for the only score of the first half at 12:25 in the second quarter as the two squads exchanged plays in the extremely muddy conditions. Junior kicker Blake Abbot missed the point after try as it was short and to the right in the driving rain.
"It would've been nice to put more points on the board," said Schoonover in the Trenton Times, his touchdown having held up as the only score of the day in TCNJ's 6-0 victory. "But our defense played tough the whole game.
Schoonover said of his game-changing play, "We had a return (formation) on that play, but nobody touched me. I came in untouched and blocked it, then it bounced right in front of me."
TCNJ (2-0) would hold the Explorers (0-3) to just three first downs and a total of 29 yards on 47 plays, while managing 146 yards of total offense on 64 plays.
The game’s leading rusher was junior running back Gregg Silvesti as he finished the contest with 89 yards on 27 carries with a long of 12 yards in the very sloppy conditions. Silvesti had 89 of the team’s 95 total rushing yards.
Senior running back Ken Triboletti netted 57 yards for LaSalle on 17 carries with a long of 16 yards.
Freshman quarterback Jeff Struble would come in the game off the bench and finish with a 3-for-10 effort with 38 yards passing for TCNJ in the win. Senior quarterback Vernard Abrams was 4-for-11 with 13 passing yards on the afternoon.
On defense, the Lions were led by senior lineman Justin Mannick who had eight stops, including four tackles for a loss. Senior Steve Vogt recorded six stops for the Lions, while junior back Miles Shanklin had a big afternoon with six tackles, a tackle for a loss, a pass breakup and an interception late in the fourth quarter to squelch an Explorer drive.
LaSalle’s freshman Jon Williams led the LaSalle defensive unit with his nine tackles including 2½ tackles for a loss. Sophomore Nick DePinto added nine stops as well with a sack for minus-5 yards.
Saturday’s contest marks the second straight year these two squads faced weather issues as a results of a hurricane. A year ago, a power outage on TCNJ’s campus sent the campus into darkness the entire day after high winds from Hurricane Isabel moved through the area and moved the game to the next day.
"It was a lot of fun to be a football player today," said TCNJ linebacker Ray Bateman in the Trenton Times, moments after Lions freshman quarterback Jeff Struble celebrated the victory by diving head-first into the glop and sliding 10 yards. "These are the games you'll talk about 10-15 years from now. How you'd make a tackle, get up with mud in your mouth and not be able to see. It doesn't get much better than that."
Games of the Week
No. 11 Ithaca at St. John Fisher 1 p.m., Pittsford, N.Y.: St. John Fisher is 3-0. They’ve played Ithaca tough the past two years, losing to Ithaca 20-19 in 2003 and 30-20 in 2002. Can the Cardinals get past the Bombers in 2004? Winner has the inside track in the E8.
Hobart at RPI 1 p.m., Troy, N.Y.: Both are 1-1 after being upset last week. Which team regroups to take an early lead in the Liberty League.
Brockport State at Frostburg State, 1 p.m., Frostburg, Md.: Frostburg State hung with Montclair State last week before falling 29-14. Brockport State blew out Newport News 52-6. This might be a good one. Salisbury proved last week that it isn’t invincible by barely beating Methodist 7-3. Winner of this game stays in line to catch Salisbury if the Sea Gulls stumble.