E8 rings Liberty's bell in Week 2
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The two New York-based conferences faced off in three games in Week 2, with the Empire 8 coming out on top in two of them.
In the Courage Bowl in Rochester, St. John Fisher beat Rochester 30-10. The Yellowjackets led 7-6 at the half, but the Cardinals took over in the second 30 minutes.
St. Lawrence beat the Norwich Cadets 17-13 in a game that came down to the final minutes.
And in one of the bigger upsets of the night (and I know I’ll hear it for this on the message boards), Union loses to Springfield 38-30. Springfield gave the Dutchmen more than they could handle and despite the down year in 2005, the Pride will be tough the rest of the year, proving it against the U.
I had Union winning the Liberty League in a tiebreaker situation against RPI and Hobart, but as strong as RPI looked in beating Endicott this week in a 27-7 win, RPI could definitely take over that top shot.
Many may say that losing Steve Anglietta will be the crushing blow for Union this season, as he suffered an injury in the preseason scrimmage versus Brown, but I think Union still has enough offensive weapons to be competitive in the race for the Liberty League title.
Record-breakers
Hobart quarterback Shawn Mizro broke the career record for passing touchdowns on Saturday during the 31-28 win over Dickinson. Mizro came into the season tied with 2004 graduate Craig Swanson with 47 touchdown throws, and he broke the record with a 9-yard TD to Steve Sorhaindo to put the Statesmen up 24-21. Mizro then got number 49 with 1:06 remaining, capping an 80-yard drive with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Ryan LiDrazzah.
Ithaca’s Alex Baez set a Bombers’ record during Saturday afternoon’s 45-7 rout of Buffalo State with a 98-yard touchdown run. An IC fumble set up the Bengals on the Bombers’ 10-yard line, but an incompletion on fourth-and-goal at the 2 gave Ithaca the ball back.
On the first play from scrimmage, Baez found a hole in the defense and outran the secondary for the score. Baez has 1,565 rushing yards in his career, 11th on the Bombers career list.
Defense wins games
Worcester Polytech held Worcester State to a mere 179 yards in offense. Also WPI senior cornerback Mike Hansen returned two interceptions for touchdowns.
The first interception return went for 50 yards and the other for 70 yards.
“This is the first time in my career that I’ve ever scored two touchdowns,” Hansen said in a release. “In the first (return), I had some great blocking. The second one I broke a few tackles and the rest was just a blur. The defensive line was great, putting pressure on the quarterback all game long. That made it a lot easier to stay in coverage and get a read on the play.”
Keeping with the defensive theme, Alfred was able to shut out Thiel 14-0 at Merrill Field in the season opener for the Saxons. Thiel was the Presidents’ Athletic Conference champions last year, and rolled to an 11-1 record, so it’s a big win for the Empire 8 and the East Region in general taking down a South Region power.
In recent years, the East has been down, not having a team playing in the Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl since Rowan faced off with Pacific Lutheran in 1999. 2006 could be shaping up to be a good year for the East.
Great defense abounded throughout the East Region on Saturday as RPI held Endicott to seven points, Brockport held Salisbury to just a field goal, Ithaca held Buffalo State to seven points, Alfred shut out Thiel, Husson held Utica to one touchdown, and in the service academies game, Merchant Marine held Coast Guard to one touchdown.
The “it’s the first year, I know how tough that can be” file
Cortland beats up on the “new guys” from Morrisville 52-14 Saturday.
From someone who was a member of a team starting up in its first year on a varsity level, I can speak from experience. It’s hard to get beat up week after week. Guys get very disillusioned with the whole concept when the team isn’t doing well, coaches are getting on you, and it seems like the whole campus thinks the football team and the program as a whole is a joke.
I don’t mean for this column to become a soapbox, but I think it can be appropriate to say that most fans want to see the team succeed, as it should be proud that its administrators decided to institute football as a Division III program in the first place. I think that it will take a while, but Morrisville will become successful in the near future. Cortland will be a great team this year, possibly good enough to challenge for the national championship. Taking on teams like that will get your butt kicked at first, but it will only make the team stronger in the long run. The worst game I ever saw was Ithaca beating up Utica 66-0, but the next year we came back and only lost 13-0, so things can get better.
Game to watch in Week 3
(This is a prediction edition, so I can eat crow if I’m way off.)
Brockport State against Cortland State, Chugger Davis Field: Brockport comes off a strong win against Salisbury, while Cortland comes off of the rout against Mo’ville. This one should be a barnburner, I would predict either a score like 42-35 or a defensive battle like 10-7. I say Cortland takes it either way.