58 miles of U.S. 13
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The Wolverines are 7-1 after beating ACFC opponent Brockport State 45-21, while Salisbury is still undefeated at 8-0.
Wesley coach Mike Drass said he is ready to face the Sea Gulls.
“I’m excited to play a game with playoff ramification,” Drass said Monday via telephone. “This game could determine the conference title. Our goal is to get into games like this one. It’s good to be playing meaningful games at the end of the season.”
Is it ever meaningful -- both teams are in the top 10 of the D3football.com national poll, with Salisbury at No. 9 and Wesley at No. 10.
This season, Wesley has outscored their opponents 283-124, and Salisbury has outscored theirs by a 370-124 margin and the Sea Gulls are scoring 45 points per game.
The last four years, Salisbury has won two (in 2003 and 2004) and Wesley has won two (in 2005 and 2006).
They call it the “Route 13 rivalry,” and it’s for good reason. The two schools are a mere 58 miles apart following U.S. Route 13 from Dover, Del., south until you cross into Maryland and hit Salisbury.
“They are our crosstown rival,” said Salisbury coach Sherman Wood. “We recruit against each other. A game like this is good for the programs and the community surrounding both. We want the region and the nation to realize that we have two quality football programs.”
Wesley will have to work hard to stop Salisbury’s four-headed monster at running back with Jamar Garner, Ronnie Curley, Ronnie Shockley and Valdase Morris.
Garner leads the team with 632 yards, Curley is next at 568, Shockley comes in a close third at 535, and Morris, having only carried the ball 41 times all season, is at 454.
Seven guys have at least 100 yards this season for the Sea Gulls.
“We need to wrap up and bring the man down to the ground on tackles,” Drass said. “If we go in there trying to throw a shoulder, all of those backs will gain yardage. We need to be disciplined in our assignments.”
Wood said that his potent rushing attack gives them a slight advantage.
“They can’t key in one guy or one position,” Wood said. “We just need to take care of things up front.”
For Salisbury, Wood’s defense will have to account for wide receiver and punt returner Larry Beavers and Wolverine quarterback Jason Schatz.
Beavers is second on the team with 30 catches behind this week’s ACFC co-offensive player of the week Michael Clarke, and is in a tie with Clarke with six touchdown catches.
He has also returned two kickoffs for touchdowns so far this season.
“We have our hands full,” Wood said. “We can’t ignore a guy like Beavers. We have to execute – we have a good team ourselves. We have to stick to our cover lanes and execute ... he’s going to get the ball no matter where we kick it.”
They can’t ignore tailback Mike Pennewell either, who already has over 1,100 yards rushing this year.
Another tough task for Salisbury’s offense is how to handle All-American defensive end Bryan Robinson, who has 57 total tackles, 19 for loss and nine sacks.
“He’s hard to defend, and he’ll make plays, but there’s 11 people on that field, and they have three other guys on the line that are good too,” Wood said. “We just have to do what we’ve done all year and execute.”
A good example of execution was last week against Becker. In a 79-20 victory Saturday, Salisbury set four school records in their last game before facing the Wolverines.
They ran for 596 yards, breaking the old record of 563 set Nov. 15, 1975 against Frostburg State.
They scored 10 rushing touchdowns, breaking the record of nine set Oct. 15, 1988 against Wesley.
They accumulated 671 total yards, breaking the record of 633, and broke the record for points scored in a game, surpassed the 77 scored on Oct. 1, 2005 against Newport News.
But in no way does Wood look at that game as a tuneup for the Wolverines.
“Our goal at the end of that game was to play as many guys as possible and those guys wanted to show they are as good as the No. 1’s,” Wood said. “We executed well against Becker, but they have some good players as well.”
In the end, it comes down to the basics.
“We’ve worked hard to execute on the field,” Drass said. “We just need to follow our game plan. Nothing’s going to change. We have to defend the option, we have to figure out the 3-5 (defense). We need to play hard for 60 minutes.”
My prediction: 20-17. Salisbury wins and stays undefeated.
Some Empire 8 discussion
Could we have two Empire 8 teams in the field of 32 at the end of the season?
Depending how games play out in other parts of the country, there is a slight chance.
If Hartwick wins out, and St. John Fisher beats Alfred in the final week of the regular season, all three will be 5-1 in conference, with each team having a win against the other (Hartwick beat St. John Fisher; St. John Fisher beat Alfred, and Alfred beat Hartwick).
I think Hartwick gets left out though, in any case, because they have two losses overall, and one of those was a really bad out-of-conference 48-21 loss to the NEFC’s Western New England, which I think excludes them from NCAA talk.
But having almost half the conference in the discussion all the way through Week 8 proves how good the East is.
On the same note, the East Region has seven teams ranked in the d3football.com Top 25 poll, and two others receiving votes. The East has a good a chance as any to prove it this year in the playoffs (What a concept, Division I).
Just a reminder on how the playoffs are set up, with a nod to Pat Coleman and Keith McMillan:
32 teams get in the “Big Dance.”
22 conferences, including the Empire 8, the Liberty League and the New Jersey Athletic Conference, get automatic bids for the winner.
There are three Pool B bids for conferences that don’t get the automatic qualifier, including the Atlantic Central Football Conference.
Then there are seven at-large bids.
Cleaning up the NJAC
There’s a little more clarity in the NJAC this week after Cortland State routed Montclair State, 43-13, and Kean upset Rowan in overtime 35-28.
With The College of New Jersey doubling up on Western Connecticut, 42-21, Cortland and TCNJ are two games ahead of Montclair State and Rowan, and the game this week between the Red Dragons and Lions will probably decide the NJAC.
Despite their one-loss record, Cortland is starting to get a little more publicity on the national scene, and I think a 30-point win over a nationally ranked opponent will help matters on that front.
For Kean, the win over Rowan was the first for them since 1994, and it was a good time for it as Kean, projected by many to have an ECAC or NCAA-type season, to start playing spoiler for other teams’ seasons.
St. John Fisher followed up last year’s second-round playoff win over Springfield with a 35-14 win on Saturday, and held All-American Chris Sharpe to only 15 carries and 46 yards, almost 100 yards below his average, which was 12th in the country at 131.7 yards per game before facing the Cardinals.
They also did something that had only happened once in the last 18 games prior to this one – they held Sharpe out of the end zone.
St. John Fisher senior defensive back Steve Stepnick had 17 tackles, 10 of those unassisted.
Easy to score when the offense doesn’t even have to take the field
RPI sophomore defensive back Tim Acker helped the Engineers to a couple of zero-play drives and scores when he returned not one, but two punts for touchdowns in the second quarter against the Merchant Marine Academy. The first return was for 85 yards, breaking the school record for punt return length by two yards. The return was also the first for RPI since Nov. 10, 1973, when Vince Riccardi returned the 83-yarder against St. Lawrence.
Acker also helped on the defensive side of the ball as well, registering four tackles, as the Engineers beat the Merchant Marine Academy 41-3.
Great performances
Wesley’s Mike Pennewell had 158 yards rushing against Brockport in the Wolverines’ 45-21 win, and it was the sixth straight time Pennewell has rushed for over 100 yards in a game.
Alfred’s Vinson Hendrix has done the same in seven of the last eight games as he rushed 21 times for 165 yards in Alfred 53-21 rout of Husson.
Speaking of Alfred, senior quarterback Paul Keeley went 14-for-28 for 288 yards and five touchdowns. He fell off some on the race for the completion percentage record, but I think he’ll take the five touchdowns and a win any day over that record.
Sophomore Jared Manzer caught three of Keeley’s touchdown passes and also returned a punt for a touchdown as well. He had 274 all-purpose yards on the day.
Hobart’s Andrew Strom continuing his good season, contributing five total touchdowns, three passing and two rushing, in the Statesmen’s 56-21 win over St. Lawrence.
Hobart’s defense also did a good job in holding the Saints to 37 total rushing yards on the day.
Rochester improved to 3-1 in the Liberty League with a 42-27 win over Worcester Polytech.
The Yellowjackets rushed for 231 yards as a team as they are right back into the conference race with Union, RPI and Hobart. Senior Matt Bielecki and freshman Clarence Onyiriuka both rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns each.
Utica’s Jim Pincher had nine catches for 99 yards against Ithaca.
Record breakers/milestones
Cortland State senior defensive back Greg Steward intercepted two passes, including an 87-yarder for a touchdown in the Red Dragons’ 43-13 win over Montclair State.
The interception return was the second-longest in Cortland history.
Newport News and SUNY-Maritime played in the Mariners Classic, but unfortunately, the game was nowhere near classic, as Newport News blasted the Privateers 60-0. The Builders’ Sam Arnold carried the ball 30 times for a career-high 202 yards, second most in 24 years.
Builders senior wide receiver Travis Reid continues along his career record-breaking pace, catching eight passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns on the day.
He now has 50 catches this season, breaking the record of 48 he set last year, and he has 2,559 yards receiving in his career, pushing him past former Builder Andre Moss for the career mark.
Something I don’t understand (homer edition)
Ithaca routed Utica on Saturday 44-7, and I can’t figure out why Utica looks bad at times (penalties, fumbles, etc.), but then can come out with a perfect nine-play, 60-yard drive to score a touchdown, then go back to making bad penalties?
I just hope for more consistency. I believe Utica is a team that is this close to making that next step, despite the fact that the scores don’t look very good. They just need more consistency.
East Region Top 10
1. Alfred
2. Wesley
3. Salisbury
4. RPI
5. St. John Fisher
6. Cortland
7. Hobart
8. The College of New Jersey
9. Hartwick
10. Ithaca
I moved some things around this week. As good as RPI looked against the Merchant Marine Academy, I felt Wesley and Salisbury looked as good or better against their respective opponents. St. John Fisher stays where they are because they beat Springfield. I switched around Cortland and Hobart from last week, but I couldn’t move up Cortland higher than sixth because all of the other teams ahead of them are getting the job done and winning.
World Series prediction
Rockies have the winning streak and all of that, but I think a nine-day layoff between NLCS and World Series is way too long, and I think they’ve cooled off in the snow in Denver.
The Red Sox are getting hot at the right time, and almost of the bats in the lineup are going good. I’m going to say Red Sox in 6 games for the championship.
Looking for ideas
If anyone has any criticism, feedback or some ideas to feature in the Around the East Region column, I would like to hear them. Please e-mail me at adam.samrov@d3football.com with anything you’ve got.