For Lions, it's all about defense
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With little offense with both teams, it would take a play on defense to secure the win for the Lions
With 7:33 left in the fourth quarter and Rowan up 7-0, Profs freshman quarterback Tim Hagerty threw an interception that New Jersey free safety Andrew Larkin returned 82 yards for a score.
“I think maybe he tried to do a little too much,” Lions coach Eric Hamilton told Rowanfootball.com. “He’s a very smart kid and a good football player, (but) mistakes are part of learning.”
Larkin said the scheme that the defense ran put him in the right spot.
“We were in a zone blitz type of scheme. I was responsible for deep third; centerfield pretty much,” Larkin told Rowanfootball.com. “We had a linebacker underneath and [Hagerty] had to get the ball over the linebacker, but he threw it too high over the receiver and into my hands.”
After each team traded possessions, New Jersey’s sophomore linebacker Joe Spahn forced a fumble from senior Rob Richardson with 2:12 left at the Profs’ 12. Five plays and two minutes later, Matt Dalessio kicked an 18-yard field goal with five seconds left to put the Lions on top.
“We just played really hard. I’m very happy that after playing our oldest conference rivals Montclair and Rowan back-to-back that this young group was about [to win both],” Hamilton said. “It makes me very proud.”
TCNJ is now 4-1, with their only loss out-of-conference against Muhlenberg, 15-0, in week one.
“This was a good Division III football game. There was hard running on both sides and good hitting and tackling. It doesn’t get much better than this,” Hamilton said.
Thanks to Tom Wilson at rowanfootball.com for the help with this report. It’s nice to have another set of eyes to see games that I can’t get a chance to see with my regular day job.
Let’s hear it for offense
Despite losing to Alfred 46-36 in a big time Empire 8 clash at Merrill Field, Hartwick senior quarterback Jason Boltus had the day of his football life under center against the nationally ranked Saxons.
Boltus put up Brian Brohm-type numbers, going 38-for-69 for 553 yards and five touchdowns. That’s Heisman-esque. (Gagliardi-esque?) That crazy output of offense broke the Hartwick school record for passing yards in a game by almost a football field worth -- the old record was 483 yards set by Dan Pincelli against RPI Oct. 26, 2002 in a 39-38 loss.
Boltus also threw a 96-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior Lindy Crea.
The Saxons weren’t anything to sniff at on offense, either. Alfred senior quarterback Paul Keeley threw for 276 yards and six touchdowns. The six touchdowns set a school record and obliterated the old one, which was four, set by Keeley and four others.
Alfred sophomore running back Vinson Hendrix kept his streak of 100-yard rushing games intact at five, running for 137 yards.
Both team combined for 1,110 yards of offense, but on this day, it was the Saxons who came out on top. This puts Alfred in the driver seat’s in the Empire 8 at 3-0 in the conference, but they still have to run the gauntlet of Hobart (non-conference, but a tough game), Ithaca and St. John Fisher all away from Merrill Field.
Great performances
No. 15 Salisbury’s Ronnie Curley ran 29 times for 141 yards and two touchdowns in the Sea Gulls 20-7 win over former NAIA member and new Division III opponent Geneva. The Sea Gulls are 6-0 and in prime position for a Pool B bid.
Cortland junior defensive lineman Ben Nagle had three sacks against Kean.
Hobart’s Andrew Strom led the Statesmen to a 41-13 win over Susquehanna in Selinsgrove, Pa., Saturday night under the lights and he had no trouble in lighting up the scoreboard for Hobart.
Strom went 21-for-31 for 387 yards and four touchdowns, and each touchdown was caught by a different receiver.
Ryan LiDrazzah and Zach Schulz both had great games, with LiDrazzah catching six passes for 122 yards and a touchdown and Schulz catching five balls for 130 yards and a touchdown.
Ithaca’s Alex Baez had 116 yards against Norwich, and along with running mate Jamie Donovan’s 193 yards (see below), it was the first time since Oct. 1998 that two Bomber backs had rushed for 100 or more yards in the same game.
Ithaca’s defense also did a terrific job, holding the Cadets to 8 yards rushing on the day.
Newport News scored 50 against Morrisville State Saturday, beating the Mustangs 50-21. Going through the D3football.com archive back to 1999, I couldn’t find where the Builders scored 50 in one game before. In fact, it was the second-most points scored by the Builders in 23 years! So, it’s only fitting that a couple of guys had career days.
Senior wide receiver Travis Reid had 10 catches for 163 yards and two touchdowns -- the 10 catches was a career high -- and he was honored with an ACFC offensive player of the week award.
Union’s defense stepped up in Week 6, holding the Worcester Polytech offense, which had been firing on all cylinders in the first five weeks, to only three points in a 16-3 win at Frank Bailey Field. WPI could only manage 227 yards of total offense and went 4-for-15 on third down and 0-for-5 on fourth down.
That percentage is not going to win you many ball games. For Union, it’s their 12th consecutive victory over the Engineers from Massachusetts.
Record breakers/milestones
Ithaca senior running back Jamie Donovan ran 23 times for 193 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-0 shutout of Empire 8 opponent Norwich. When Donovan ended his day, he had 3,420 career rushing yards, enough to break the all-time Ithaca record held by Jeff Wittman (3,410) and set from 1989 to 1992.
St. John Fisher quarterback Rob Kramer threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns against Brockport State. The 312 yards were a career high for Kramer, who led the Cardinals to a 45–7 win.
The play in the Atlantic Central Football Conference started in earnest Saturday, and No. 14 Wesley set two school records in their 45-0 pasting of Frostburg State.
The Wolverines racked up 676 yards of total offense and 411 on the ground, both records. They also held Frostburg State to 73 yards of offense, which was a nice gift to all the alumni in attendance on Homecoming weekend in Dover, Del.
Cortland senior kicker Matthew Mintz set the Red Dragons’ school record for point after touchdowns in a row with 69 after kicking 5-for-5 against Kean in the team’s 35-14 win. Mintz passed the record held by George Oostmeyer (67).
Utica senior quarterback Greg Pinelli had one of the best days offensively in the Pioneers’ short history on Saturday as UC beat Mount Ida in a non-league contest, 29-27.
Pinelli went 29-for-43 for 363 yards, a career high, and three touchdowns. It was the second-highest passing total in Utica College history.
Utica receiver Cody Elliot caught 11 passes for 147 yards and two of Pinelli’s three touchdowns and the Pioneers’ Bryan Johnson had two interception returns for 110 yards, one of which was 91 yards. For his performance, Johnson was awarded an Empire 8 Co-defensive player of the week award.
Cortland senior cornerback Jeff Beck intercepted his 14th career pass, breaking the tie for the school record he shared with Stef Sair.
So much for those long, methodical drives
In the St. John Fisher game, Brockport was stopped on 4th and goal from the three. On the Cardinals’ first play from scrimmage, quarterback Rob Kramer ran play action with receiver Jimmy Smith. Smith caught a pass in stride at the 35 and outran the Golden Eagles defense enroute to a 97-yard touchdown, the longest in St. John Fisher history.
Also, as mentioned above, Hartwick quarterback Jason Boltus threw a 96-yard scoring pass to Lindy Crea against Alfred.
Two scoring plays of more than 90 yards. It must be something in the water in Western New York.
Oh yeah, by the way, the longest play in recent history in the East Region was 99 yards by RPI’s Jimmy Robertson.
Making the most of the opportunity
St. John Fisher receiver Jimmy Smith caught three passes against Brockport State. All three went for touchdowns.
Diaper dandy
Western Connecticut freshman tailback Wayne Neal ran for 149 yards on 22 carries and a touchdown in a 27-20 win over William Paterson. Neal has already been named as a 2-time New Jersey Athletic Conference offensive Rookie of the Week this season.
Automatic qualifier update
In the Empire 8, Alfred at 3-0 in conference is in the driver’s seat and in control of their own destiny for an NCAA bid. But they still have to face Ithaca and St. John Fisher both away from home in the last two weeks of the season.
Hartwick is second at 2-1, but they’ve been outscored in conference games, and they still have to face Springfield.
Springfield and St. John Fisher are both 1-1, but both have big conference games left, which means that one of these four teams will end up being left out.
I think three of these four will get playoff berths, but only one – Alfred – will get a NCAA playoff berth. I’m sure I’ll eat my words if Hartwick or St. John Fisher gets the Pool C, but it could definitely happen. More East region teams in the NCAAs can only be a good thing for the region as a whole, from top to bottom.
– In the Liberty League, both RPI and Union are tied at the top of the conference at 3-0, and Union is right back in the middle of things despite the 0-2 start in their out-of-conference losses against Muhlenberg, who is undefeated at 5-0 right now, and Springfield.
Hobart and Rochester are at the next tier in the Liberty League, both at 2-1.
For the third year in a row, could the division title be fought for along with the Shoes between RPI and Union? The game this year is Nov. 10 at Frank Bailey Field in Schenectady.
Here’s something to chew on -- Union and Hobart play the week before on Nov. 3. If RPI falls, does this game become the de facto title game in the Liberty League? And Rochester will have something to say about it as well. Rochester plays in Troy at RPI on Nov. 3, and if the Yellowjackets can play spoiler, we could have a jumbled mess at the top of the Liberty League standings.
In the New Jersey Athletic Conference, Cortland State and The College of New Jersey are both undefeated, with Cortland at 3-0 and New Jersey at 2-0.
Montclair State, Rowan and Western Connecticut are on the next tier at 1-1 in conference, and TCNJ has beaten both Montclair and Rowan already this season.
Cortland and West Conn play Saturday, and that will be a big game no matter who wins. If Cortland can take it, that will put the Red Dragons in the catbird seat for the NJAC’s AQ with only a few weeks left in the season. If Western Connecticut can win on the road at Chugger Davis Field, it will help to jumble up the standings and have four teams at the top of the conference all with one loss.
This is a conference that could come down to the final one or two games to decide who will be in the NCAAs, the ECACs, or going home completely.
After Cortland was snubbed last year at 9-1 from the NCAAs and then suffering a bad loss to RPI in the ECACs, the Red Dragons want to put the pedal down and snag the AQ that comes with winning the conference. My bold prediction: The second-place team in the NJAC gets a berth into the NCAAs. The real disappointment in the NJAC is Kean, who many thought would be a playoff contender, for not only the ECACs, but also the NCAAs, and at 2-3 overall and 0-2 in conference, that may not happen this year at all.
In the Atlantic Central Football Conference, there is no automatic qualifier, and Salisbury and Wesley look to be lapping the field over Brockport State, Newport News and Frostburg State.
Could both the Sea Gulls and Wolverines snag Pool B bids when all is said and done? It remains to be seen, and to find out, fans in the East will have to look out toward the rest of the country to see what happens.
East Region Poll for Week 6
1. Alfred
2. RPI
3. Wesley
4. St. John Fisher
5. Salisbury
6. The College of New Jersey
7. Hobart
8. Cortland State
9. Rowan
10. Ithaca
Hartwick gets a 10a placement here after the yeoman’s effort against Alfred at Merrill Field.
All feedback is appreciated. E-mail me at adam.samrov@d3football.com with ideas, critiques or anything.