Liberty League's final four battle
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But no team can win the title outright with just a victory. Each team has to win and get help from one of the others to rise to the top of the mountain.
As complicated as it sounds, D3football.com’s Keith McMillan did a terrific job on the Around The Nation podcast of explaining what’s going on and how each team can get the AQ.
Basically, each team has to win and then root for the team they beat in their head-to-head matchup earlier in the season.
For example, if Rochester beats Hobart in their game, they will root for RPI because the Yellowjackets beat them on Saturday. This would make both Rochester and RPI 6-1 in conference, but since Rochester beat RPI head-to-head, the Yellowjackets would earn the automatic bid.
If Hobart wins, they will root for Union, as they beat them on Saturday as well.
It works the same for the other two teams, too.
This week, Rochester came back in the fourth quarter to beat RPI 25-21 to run both teams conference records to 5-1.
Quarterback Adam Barrett scored on a 25-yard quarterback draw with 5:30 to go for the winning score for the Yellowjackets.
RPI got the ball back, getting all the way down to the Rochester 2, but the Yellowjackets held on a fourth-down pass to Brendan McGowan, and the “upset” was complete.
Hobart beat Union 30-20 to make both of their conference records 5-1 as well. Hobart’s Andrew Strom threw three touchdown passes and the Statesmen defense held Union to 89 rushing yards on the day.
Strom broke Shawn’s Mizro’s three-year-old passing yards record, getting to 2,260 with 210 yards against the Dutchmen.
This is one of the greatest things about Division III. You can have four teams in the hunt on the last week of the season and none of them can win it outright by themselves.
Union and RPI face off in the annual Dutchman Shoes rivalry while Hobart and Rochester face off in the 100th meeting between the two teams and you know there will definitely be some “scoreboard-watching” this week in Schenectady and Rochester.
Empire 8 a little easier to figure out
Alfred, Hartwick and St. John Fisher all still have a chance to win the Empire 8.
Alfred has the best chance to win the automatic qualifier. If they beat St. John Fisher on Saturday, they win the title outright. If St. John Fisher wins, they have to hope for Utica to beat Hartwick to give the Cardinals the title. If Hartwick beats Utica, Hartwick wins the automatic qualifier as they have the head-to-head win over St. John Fisher.
If Hartwick does win, St. John Fisher could have a pretty good case to get one of the seven Pool C bids reserved for teams that don’t win the automatic qualifier.
New Jersey Athletic Conference all set
The College of New Jersey clinched the NJAC’s automatic qualifier with a win over Buffalo State. Even though Cortland State beat Rowan to finish 6-1 in conference play, and even if TCNJ loses to Kean in the NJAC finale, TCNJ wins the AQ because of the Lions’ 30-0 rout of the Red Dragons.
If Cortland beats Ithaca in the Cortaca Jug, they would finish at 8-2 and could be in the Pool C conversation, but the Red Dragons went 9-1 last season and were left out of the dance.
Offensive showdown
Hartwick beat Springfield 37-34 in an Empire 8 matchup where the defenses struggled, to put it mildly. The teams combined for more than 1,100 yards and Hartwick junior quarterback Jason Boltus threw for 508 yards. It’s the second time Boltus has thrown for more than 500 yards in a game this year.
Boltus also had all five touchdowns, and he leads Division III in yards per game with nearly 370.
It’s Hartwick’s first win over Springfield.
Morrisville’s second win in a row
The Mustangs won their second game in a row in a 15-6 victory over Mount Ida. After getting its “signature win” over Brockport last week, Morrisville and coach Terry Dow went up to Newton, Mass., and held Mount Ida quarterback P.J. Matthews to 77 yards passing.
It will be a tough task, but Morrisville will look to get its third win in a row this Saturday against Wesley.
Making up for a bad game in one drive
Susquehanna didn’t score for 59 minutes and 59 seconds against WPI during a rain and wind-filled game in Worcester, Mass. dealing with the remnants of Hurricane Noel.
After playing to a scoreless tie halfway through the fourth quarter, WPI got on the board with 5:23 left on a 1-yard Rob Pantalone touchdown rush to make the score 7-0.
After trading punts, Susquehanna got the ball back, and after not completing a pass all day, Crusaders quarterback Derek Pope completed two long passes to get in position to tie it up. With no time left, Pope hit Nick Macia in the end zone to bring Susquehanna within one, 7-6. Taking a timeout, Susquehanna decided to go for two and the win instead of the tie, and Pope hit Macia again, this time for the conversation, to beat the Engineers 8-7.“That was a tough one for us. That was one where we needed a first down, much like the week before and we couldn’t get it,” WPI coach Ed Zaloom told the Worcester Telegram and Gazette.
Susquehanna’s Dave Paveletz rushed 35 times for 107 yards in the rain. WPI fell to 4-5 and 1-5 in conference.
Great performances
In Ithaca’s 42-25 win over then No. 19 Alfred, Ithaca quarterback Dan Juvan tied a career-high with four touchdowns and Ithaca seniors Jamie Donovan and Alex Baez both rushed for over 100 yards against the Saxons. Alfred hasn’t won at Butterfield Stadium since 1982.
Kean sophomore Jared Chunn ran for a career-high 162 yards rushing in their 40-7 rout over Western Connecticut.
Brockport State senior tailback Matt McCormick ran 19 times for 129 yards and a touchdown and also threw a 53-yard touchdown pass in the Golden Eagles 18-14 win over Newport News. McCormick is just a single touchdown from tying the school record.
William Paterson’s Jared Burke was named the New Jersey Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the week with his performance in a 42-28 loss against Montclair State.
Burke made 14 tackles, 11 of them solo, and five for loss against the Red Hawks.
St. Lawrence sophomore Conner Hackett set career highs in rushing yards with 182 and touchdowns, with four, in a 40-16 win over the Merchant Marine Academy.
Utica’s Brian Jones had a career day rushing against Empire 8 conference rival Norwich, rushing 17 times for 126 yards, as part of a season-high 241 yards rushing for the Pioneers. On the defensive side of the ball, Vinson Jones had 11 tackles, five for loss and 1.5 sacks.
Recordbreakers/milestones
Ithaca’s Brian Seamus Hogan set career-highs with eight receptions and 147 yards receiving against Alfred.
Kean’s senior quarterback A.J. Roque bypassed 8,000 career passing yards in the blowout over Western Connecticut. Roque has 8,171 yards and has thrown for 60 touchdowns in his career.
Kean freshman running back Sean Atkins only ran for 75 yards, but he scored four touchdowns, a career-high.
Newport News receiver Travis Reid has 879 receiving yards this season, which break a school record set by Andre Ross, who had 861 yards.
Springfield’s Chris Sharpe, who last week set the all-purpose yardage record for the Pride, extended his new record and went over 5,000 yards in the process. Sharpe ran for 184 yards and threw for another 140 for a total of 324 yards against Hartwick, putting his all-time total to 5,281 yards.
Hartwick’s Joe Rocco set career-highs with eight catches and 122 yards receiving.
Sophomore kicker Geoff Troy from the Merchant Marine Academy kicked a 54-yard field goal for the Mariners in a 40-16 loss to St. Lawrence. The field goal was a career long and a school record.
East Region Top 10 poll
1. Wesley
2. St. John Fisher
3. Salisbury
4. RPI
5. New Jersey
6. Hobart
7. Rochester
8. Alfred
9. Union
10. Hartwick
11. Cortland
Like Spinal Tap, this list goes to 11. There are so many good teams in the East Region that it’s very difficult to pick just 10. I have to have all four Liberty League teams, all tied at 5-1 with one game left. Same with the Empire 8, who have three teams in it with one week to go.
Contribute
I want to thank everyone for their e-mails this week, and I encourage contributions to me for the column at adam.samrov@d3football.com.