Ranked teams walk the line
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Now, normalcy doesn’t mean clarity. Almost all the races in the East Region still are up in the air with only three or four weeks left in the regular season. Automatic qualifiers are up for grabs in all the conferences that get them, and the one that doesn’t has two teams that could get a Pool B bid, of which there are only four for the entire country.
In the New Jersey Athletic Conference, where both ranked teams, Montclair State and The College of New Jersey, won, so did Cortland State, who squeaked by Western Connecticut.
Despite being not ranked in the Division III poll, the Red Dragons lead the conference with an unblemished 4-0 record. TCNJ, ranked at No. 22 is also unbeaten at 3-0, and Montclair State (ranked at No. 15) and Rowan are right behind.
Cortland State coach Dan MacNeill says that polls are very subjective and the only thing that matters is the final results. “There’s no real meaning to it,” MacNeill said Monday. “We can only control what we can control.”
The next couple of weeks will shake things out in the NJAC as Cortland plays Montclair, TCNJ and Rowan in the last three weeks of the season.
“The only thing we can control is being better than the teams we compete against,” MacNeill said. “If we take care of business, we’ll have more regard around the country.”
Depending on how things fall, the NJAC could end up with two NCAA bids when all is said and done.
“Winning is our goal, then to try to get into the playoffs,” MacNeill said. “If there’s any conference that would get two bids, it’s the NJAC. Top to bottom, it’s a strong conference. You got to show up and play every weekend.”
In the Empire 8, Alfred has taken a 1.5-game lead in the standings with the Saxons’ 25-7 win over Utica to move to 4-0 in conference and 6-0 overall. AU still has two non-conference games the next two weeks, as they face independent Husson this Saturday and Hobart at Boswell Field on Oct. 27.
After playing the Statesmen, the pressure really goes up when they face conference rivals Ithaca and St. John Fisher to end the season on the road.
St. John Fisher and Hartwick are tied in second place in the division at 2-1, but that will change for at least the Cardinals, who stay in conference to face Chris Sharpe and the Springfield Pride this week, who put up 55 on St. John Fisher in 2006 in the regular season, but were beat by the Cardinals in the playoffs.
Hartwick will stay at 2-1 even after Saturday’s game as they go out of conference to face Mount Ida at home.
Springfield is still only at 1-1 in conference, so they’ll have to win out to have a shot at the playoffs, but they lose any tiebreaker to Alfred because the Saxons blew out the Pride earlier this year.
Ithaca is at 1-2; the Bombers definitely have to win out to get in, and they’ll need some help even if they can do all that.
In the Liberty League, Union is the big surprise after losing both of their non-conference games to Muhlenberg (who is 6-0 and playing tremendous defense -- only giving up 37 points all season) and to Springfield. The Dutchman are 4-0 in conference, putting them at the top of the standings, with wins over Rochester, WPI, Susquehanna and the Merchant Marine Academy, and they’ve only allowed 31 points total in those four victories.
Union head coach John Audino said that his defense has gotten a good roll the last few weeks.
“We’ve played really well defensively ... any time you can control your opposition, that’s a plus,” Audino said. “We’ve been able to stop good rushers -- (Rochester’s Matt) Bielecki and the tailback from Susquehanna (Dave Paveletz). The defensive line is getting pressure on the quarterback and we’re doing the right things to win games.”
RPI is 5-0 overall and 3-0 in conference after a bye in Week 7, but they have a last-second victory over Hobart to their credit, while Union has only played the middle and bottom of the conference to date.
Hobart is 3-1 with only the loss to RPI as a conference blemish, but it’s a big one if the three Liberty League powers end up in a three-way tie at the end of the season at 6-1, because Hobart loses any head-to-head tiebreaker with RPI.
Despite Union’s slow start, it looks like the Liberty League’s automatic qualifier could go through Schenectady.
“We’re really not looking ahead. We still have to take care of business against St. Lawrence, who’s really improving” Audino said. “Then we have to worry about Hobart, who has scored (a lot) of points this season. We still have our work cut out for us.”
In the Atlantic Central Football Conference, Wesley and Salisbury (ranked 10th and 11th, respectively, in the latest D3football.com poll) continue on their roll as Wesley beat Newport News 50-7 and Salisbury, after a terrible first half, routed Morrisville State College 56-20.
Those two are on a crash course when they meet in two weeks in Dover, Del., at Wolverine Stadium.
Wesley has outscored its first two ACFC opponents 95-7, with a 45-0 pasting of Frostburg State to go along with Saturday’s 50-7 beatdown of Newport News. Salisbury is the New England Patriots of Division III right now, scoring 35 or more points in six of its seven games this season.
So does the high-powered Sea Gulls’ offense show up? How about the Wolverines’? This game could end up a 50-48 three-overtime shootout, or 10-7.
I’m more inclined to say the game will end up as a low-scoring affair, because most around the East and the country know about Wesley All-American defensive end Bryan Robinson, his accomplishments (just in 2007, he has 51 total tackles, nine sacks, 18.5 tackles for loss -- which for what I can find is near the top rankings in the country).
He also holds the career sack record with 44.5 after getting three against Newport News, and was named ACFC defensive player of the week.
But Salisbury has good defense as well, led by Jarrell Chandler, who against Morrisville “only” had eight tackles. But six of those tackles were for loss, and he is also near the top of the rankings for tackles for loss on the season (21.5) and two sacks.
We’ll have to see what happen when these two teams duke it out.
Great performances
St. John Fisher held Empire 8 opponent Norwich to 8 yards rushing and 77 yards total in a 48-2 rout. The Cadets ran 60 plays on the day, so their 77 yards resulted in a per-play average of 1.3 yards.
Salisbury’s three-headed running monster of Valdase Morris, Jamar Garner, and Ronnie Curley came together to overcome a tough first half against Morrisville to overpower the Sea Gulls to the big win. Morris only got five touches, but he turned them into 122 yards and two touchdowns. Garner only had six touches, but he turned that into 102 yards and a touchdown. Curley got the most touches with 12, running for 63 yards and scoring two touchdowns as the Sea Gulls rushed for 412 yards on the day as a team.
Utica’s Lazarus Morgan ran back an interception against Alfred 88 yards for a touchdown. As long as that is, it’s not even the longest this season for the Pioneers. Bryan Johnson brought one back 91 yards last week against Mount Ida.
Call me a homer, but this can’t go without mentioning: Alfred’s Vinson Hendrix ran 20 for 75 yards and two touchdowns against Utica, but this was the first time this season that Hendrix has been held under 100 yards in a game this year. Looking at the box score, he didn’t carry the ball in the fourth quarter, but it’s still a great effort to hold one of the region’s top backs under his average.
William Paterson’s Brian Burd earned the New Jersey Athletic Conference defensive player of the week award for his performance against The College of New Jersey. Burd, a senior defensive lineman, had 11 tackles, 4.5 for loss, and two sacks.
Hobart held the Merchant Marine Academy to 17 yards rushing and 116 total in a 55-9 dismantling Saturday afternoon. The Statesmen’s Andrew Strom was efficient, going 9-for-17 for 205 yards and two touchdowns, two receivers – James Wright and Ryan LiDrazzah – went over 100 yards on the day and four different guys scored rushing touchdowns.
Hartwick junior wide receiver Jack Phelan was named as the Empire 8 Offensive player of the Week with his performance in a 61-32 win over Becker. Phelan caught five touchdown passes all in the first half, as part of a career-high 11 passes overall. The touchdown catches were for 10, 24, 25, 29, and 45 yards, respectively.
Record breakers/milestones
Newport News senior wide receiver Travis Reid continues his march to owning just about all the receiving records for the Builders.
Against Wesley, he caught six passes for 64 yards to slide into first place on the modern-era reception record for the Builders with 140.
He already has the touchdown record and he’s 146 yards short of breaking the career receiving yards record as well. Stay tuned to see when that happens.
No. 15 Montclair State beat NJAC rival Kean 27-12, and in the win MSU’s Jeff Bliss, a sophomore, ran for 167 yards and a touchdown. The 167 yards is a career-high for Bliss.
No. 22 The College of New Jersey squeaked by William Paterson 21-13, but in the loss, Pioneers senior receiver Kareen Moon became the all-time career receiving leader with 138, passing the past record holder, Bryant Richardson, who caught 137 passes from 2000-03. He also holds the career receiving yards lead, and is only 10 yards short of reaching 2,000 for his career.
Rochester senior running back Matt Bielecki set a career high in rushing yards in a game, running 38 times for 233 yards and four scores as the Yellowjackets beat Mount Ida. He had 160 yards by halftime and Rochester rushed for 382 yards total. Bielecki’s 34 career rushing touchdowns puts him second in school history in that statistic.
A couple of other things
Alfred’s Paul Keeley completed 22 of 30 for 323 yards and two touchdowns against Utica in a 35-7 win. Keeley has completed 117 of 157 this season so far for a completion percentage of 74.5 percent, which, if he can keep it up and attempt enough passes to qualify, would better the current Division III record. According to the NCAA record book, the record is 73.6 percent set by Mitch Tanney at Monmouth in 2005. Of course, that’s assuming Mount Union’s Greg Micheli falls off the pace he’s set -- he has completed 76.7% of his passes (89-for-116).
Brockport snuck by Springfield, 21-20, on a Springfield missed extra point with under two minutes left in regulation. According to the Empire 8, that’s the third time a missed extra point has cost Springfield a win.
Cortland junior quarterback Ray Miles threw three fourth quarter touchdowns to Eric Hajnos, the last one with 12 seconds left to pull out a win over Western Connecticut, 27-26. Miles went 31-for-46 for 290 yards and the three scores. The 31 completions is a career high for Miles and third highest in Cortland history.
Keep fighting the good fight
Morrisville’s Brandon Tape had four catches for 147 yards and two touchdowns against Salisbury, and the two touchdown catches were for 76 yards and 61 yards, respectively.
The Mustangs also had some success on the defensive side of the ball against the Sea Gulls, even if the score didn’t reflect it.
Luke Visingard has 14 tackles, 11 solo stops, and six of the tackles were for loss. More impressively, he had three sacks and three forced fumbles.
Coach Terry Dow has a lot of talent there in Central New York, give it a couple of years, and the results will come. Some of it has already come, as evidenced by playing Salisbury to a very even first half on Saturday.
I give Dow and the rest of the administration kudos for having the guts to schedule some of these powerhouses.
East Region Top 10
1. Alfred
2. Wesley
3. RPI
4. St. John Fisher
5. Salisbury
6. Hobart
7. Cortland
8. New Jersey
9. Rowan
10. Hartwick
Comments, feedback and ideas for future columns and features are appreciated. E-mail me at adam.samrov@d3football.com.