Picture just as cloudy as ever
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Cortland has the upper hand in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, standing up against a furious late rally from Montclair State to win a battle of the unbeatens 24-17. Cortland is now 5-0 overall and 5-0 in conference, while the Red Hawks fall to 4-1. Also in Cortland's favor is the fact that they've played the other top teams, Montclair State, Rowan and Kean, and won them all.
They are, as Keith said in the ATN podcast, the best team in the region right now, and the schedule favors them the rest of the way until they get to play Ithaca, and that's a crapshoot, as all rivalry games are.
In the Empire 8, St. John Fisher fell to 3-3 overall after a grueling four overtime barnburner against Salisbury. But despite the three losses, the Cardinals are still in the hunt for the Empire 8 title, as the losses to Mount Union in Week 1 and Salisbury on Saturday are out-of-region losses, and they don't count nearly as much as the ones in-region or in-conference.
St. John Fisher and Salisbury combined for more than 1,100 yards of total offense on the day.
Hartwick's 24-19 win over Alfred clogs up the top of the conference in the Empire 8, as the trio of Ithaca, Alfred and Hartwick are all 2-1.
But who's at the top? Utica, at 1-0 in conference play and everyone else with at least one conference defeat, holds the top spot for the first time in the program's eight-year history.
First-year head coach Blaise Faggiano said the Pioneers are getting better every week, and that Utica's positioning in the conference is not a fluke.
“We know we're young, last week against Mount Ida, we had 36 freshman and sophomores out of 58 players,” Faggiano said. “We're excited about where we're at.”
The Pioneers go into their toughest stretch of the season starting this weekend, when Alfred comes to town this Saturday, followed by a trip to Ithaca and then back in Utica to face off against Faggiano's old team, St. John Fisher.
“It's a big game for us against Alfred,” Faggiano said. “Alfred has some of the better receivers in the conference, but they have a freshman quarterback (Tom Secky) as well, so it'll be a test to see which one can play the best.”
Faggiano said his team's discipline is one reason why they have been successful so far.
“Last year, we were the most penalized team, now we're down to the second lowest,” Faggiano said.
While not looking past Alfred at all, Faggiano said he was excited to play against his former schools, Ithaca and St. John Fisher after that.
“I have great memories from both places,” said Faggiano, who won a national championship as a player with the Bombers. “It's like playing your brother, you want to beat them, but you still love them afterwards.”
If Utica can take at least one or two of the next three, it sets them up nicely to be in the hunt for a playoff berth later in the year.
Faggiano's been there before. As St. John Fisher defensive coordinator, he saw the Cardinals go from being a 1-9 team in 2000 to a team who went 12-2 and into the national semifinals in 2006.
“I have this opportunity here at Utica because of the other places I've been,” he said.
The game against Alfred will go a long way in determining the order of the Empire 8.
The Liberty League also became more cloudy after Saturday, and the top team in the league, RPI, didn't even play.
Hobart, who was on the fast track to being on top of the conference, was stopped cold by Union at home, after Ben Rapple kicked a game-winning field goal to beat the Statesmen.
The rest of the league has been tipped over like Jenga pieces, too. The other top two teams in the league are WPI, who is 2-1 after beating the Merchant Marine Academy, and Susquehanna, 2-1 after running all over Rochester (more on this game below).
RPI has a win head-to-head over WPI, but still has Hobart on the schedule for the last game at '86 Field, so we'll have to see how the league shakes out after that. Can WPI keep winning and fight for a Pool C berth? They are 5-1 overall.
Finally, last but not least, in the Middle Atlantic Conference, Delaware Valley has asserted itself at the top of the conference, but Lycoming, a 23-13 winner over Albright, is right there with the Aggies at 2-0 in conference. Four teams, Albright, Lebanon Valley, Widener and Wilkes, who got its first win on Saturday, are all at 1-1. Delaware Valley still has a tough road on its way to the automatic qualifier, still having to play Widener and Albright later in the season, but the Aggies' toughest test might come in two weeks when they go on the road to play at Lycoming, a game that could determine the MAC title. Lycoming, having already played Widener and Albright, beating them both, has the inside track to the championship, so if Lycoming can beat the nationally-ranked Aggies, you could just about pencil in the Warriors into the playoffs as the MAC champs. But it'll go to the wire.
Think I'm right? Think I'm out of my mind? Tell me about it. E-mail me at adam.samrov@d3football.com with your thoughts.
Wow
This is the first word that came to mind when I was looked at the recap of the Liberty League matchup between Rochester and Susquehanna. The Crusaders won 28-13 on the strength of senior tailback Dave Paveletz's record-breaking day.
Paveletz ran the ball 47 times for 288 yards and four touchdowns, practically carrying Susquehanna, who is 2-1 in the Liberty League, by the way, on his back.
He shattered the previous records of 39 carries, set by Rashann Drayton in 2000, and 227 yards, set by Chris Ross in 2003.
He tied the school-record with the four scores, giving him 29 for his career, good for third in program history behind Jason Eck's 45 and Matt Wichlinski's 37.
Paveletz also caught three passes for 37 yards for good measure, too, earning the co-offensive player of the week award for the Liberty League.
“After last week, we wanted to be more balanced,” said coach Steve Briggs, referring to the game against King's Point, where Susquehanna came back from a big deficit to win. “We knew we could run the football on Rochester.”
Briggs gave a lot of credit to fullback Charlie Henry and the offensive line, but in the end said that Paveletz just kept going, no matter who was in the way.
“He had the hot hand and we kept going with him,” Briggs said. “I saw the number of carries the next day and went 'Whoa'. But they weren't stopping him. He's a tough cat to bring down.”
Another interesting factoid, thanks to the Susquehanna athletics office: Briggs is 18-0 when the team runs for more than 300 yards. Paveletz almost did it on his own.
Briggs was humble when learning about the 18-0 stat.
“I bet we played good defense for most of those 18 wins,” he said. “We're just trying to get better each week.”
Paveletz wasn't the only player in the East Region to rush for many yards and touchdowns on Saturday.
Fellow Liberty Leaguer Chris Coney rushed for 243 yards and three touchdowns in Union's 38-35 conference win over Hobart at Boswell Field. The rushing total was the sixth-highest total in the Dutchmen's esteemed history, behind Tom Arcidicono's 264 against Ithaca in the 2005 playoffs. Coney was named as the league's co-offensive player of the week.
Brockport State senior Garet Lynch ran for 184 yards and four touchdowns on 33 carries in a last second win against The College of New Jersey on Saturday. The four scores tied a school-record.
Delaware Valley's Matt Cook tied or came close to a couple of school records on Saturday as well, rushing for 233 yards and four touchdowns in the Aggies' 26-14 win over Lebanon Valley.
Cook's four scores tied the Delaware Valley record and his 233 yards was the second-highest in school history, behind a 254-yard day by Eric Reynolds back in 1980.
Defense, defense, defense
Ithaca held conference rival Norwich to 140 yards of total offense and 43 on the ground in the Bombers' 41-6 pasting. Widener, out of the Middle Atlantic Conference, held King's to three points and only 34 rushing yards in the Pride's 17-3 win. In the game, King's got inside the Widener 40-yard line six times, only coming away with the three points.
In probably the best defensive performance of the weekend, at least in terms of stats, had to be WPI against the Merchant Marine Academy. The Engineers held Kings Point to minus-16 yards on the ground en route to a 23-10 win.
Great performances
Brockport's Felipe Diaz caught nine passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns and quarterback Zack Luke completed 23-of-31 for 243 yards and the two touchdowns in the Golden Eagles' 51-48 shootout against TCNJ.
 Frank Wilczynski has thrown for 13 touchdowns and rushed for six more for Rowan this season. Photo by Lou Rabito for D3sports.com |
St. John Fisher's Tim Bailey completed 22 passes for 334 yards and a career-high five touchdowns in the Cardinals 58-52 four-overtime loss to Salisbury.
Brad Carlton ran the ball 34 times for 150 yards.
Kean's Durell Dukes was all over the field on Saturday in the Cougars' 45-25 win over Buffalo State. Dukes had 300 all-purpose yards, including nine carries for 146 yards and two touchdowns, six receptions for 73 yards and an 81-yard kickoff return on the day.
Hartwick's Jack Phelan caught 11 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns to help lead Hartwick to a 24-19 victory over Alfred. The 256 yards is the second time this year Phelan has gone over 250 in one game. He was named as co-offensive player of the week in the Empire 8 for his performance. Phelan's teammate, Ben Tomaino, helped put the game away for the Hawks, making a 10-yard tackle for loss and forcing a fumble on fourth down to seal it. Tomaino, named the Empire 8 defensive player of the week, had 11 tackles overall, three for loss and the forced fumble.
Utica had a season-high 380 yards of offense, as the Pioneers beat up on Mount Ida 40-8 at home on Saturday. UC's Cody Elliot had six catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns and the Pioneer defense held Mount Ida quarterback Tony Tokarz to three completions on the day.
Record breakers/milestones
Lebanon Valley's Charlie Parker ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns in their loss to Delaware Valley, but the two scores gave Parker 23 in his career, tying Ken Wilson (class of 1990) for the school's all-time record.
WPI's Justin Wells threw for 298 yards and the Merchant Marine Academy, a new career-high.
Buffalo State's Joe Russell had 124 receiving yards, a career-high, in the Bengals' loss to NJAC opponent Kean.
New William Paterson coach Jerry Flora scored his first conference win in the New Jersey Athletic Conference after the Pioneers took down the Morrisville Mustangs 27-14. Congratulations, Coach Flora.
Hobart freshman Doug Vella scored his first career touchdown against rival Union, a three-yard run.
Other minutiae
The 99 points combined in the Brockport-TCNJ contest smashed the Brockport record of 79 set all the way back in 1981.
Senior Ben Rapple, after once being taken out of the kicking job by coach John Audino, came back in a big way against Hobart, kicking the game-winner with 16 seconds left to beat Hobart.
Correction: My apologies to Cortland State's Justin Kindt, who I accidently misidentified in last week's column. Thanks to Cortland sports information director Fran Elia for spotting the mixup.
Top 10
1. Cortland State
2. Delaware Valley
3. RPI
4. Hartwick
5. Ithaca
6. St. John Fisher
7. Hobart
8. Worcester Polytech
9. Kean
10. Rowan
A tough top 10 this week. Hard to move St. John Fisher down after that tough loss. WPI, Kean and Rowan in new at the bottom of the poll, the top four remain unchanged.