#24 FISHER TAKES DOWN UTICA IN BATTLE OF UNBEATENS
The Utica College football team had nationally-ranked No. 24 St.
John Fisher College on the ropes but the Pioneers could not muster
the offense to get over the hump in a 35-24 loss to the visiting
Cardinals in front of a packed house of 3,567 fans at Charles A.
Gaetano Stadium Saturday night. The Pioneer offense came out of the
gates hot scoring 21 of its 24 points in the first half but UC
could not keep the momentum going in the second half as they
dropped their first contest of the season.
With the loss UC (4-1, 0-1 E8) snapped a school-record four game
winning streak, while the Cardinals improved to 5-0 overall and 1-0
in Empire 8 Conference play.
"This will be a great learning experience for our guys and this
game will surely help us become a better team down the road," said
third year Head Coach Blaise
Faggiano, who was the defensive coordinator at Fisher for
eight seasons. "We need to eliminate the turnovers down the stretch
and we are still learning how to close out games. I'm proud
of the way our kids played tonight and I thank the community for
coming out and supporting our program."
The UC offense was led by sophomore running back Jake
Scott, who carried the ball 16 times for 84 yards and two
touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Andrew
Benkwitt also had a nice evening going 23-for-34 for 257
yards, but he was unable to find pay dirt for the first time this
season.
Fisher netted 511 yards of total offense on the evening and the
Cardinals were led by senior quarterback Tim Bailey, who went
23-for-31 for 290 yards and four touchdowns. FuQuan Brown
rushed the ball 20 times for 93 yards and added one
touchdown. Whitesboro's Ryan Schmidt caught eight balls for
80 yards and one touchdown, while Dan Witkowski caught five balls
for 96 yards and three touchdowns.
The Pioneers opened up a 14-7 lead when Scott punched home his
second straight touchdown with 3:36 left on the first quarter
clock. Fisher answered by otuscoring UC 21-7 in the second
quarter to take a 28-21 lead into the locker room at
halftime.
Sophomore kicker TJ
Losowski buried a third quarter field goal to cut the
Fisher lead to just four points, but that was as close as the
Pioneers would get. UC made two late attempts to find the end zone
but costly interceptions led to an 11 point victory for the
visitors.
Senior linebacker Kevin
Hennion led the UC defense with a game-high 17 tackles
and one forced fumble, while sophomore free safety Kody
Parkhurst made a career-high ten stops. Junior
corner Jon
White tallied eight tackles and one
interception.
Three players made at least ten tackles for Fisher including
Brenden Moore (11), Adam Burdick (10) and Joe Leavell.
Burdick also added an interception which he returned 40
yards.
UC returns to action for its fourth straight home game next
Saturday when the Pioneers host St. Lawrence University for a non
conference contest at 1 p.m. Check www.ucpioneers.com for all the
live in game options.
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