Brockport's Hellish Month Ends

By Mike Warwick, Ithaca SID (updated Oct. 22)

Just three of Saturday’s games pit Upstate New York opponents against each other. Unbeaten Rensselaer travels to Hartwick and Hobart visits Alfred in the only other game featuring two teams with winning records. The other contest -- 1-6 St. John Fisher hosting 2-4 Brockport -- will be televised as the ECAC Game of the Week.

Brockport is finally out of its four-undefeated-teams-in-four-weeks stretch (the Golden Eagles lost all four). Saturday’s game will either end Brockport’s unbeaten streak against the Cardinals (the series is 9-0 in Brockport’s favor) or be the Golden Eagles’ first win ever on artificial turf.

The Golden Eagles will be searching for offensive and defensive continuity against the Cardinals. After shutting down the Buffalo State (14 points) and Ithaca (10 points) offenses the previous two weeks, only to lose because they couldn’t score enough points themselves (12 at Buffalo State, none at Ithaca), the Golden Eagles gave up record-setting offensive performances to Frostburg State last Saturday.

Brockport’s offense posted 18 points against Frostburg State, a total that would have been enough to win the team’s previous two games, but gave up 35. The No. 12 Bobcats amassed 580 yards on 100 plays -- both records for Brockport opponents.

Brockport welcomed back one of the team’s three quarterbacks who have missed time with injuries -- junior Mike Haas threw for 106 yards, including a 70-yard touchdown, in his first action after missing five games with Crohn’s disease.

Rensselaer is coming off one of the program’s biggest wins -- a 16-7 victory against Union. With their win, the Engineers have won their three in-season trophy games for the first time ever (they defeated Coast Guard 42-3 for the Shotglass Trophy on Sept. 18 and downed WPI 42-27 to claim the Transit Trophy on Sept. 25). Union entered last week's game with the No. 1 rushing defense in the nation (20 ypg allowed) and stood third in total defense (156.4 ypg), fourth in turnover margin (2.60), seventh in pass efficiency defense (69.4) and eighth in scoring defense (8.2 ppg).

The RPI offensive line led the offense to 152 yards rushing, 284 yards of total offense, a QB efficiency rating of 78.7 and two touchdowns (one passing, one running). The performance earned the line a spot on D3football.com’s Team of the Week.

Unbeaten No. 11 Ithaca (6-0) rolled to its 16th consecutive win against St. Lawrence (the Bombers’ longest winning streak ever over any opponent). Third and fourth-string running backs Tommy Giorgio and Dave Maddi each scored two touchdowns and quarterback Brian Young set a school record with his 88.9 completion percentage (he missed just two of 18 attempts while playing just the first half). One of 22 undefeated teams in Division III, the Bombers are the only one taking on a Division II program this weekend.

American International (5-2) features one of the nation’s top offensive players -- running back Kavin Gailliard who leads Division II in all-purpose yards and ranks second in rushing (nearly 200 yards per game). Ithaca has won five straight against Division II opponents since losing the 1997 season opener to Mercyhurst.

Cortland (2-4) continues preparing for its expected entry into the New Jersey Athletic Conference next year; the Red Dragons travel to William Paterson on Saturday. The two teams have met three times (Cortland won all three), but never in N.J. -- the 1997 game scheduled for the Pioneers’ Wightman Field was moved to Cortland because of field renovations at William Paterson.

The Red Dragons are playing their fifth and final game this season against NJAC competition. Cortland beat Kean and New Jersey City and lost to Montclair State and Rowan (30-9 last weekend). The Red Dragons trailed 6-3 at halftime and 13-9 after three quarters before being outscored by the undefeated Profs 17-0 in the fourth quarter. Senior wide receiver Brian Girardi caught six passes and now has 101 for his career, making him the seventh Red Dragon to reach the 100-catch mark.

Rochester (2-4) hosts University Athletic Association rival Chicago on Saturday. The host school and the Maroons are both 1-1 in conference play, trailing Washington (Mo.) and Carnegie Mellon (both 2-0), who play each other.

Saturday’s other games include Union (4-2) at Coast Guard and two Upstate teams looking for their first wins of the season -- Hamilton (0-4) hosts Colby and St. Lawrence (0-6) travels to Norwich. Buffalo State (5-1) is idle following last week’s 32-3 win against St. John Fisher. The Bengals held the Cardinals to 95 yards of total offense.

Mike can be reached at mwarwick@ithaca.edu.

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