D3football.com - Upstate New York Notes by Mike Warwick

For the first time this season, all 13 Upstate New York teams will be in action. Three of this weekend’s top Division III games will involve Upstate teams. The marquee matchup features No. 12 Ithaca traveling to No. 19 College of New Jersey.

Brockport State (34) hosts No. 22 Montclair State and No. 10 Buffalo State visits perennial power Cortland State.

Last year’s Ithaca-TCNJ game, the two program’s first regular-season meeting, came down to a game-winning field-goal attempt by the visiting Lions with nine seconds left. The kick fell short and the Bombers celebrated an 18-16 Homecoming win.

Ithaca is coming off a 21-7 win at Division II Mansfield that featured a stellar defensive effort. Mansfield could not capitalize on any of Ithaca’s six turnovers; Mansfield’s average starting field position following the turnovers was its own 45, but the Bomber defense led by safeties Ron Amato (named to D3football.com’s Team of the Week) and Charles Craparo, linebacker Julian Forbes and end Michael McGreevey (who leads Upstate NY in sacks) kept Mansfield from turning any of Ithaca’s four interceptions and two fumbles into points.

Brockport kicks off one of the nation’s toughest four-game stretches with this weekend’s game against Montclair State. Over the next month, the Golden Eagles will face four undefeated teams, all of whom are ranked in the Top 25. Saturday’s Homecoming game against No. 22 Montclair State will be followed by trips to No.12 Buffalo State and No. 12 Ithaca and a home date against No. 25 Frostburg State.

Brockport is coming off a 13-10 come-from-behind win against Plymouth State. The Golden Eagles totaled just five first downs and 113 yards of total offense, but overcame that with a defensive effort that limited the Wildcats to 40 yards of offense in the second half.

Buffalo State will be looking to snap a two-year losing streak to Cortland, but the Bengals will have to do so without standout offensive lineman Nick Villa, who suffered a season-ending injury against Adrian last week. The Bengals have scored more than 30 points in nine of their last 14 games, including both games this year.

One of the team’s top offensive weapons in that span, junior wide receiver Derek Baker, is 97 receiving yards away from the school’s career record. Buffalo State is coming off a dominant defensive performance against Adrian, allowing the Bulldogs only 32 rushing yards.

Cortland evened its record with a 26-13 win at Kean last Friday night. Senior defensive end Jason Rebrovich was named the ECAC Upstate New York Division III Defensive Player of the Week (and the Team of the Week) after recording 13 tackles, a blocked kick, a pass breakup, a forced fumble and five quarterback hurries in the Red Dragons' win at Kean.

Buffalo State head coach Jerry Boyes was the best man at the wedding of Cortland head coach Dan MacNeill. The two were assistant coaches at Ithaca College for two years in the early ’80s.

Two other games feature pairs of teams that received votes in the latest AFCA poll: Alfred travels to No. 23 Carnegie Mellon and Rensselaer visits Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The Engineers (of RPI) thrashed Coast Guard 42-3 behind a record-setting performance by quarterback Matt Robbens. The Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association’s offensive player of the week for the second week in a row, Robbens became the school’s career leader in touchdown passes last week.

Meanwhile the other Engineers (of WPI) snapped a 14-year losing streak to Union, scoring the winning touchdown with just 13 seconds left in a 7-3 win against the Dutchmen. The winner of this Saturday’s game earns the Transit Trophy, the prize awarded for yearly supremacy in the 91-year-old rivalry (which Rensselaer leads 44-43-6).

Saturday’s game between Rochester and St. Lawrence is the 100th meeting between the two schools. Rochester snapped a 15-game road losing streak last week, upending Case Western Reserve 21-14. The Yellowjackets scored the winning touchdown with 30 seconds left on a one-yard run by freshman tailback Greg Lozeau. Lozeau rushed for 80 yards on 23 carries and scored two touchdowns. Rochester has won two straight over NCAA Division III opposition (upsetting Union in last year’s season finale).

Rochester's defensive challenge will be to stop St. Lawrence quarterback Jared Amell, who threw for two TDs and ran for one in St. Lawrence's 35-14 victory over Rochester last year in Canton. The Yellowjackets have 11 pass breakups in two games and one interception (by Mike Mott who sealed last week's win with a pickoff with 12 seconds left).

Weekend action kicks off Friday night, when Hartwick hosts St. John Fisher. The rest of the weekend schedule features Union at Hobart and a New England Small College Athletic Conference opener featuring Tufts at Hamilton.

Mike can be reached at mwarwick@ithaca.edu.

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