Rowan is the Rodney Dangerfield of the East Region this year. The Profs are 5-1 overall and 4-1 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, but they seem to get “no respect” from the D3football.com Top 25 poll voters.
The offense has been firing on all eight cylinders the past three weeks against Brockport State, Western Connecticut and Morrisville State.
They’ve scored more than 50 in each game, with 72 against Western Connecticut, a school record, and 67 on Saturday against the Mustangs.
But in the poll, they have 1 measly vote. Out of 25 voters, one person put Rowan at No. 25 and no one else has them in the poll. Part of that has to go along with the upsets of Mary Hardin-Baylor and the 10-7 win by Wittenberg, but still – no respect for the Profs.
“We didn’t win the conference last year and Cortland did, and they played Mount Union, which we’re used to doing,” coach Jay Accorsi said Wednesday afternoon. “I think a lot of people base their decisions without all the information.”
Quarterback Frank Wilczynski was named the NJAC offensive player of the week for his game against Western Connecticut, accounting for six touchdowns in the first half – three in the air and three on the ground. One of the runs, a 68-yard keeper, was the longest in school record by a quarterback.
The Profs lead the league in offense, scoring 44 points per game, third in the country.
But Wilczynski hasn’t played in the second half of three games and was out with an ankle injury against Cortland, so despite their dominance for the past month, the loss to Cortland (and the Red Dragons’ subsequent loss to Montclair) has hurt the Profs in the polls.
“I always tell my players that we have to prove it on the field, and we’ve proved it on the field the past few weeks,” Accorsi said. “(Frank) hasn’t had to play in the second half, and he’d probably be one of the leaders in the country statistically, but we don’t do that.”
Accorsi said that he doesn’t let his players get caught up in the rankings.
“I don’t really care about the polls,” he said. “The thing that matters is winning the conference and the automatic qualifier to the NCAA playoffs. The poll at the end is what matters, not before or during the season.”
The longtime head coach also believes that his team is doing a good job of playing at a high level and not down to their opponents, as Morrisville and Western Connecticut are two of the NJAC’s bottom tier.
They play another one of that bottom tier, Buffalo State, this weekend, before taking on the last two undefeated in conference – Montclair and Kean, in the last three weeks of the season.
Accorsi doesn’t look ahead.
“We control our destiny at this point, but we have to focus on Buffalo State, because if we don’t, the games against the other teams won’t matter anyway,” Accorsi said. “It’s nice to have the reputation and the rankings, but we still have to prove it on the field.”
More NJAC
Montclair remains in the discussion in the NJAC and the East as the Red Hawks are 5-1 overall and 5-0 in conference. They held Buffalo State to 93 yards of total offense in a 23-7 win. Jeff Bliss ran the ball 27 times for 119 yards and a touchdown to lead Montclair.
The Red Hawks have four games left, all in conference and the last two will be the toughest – against Rowan and Kean.
Speaking of Kean, the Cougars are off to the best conference start at 5-0 in the school’s history after they took down Jake Graci and Brockport 40-22.
Sophomore quarterback Tom D’Ambrisi threw for 277 yards and three touchdowns and also ran for a score in the win. Kean’s schedule the rest of the year is not easy, with games against Rowan themselves and Montclair, as mentioned.
The mighty MAC
Delaware Valley remained the only East Region team to stay in the Top 25 poll, now down a rank to No. 24 even after blanking Wilkes 23-0. A bunch of East Region teams are receiving votes, including Alfred, St. John Fisher, Kean, Albright, Cortland State.
For Delaware Valley, the shutout was its first since a 31-0 blanking in 2007 of Lycoming. Matt Cook ran over, through and around the Colonels defense, carrying the ball 33 times for 162 yards on a day with not-so-nice weather in Pennsylvania. It was Cook’s 14th 100-yard game so far in his illustrious career.
The other undefeated MAC team, Albright, remained that way after a 34-16 win over King’s. The Lions are 6-0 overall and 3-0 in conference. Junior wide receiver Sean Caldwell Jr. had a career-day against the Monarchs, catching seven passes for 116 yards.
The last time Albright was 6-0 was more than a decade ago, in 1997, under quarterback Bryan Snyder, who went on to a long arena football career.
The real question in the MAC now becomes: Who blinks first? Del Val or Albright? We may not know the answer until they battle on Nov. 7.
Empire 8 title game? We’ll see.
Alfred travels to St. John Fisher for what could be the matchup for the Empire 8 title. Alfred is undefeated, but so is St. John Fisher in conference. With the Cardinals already giving the monkey-stomp to Ithaca, they could win out and get the automatic qualifier. But Alfred has the upper hand, at least for the moment. If they beat the Cardinals, they still have to go to Butterfield to play Ithaca and play against a pretty improved Utica squad.
Both teams have good quarterbacks, two outstanding running backs (Vinson Hendrix for Alfred and Christian Zemaitis for St. John Fisher) and two good defenses.
I think special teams could be the key to whoever wins this one. A final prediction at the bottom of this column.
Springfield at 1-1 in conference and 5-1 overall will have something to say for the end of the year too. They took their triple option and ran over, around and through Mount Ida, 42-15. The Pride ran for 395 yards – including Josh Carter’s performance, who had 181 yards and three touchdowns.
Fullback Baldwin Cunningham also went over 100 against the Mustangs’ defense.
Carter, by yards per game, is 15th in the country and the highest quarterback. Carter has averaged 122 yards a contest, gaining 7.5 yards every time he touches the ball on a run. That’s an impressive weapon to have at this or any level of football.
Liberty League
The top team in the LL, Union, is 5-1 overall and 4-0 in conference after absolutely sneaking out of Canton, N.Y. on Saturday. The Dutchmen were forced to go to overtime after struggling all day with the upstart Saints.
After ending regulation tied at 14, the Saints got the ball first, and freshman Chris Dris kicked a 35-yard field goal to take a 17-14 lead. But on Union’s first possession of overtime, running back Chris Coney smoked the Saints defense for a 19-yard run on the first play from scrimmage to give Union 1st-and-goal at the 6.. Then two plays later, Andrew Connolly threw to the left, finding Justin Gallo in the back of the end zone for the winning score.
Coney ran for 139 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Dutchmen and help them keep their undefeated conference record intact.
Susquehanna upped its record to 5-2 and 3-1 in conference after a Homecoming win over RPI in Selinsgrove, Pa. The Crusaders with senior running back Dave Paveletz – who has rushed for 1,051 yards this year so far – have a good chance to be playing for the Liberty League championship in its last year in the league before Susquehanna goes to the Centennial Conference in 2010.
Paveletz is 6th in the country in yards per game at just over 150 a contest and an average of more than 5 yards a touch.
Susquehanna has already won its most games in conference play since winning five in 2002.
They play Union to end the year, a huge matchup that could be for the LL title.
In the Crusaders' 35-30 win, the workhorse Paveletz rushed for 188 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries, and none of the senior’s runs were longer than 18 yards. Wow.
Another Liberty League squad making some noise is Rochester, big winners over the Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday.
Clarence Onyiriuka ran for 135 yards and three touchdowns and sophomore quarterback Breazen Subick threw for a career-high 289 yards and two scores.
Mike Coolbaugh set career highs in receptions (11) and yards (169) for the Yellowjackets, who despite a tough out-of-conference record, are 2-2 in the Liberty League – with both losses coming by a total of 10 points.
The Eddie Royal of the Week award
Cortland’s Justin Autera earned the New Jersey Athletic Conference Special Teams player of the week award after he scored touchdowns on both a punt and kickoff in the Red Dragons’ 35-6 victory against Western Connecticut.
He returned the second-half kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown and then early in the fourth quarter, returned a punt 59 yards to extend the lead to 28-6.
According to Cortland sports information director Fran Elia, Autera is the first player to return a punt and kickoff for a touchdown in 76 years.
Record-breakers/milestones/etc.
St. John Fisher’s freshman running back Christian Zemaitis ran for 121 yards and three touchdowns in the Cardinals’ 34-17 win against Utica on Saturday night. He’s scored eight touchdowns in six quarters going back to the second half of the Ithaca game.
A player that good needs a nickname. How about The Big Z?
Lame? Any better ideas? E-mail me at adam.samrov@d3football.com and I’ll share some of the best in next week’s column.
William Paterson sophomore running back Marcus McKinney had a career day for the Pioneers, rushing a school-record 42 times for 224 yards and four touchdowns in a 43-28 win over The College of New Jersey. For his yeoman’s effort, McKinney was awarded the NJAC offensive player of the week award.
Brockport’s Nathan Bull had 14 tackles and a forced fumble in the Golden Eagles’ loss to Kean.
Lebanon Valley is 5-1 themselves, and 2-1 in conference, for the first time in three decades, after a 40-14 win over Bill Winters and FDU-Florham.
LVC’s Charlie Parker became the school’s all-time leading rusher, breaking two records that are more than 30 years old.
After Saturday’s game, Parker has 693 carries and 3,178 yards – breaking Rick Coleman’s records of 673 and 3,106 yards.
Interesting little tidbit I came across this week
The East Region has all type of different offenses in its arsenal, but as a wise coach once said, you have to run the football.
According to the NCAA, measuring by yards per game:
Alfred’s Vinson Hendrix, 161.2, 4th
Susquehanna’s Dave Paveletz 150.1 6th
Rochester’s Clarence Onyiriuka 132, 9th
Springfield’s Josh Carter,121.8, 15th
Union’s Chris Coney, 120, 17th
Delaware Valley’s Matt Cook, 112.8, 22nd
Lebanon Valley’s Ben Guiles, 107.3, 30th
King’s Claude O’Connor, 105.2, 35th
William Paterson’s Marcus McKinney, 103.3, 42nd
Rowan’s Frank Wilczynski, 101.2, 45th
Hartwick’s Tosh Demulder, 97.1, 48th and
Kean’s Jared Chunn, 96.1, 49th are all in the top 50 in the country for rushing. There are a lot of good running backs in this group.
Predictions
Alfred at St. John Fisher: As I said above, each team definitely has many strengths, but a few weaknesses as well. I think this one is extremely close, I almost want to give it to Alfred.
But being at home puts Fisher over the top.
St. John Fisher 33, Alfred 30.
Springfield at Hartwick: Two high-powered offenses – one on the ground and one through the air – battle in the “Cage” (aka Hartwick’s All Weather Field) to try and get a leg up in the Empire 8 race.
I don’t really condone gambling, per se, but I’ll take Springfield and the over – WAY over.
Springfield 52, Hartwick 41.
Union at Salisbury: A long road trip combined with an early noon kick could spell trouble for the Dutchmen.
Salisbury 24, Union 14.
