St. John Fisher College has earned one of six at-large bids to the NCAA Division III Football Championship. The Cardinals (8-2) will travel to Baltimore to meet Johns Hopkins University (10-0) at 12 p.m. on Saturday in one of 16 opening round games.
This is Fisher’s fourth appearance in the NCAA Championship and its first since 2007. This is also the ninth straight year the Cardinals have qualified for the postseason and the 10
th consecutive season they have posted a winning record.l
Fisher is 3-0 in opening-round NCAA action and has a 6-3 overall record in NCAA play. In 2006, the Cardinals became a household name, playing against national powerhouse Mt. Union in the NCAA Division III Final Four. Fisher, who trailed by just five points in the fourth quarter, succumbed to the eventual national champion Purple Raiders 26-14 that year and were knocked off by Mt. Union in the national quarterfinals the following year.
The Cardinals are coming off the largest comeback-win in school history on Saturday. After falling behind Hartwick College 20-3 late in the first half, Fisher scored 49 straight points earned the 55-28 win.
The win of the Fisher-Johns Hopkins games will face the winner of Delaware Valley-Norwich the following week.
“We are obviously very excited about earning an at-large bid to NCAAs,”says head coach Paul Vosburgh, now in his 21
st season at the College. “At 10-0, we clearly have the utmost-respect for Johns Hopkins. We’re going to work really hard this week to prepare ourselves and do our best to represent St. John Fisher College and the Empire 8 Conference.”
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