Alfred football team earns ECAC bid, travels to Springfield
ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University football team will play one more game in 2012, as the Saxons were chosen to play in one of the three Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) North Bowl championship games this weekend.
The ECAC announced its ECAC championship pairings today and Alfred (6-3, 5-2 Empire 8) will play at Springfield (MA) College at noon on Saturday, Nov. 17, for the Northeast Bowl Championship. AU is seeded fifth and Springfield is second among the six teams granted bids to three ECAC North Bowl Championship games.
The Saxons have ties to the Pride, who played eight seasons (2004-11) in the Empire 8 Conference before leaving for the Liberty League prior to the 2012 season. Alfred went 6-2 against Springfield over that span: the Saxons won last year’s game, 30-22 at Alfred, and defeated the Pride, 35-28, the last time the teams played in Springfield. Springfield is the alma mater of AU head coach Dave Murray, who played linebacker there for four seasons before graduating in 1981.
Springfield will come into next weekend’s game with a 7-3 overall record (4-2 in Liberty League play) after defeating WPI in its regular season finale last weekend. Alfred is coming off a 30-13 win at Hartwick in the Saxons’ regular season finale. The victory was Murray’s 100th as the Saxons’ head coach.
This will mark the second straight year Alfred has played on the road in an ECAC championship game. The Saxons played at Bridgewater (MA) State in the Northeast Bowl Championship last season and won, 41-10.
Key matchup: Alfred’s run defense (allows 92 yards rushing per game) against Springfield’s triple-option attack that has produced 339 yards on the ground per contest. As a team, Springfield has 39 rushing touchdowns and will be going against an AU defense that has allowed only six all season and held Hartwick to zero net rushing yards last weekend…Alfred freshman WR Maleke Fuentes, who has 252 yards rushing the last two contest while running the Saxons’ Wildcat offensive formation, against a Springfield defense that allows 163 yards rushing per contest. Alfred comes in averaging 197 yards per game on the ground…Alfred’s pass offense (160 yards per game) against a Pride defense that gives up 172 yards passing per game...AU offensive line, which has allowed 19 sacks this season, vs. a Springfield defense that has 34.
Game notes: Saturday’s game is the ninth between AU and Springfield. AU holds a 6-2 advantage in the previous eight games, all played when Springfield was a member of the Empire 8 Conference from 2004-11. The last time these two teams met, in 2011, host Alfred prevailed, 30-22. The last time the two teams met in Springfield, in 2010, Alfred won, 42-21. AU and Springfield have two common opponents this season: St. Lawrence and RPI. Springfield won its two games against those teams, while Alfred split, winning at St. Lawrence and falling at RPI in the Saxons’ season opener. Springfield is the alma mater of AU head coach Dave Murray, who played there as a linebacker four seasons before graduating in 1981. Murray, in his 15th season as Alfred’s head coach, earned his 100th career coaching win at AU last weekend at Hartwick