Football | 10/11/2019 9:21:00 AM
UTICA, NY - The Utica College football team is set to hold one of its biggest events of the year, in one of its biggest games of the season. The third annual New York State Tool Believe Bowl will be held on Saturday, October 12th as the Pioneers take on St. John Fisher at 1 p.m. at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium. The game is an Empire 8 Conference matchup.
Follow Along: Fans can follow the contest via Pioneers All-Access live video and stats at portal.stretchinternet.com/utica/ This week's broadcast is presented in association with WPNR 90.7 FM, Utica College Pioneer Radio, who will also have the call of the game over local airwaves and at PioneerRadio.org. Fans interested in viewing the game on their televisions are also offered a streamlined experience for their television connected devices through the Empire 8 digital apps. The apps are available for popular devices including Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire. See your respective app store for availability.
Who It Benefits: The game helps to benefit the missions of the Believe 271 Foundation and the Thea Bowman House. The Believe 271 Foundation was created in March of 2014 as a means of helping members of the fire service who are affected by cancer. The organization aims to help local firefighters, who are often at increased cancer risk because of their work in the line of duty, with the immense financial and personal burdens that can come with battling cancer. Over $267,000 has gone to help area firefighters and their families over the last five years. The Thea Bowman house is an area non-profit that serves low income children and families throughout the Utica area. The organization provides quality care to children throughout the community in the form of daycare, after school care, and a pre-kindergarten program. They also count a community food pantry that served over 45,000 meals to area citizens in need among their many other services aimed at improving the quality of life throughout our community.
Believe Bowl Events: The Believe Bowl is a full week of festivities that begins with the luncheon where players and coaches meet the honorary captains for the week on Monday. Those honorary captains from the Thea Bowman House and the local fire service are invited to participate in Friday's practice before joining the team at Saturday's game. The game will feature a hospitality tent for the honorary captains and their families sponsored by New York State Tool. The national anthem will be performed by Sergeant Dave Olney from the New York State Police, accompanied by the presentation of colors from the Oneida County Sheriff's Office. At halftime, the CNY Stair Climb Association will present a check to the Believe 271 Foundation. In conjunction with the 50/50 raffle at the game, fans will also have the opportunity to win a unique Utica College Football Cornhole set that was made especially for the Believe Bowl. Utica College cheerleaders will also be giving out miniature stuffed moose at varying times throughout the contest.
Honorary Captains: This year's honorary captains will be Leah Passalacqua and Gianna Verra Raspente from the Thea Bowman House, and Assistant Chief Dave Jones of the Newport Fire Department. They will be accompanied to the opening coin toss by Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Utica College president Laura Casamento, and Lisa Wilsey from New York State Tool. Honorary captains will join the team captains on the field for the coin toss, which will be conducted using a special Believe 271 Foundation Challenge Coin.
Save The Dates: Join us on campus from October 18th to 20th as Utica College celebrates its 2019 Homecoming, Alumni, and Family Weekend. As part of the festivities, the Pioneers will take on local rival Morrisville State on Saturday, October 19th at 1 p.m. More information on the weekend's events is available at http://homecoming.utica.edu/.
A New Addition: Head Coach Blaise Faggiano has announced the addition of a special teams captain to the team's existing leadership group. Running back Tim Hogan will serve as the special teams captain this week. Hogan is a junior Liberal Studies major from Glen Cove, NY.
Anyone Got Some Quarters?: The next win for Utica will be the 75th in the history of the program. In last year's matchup against the Cardinals, another milestone was reached as Blaise Faggiano recorded his 50th career win as Utica head coach.
All Time Series: This will be the nineteenth all-time meeting between Utica and St. John Fisher. The teams have met every year since Utica's first varsity season in 2001. Fisher leads the all-time series 16-2, a streak that included fifteen straight wins to begin the series. The Cardinals were consistently one of the nation's best teams over that stretch as the Pioneers continued to grow into the program we know today. The Pioneers' fortunes changed in 2016 when Utica prevailed 23-6 for their first win over the Cardinals. Utica has gone on to win two of the last three, with a win in last year's Believe Bowl comprising the most recent meeting as the Pioneers won 33-7 for their largest ever margin of victory against the Cardinals. The 2017 meeting went five overtimes before Fisher went on to win.
Where Utica Sits: The Pioneers are now 2-2 and 0-1 in the Empire 8 conference. They have lost their last two games, both of which came against teams to be ranked in the D3Football.com Top 25 at some point this season.
Home Cooking: Utica is surely hoping that a return to home ground will help in getting the team in the swing of things after a two game slide. The Pioneers opened the season with two home games, and won them both before dropping a pair on the road. The Pioneers have finished at a .500 record or above in each of the last five seasons when playing at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.
Last Time Out: The Pioneers took the early lead on a Maki Medici field goal, but host Cortland proved to be too much as they rolled on a 44-9 run following the early score and took the win by a 44-12 count at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex. The Pioneers threw for 328 yards passing, but were held to 47 net rushing yards while notching 375 yards of total offense throughout the contest. Cortland State piled up a total of 576 yards of total offense on the afternoon en route to 44 points. The Red Dragons rushed for 298 yards, and passed for 278 led by a multitude of 100 yard efforts at their skill positions. The Pioneers played two quarterbacks in the game as Logan Wilcox went 15-of-36 for 255 passing yards and had one interception, and Ryan VanGalen, a former Cortland quarterback, returned to his former home field and completed 5-of-7 passes for 73 yards. VanGalen led Utica's lone touchdown drive of the day in the fourth quarter, a drive that was keyed by former Cortland players as fellow transfer Jamarious Morgan capped the drive with a touchdown run. Keegan Wright had another huge day at wide receiver with 96 yards receiving, and Nate Palmer squeezed the most out of three catches with an 87 yard effort in the receiving game.On defense, linebacker Kwasi Addo finished with a team-best twelve tackles. Safety Anthony Beaubrun had eleven out stops himself, and cornerback Robert Diaz-Judson had a career-high 10 tackles as a first year starter. Maki Medici averaged 39.2 yards per punt while recording field goals of 28 and 31 yards.
Return Policy: Utica is one of the best teams in the Empire 8 in the return game, as the Pioneers sit third in kickoff return average at 20.7 yards per attempt, and second in punt return average at 9.8 yards per return. The last Pioneer to return a kick for a touchdown was Tim Hogan, who did it in a Week 11 game against Hartwick last season.
Get Your Kicks: Junior kicker and punter Maki Medici has been exceptionally good to begin the 2019 season. When punting, he has averaged 39.92 yards per punt to pace the Empire 8 conference. He has landed four of his eighteen punts inside the opposing 20 yard line, and has a long of 52 yards this season for his only kick of the year over 50 yards. He has been a perfect seven-of-seven on field goal attempts this year with a long of 52 yards. He is 28th in the nation in punting average.
The Miller Mumblings: Peyton Miller now has 122 career catches and needs just two to surpass All-American tight end Matt Dunn and James Proniewych for sixth on the college's career receptions list. Miller is Utica's leading receiver this season with 21 catches, 298 yards, and three touchdowns. He is fourth in the Empire 8 conference in receiving yards per game and has 298 yards and three touchdowns. His longest catch of the year sits at nineteen yards.
Doing It The Wright Way: Keegan Wright has gone from an occasional contributor at wide receiver to a star in the making in just a few short weeks. Entering the 2019 season, he had just a single career catch for eight yards. Wright was given more responsibility in the RPI game and excelled when given the chance with a seven catch, 102 yard performance that featured his first receiving touchdown. This past week, Wright added another 96 yards. His output in just two weeks has made him Utica's second-leading receiver.
An Early Milestone: Junior wide receiver Kevin Warmack burst onto the scene with his first career college catch on Saturday. He had a 22 yard grab in the fourth quarter. The newcomer is in his first year with the Pioneers after previously playing for Division II American International College. He was one of the most highly decorated quarterbacks in Section III history coming from nearby Utica Notre Dame. In his senior year with the Jugglers, Warmack threw for 1,393 yards and eighteen touchdowns, and rushed for over 2,000 yards and 28 touchdowns.
At Quarterback: Logan Wilcox has completed 67 of 138 passes for 953 yards and seven touchdowns this season. He is third in the Empire 8 with his seven passing touchdowns in 2019 and has averaged 238.3 passing yards per game. He surpassed the 3,000 passing yard mark for his career earlier this season and is now less than 1,000 passing yards away from catching Connor Butkiewicz for fourth on the college's career list. Ryan VanGalen attempted his first passes of the season against Cortland and was 5-of-7 on those attempts. This season, the Pioneers are third in the Empire 8 in passing offense at 256.5 yards per game. They have thrown for 1,026 yards and seven touchdowns as a team.
Ground Delivery: Running back Jamarious Morgan is ninth in the Empire 8 Conference with his average of 51.3 yards per game. Brad Dougherty is eleventh with an average of 42.5 yards per game. Morgan has run for 205 yards and two touchdowns while getting his first game action as a collegiate player this season, and Dougherty has totaled 170 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. The Pioneers rank fifth in the Empire 8 in rushing offense at 111 yards per game.
The O'Connor File: Tight end John James O'Connor has had an emergent season in the absence of the injured Alex Damiani. He is fourth on the team with 190 yards, which he has recorded on 12 catches. He has the second most receiving yards by a tight end in the Empire 8 conference.
At The Line Of Scrimmage: The Pioneer offensive line has been among the best in the Empire 8 conference at protecting quarterbacks Logan Wilcox and Ryan VanGalen this season. The Pioneers have allowed just three sacks to rank best in the conference. Three Empire 8 opponents have already conceded ten or more this season.
Totaling It Up: The Pioneers are fifth in the conference in scoring offense at 27.8 points per game, and sixth in scoring defense at 27.0 points per game. The Pioneers average 367 yards of total offense to also rank fifth.
The Conversion Rate: The Pioneers rank fourth in the Empire 8 conference in both third down conversion percentage, and third down defense this season. The Pioneers are converting on 40 percent of third downs when they have the ball, and opponents are converting at the same rate.
They're Coming For You: Linebackers Kwasi Addo and John Nish rank among the Empire 8 conference leaders in tackles this season. They are fourth and fifth in tackles per game, as Addo averages nine per game, and Nish is close behind with an average of 8.8 per contest. Addo has totaled 36 tackles this season, while Nish has made 35 tackles, 24 of which have been credited as solo tackles. Anthony Beaubrun ranks just outside the top ten in that category himself as he is eleventh in tackles per game from his post in the secondary.
You'll Get Nothing And Like It: The Pioneers have three players in the top 20 in the Empire 8 in tackles for loss per game this season. Antonio Scala is twelfth and has averaged one per appearance. Jack Derby has averaged .88 tackles per loss per appearance, and John Nish has posted an average of 0.75. Derby leads the squad with 3.5 total this season.
Welcome to the Fold: Freshman defensive lineman John Stroughn has made an instantaneous impact on the Pioneers on that side of the ball this season. He is eleventh in the conference with .50 sacks per game and has a pair of quarterback sacks in his first four appearances in a Utica uniform.
Get That Out of Here: Defensive back Mark Taylor is fourteenth in the Empire 8 conference in passes defended as he ranks fourteenth with 0.75 per matchup.
We'll Take That: The Pioneer defense sports two of the eleven players in the conference to have recorded multiple interceptions this season. Marquis Simpson and Elijah Belle have each recorded two interceptions to lead the Pioneers. They have a total of five interceptions, and two have been returned for touchdowns as Simpson and Belle each ran one back in the team's opener against St. Lawrence. Belle is tied for the college's career lead in interception return touchdowns and needs just one more to become the college's outright record holder in that area.
Scouting St. John Fisher: The Cardinals are 3-2, and 0-1 in the Empire 8 conference this season. They are coming off of a 17-0 loss at the hands of Brockport last week in the annual Courage Bowl game, a game that benefits the programs of Camp Good Days out in greater Rochester. The Fisher offense sputtered in that game against Brockport as they were held to a season-low 135 total yards, but the defense was firm as Brockport was held to 248 yards. That is the lowest total for the Golden Eagles in over four seasons. The Cardinal defense leads Division III with twelve interceptions, with Jason Rodriguez leading the conference and the nation with five interceptions. Last Saturday was the 300th career game coached by Paul Vosburgh at Fisher, and Utica head coach Blaise Faggiano was part of a portion of that run as the defensive coordinator for the Cardinals before coming to Utica over a decade ago.
Up Next: The Pioneers will host Morrisville on Saturday, October 19th.