Football | 10/16/2021 6:00:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The Alfred University football team defeated St. John Fisher College on Saturday afternoon, 38-35 for its third win in a row and second Empire 8 Conference win in a row.
The Saxons (3-3, 2-0 Empire 8) got the go-ahead score in the fourth quarter with their drive starting at their 42-yard line after a botched kickoff. The opening play of the drive was a
Max Freeman IV (Painted Post, NY/Corning-Painted Post) rush to the left that broke through multiple would-be Cardinal tacklers for 49 yards to the Fisher nine-yard line.
Zuke Smith (Kane, PA/Kane Area) dropped back for a pass on the next play and found
Zach Leinenbach (Penfield, NY/Penfield) over the middle inside of the endzone with 9:39 left in the game or the game-winning score.
Dustin McCaslin (Ashville, NY/Chautauqua Lake) put in the ensuing PAT to make it 38-28.
"Today was a great overall team win for our football program," Head Coach
Bob Rankl said. "I was really happy to see some of our playmakers step up and make some big time plays. We are excited to be back to 500 and we look forward to our next challenge next week versus Morrisville."
Down two scores on the following drive, the Cardinals (3-4, 1-2 Empire 8) brought the ball down to the Alfred 30-yard line where a vigilant Saxon defense was ready, forcing a fourth and two after three short rush attempts. Instead of electing to go for a field goal to make the game 38-31, Fisher decided to pass the ball with fourth and two as it was picked off by
Christopher Cox (Rochester, NY/Pittsford-Sutherland). AU would go on to burn almost two minutes off the clock, allowing the Cardinals to make another attempt to score one of the two scores they needed to come back with 4:53 remaining in the game.
Nine plays later and almost three minutes drained from the game clock, the Saxon defense forced another fourth down play for Fisher, this time, on the Alfred three-yard line. Fisher decided to pass on fourth and two instead of the field goal in which case, the ball was dropped in the endzone, giving AU possession on their own three yard line with 1:58 remaining in regulation.
St. John Fisher scored one of the needed possessions off the following series of Saxon plays as
Tysean Sizer returned a Saxon punt for 38 yards for the score with the tacked on PAT, making it 38-35. The final stamp on the game occurred on the immediate kickoff as Fisher attempted an onside kick, nearly recovering it but was wrapped up by Cox, giving AU possession for three kneels from Smith to capture the win.
The Cardinals got out to an early lead after two rushing touchdowns from
Dahmir Pross (Pross scored three rushing TD's in the contest), making it 14-0 in favor of the hosts.
Alezandro Aponte (Ronkonkoma, NY/Sachem North) and Freeman tied it up with both of them scoring one-yard rushes.
Sizer opened the second half by returning the opening kickoff 88 yards for the Fisher 21-14 lead. McCaslin put in the game's only field goal from 38 yards out, making it a 21-17 ballgame. The Saxons saw their first lead after a 75-yard interception from
Adam Mietz (Akron, NY/Akron), making it 24-21 after the McCaslin PAT.
Keandre Sanders (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Ludden) snagged a Smith pass for a 12-yard touchdown, furthering the lead to 31-21. Pross ran in his third touchdown of the game, bringing the game back to a one-score situation. Leinenbach's TD was the insurance AU needed for the win during the following drive.
Both teams had exactly 208 yards passing and both had two interceptions. Smith would win in the head-to-head contest over Fisher's
Joseph Torrillo as he completed 18-of-29 passes with two touchdowns as Torrillo only connected on 14-of-27 passes with no touchdowns.
The Saxons held a distinct advantage on the ground as they gained 244 yards (214 yards net) with Freeman averaging 7.6 yards a carry on his 22 attempts for 167 yard and a long of 53 to go with his rushing TD. Pross only netted 88 yards on the ground, averaging 4.4 yards a carry with his three short touchdowns.
Six Saxons had two or more receptions on the day as
Quin Winkler (Hyde Park, NY/Franklin D. Roosevelt) pulled in three for 57 yards including a team-high long of 39 yards. Leinenbach grabbed a game-high four passes for 43 yards on the day.
Both teams had three players with double-digit tackles as
Joe Copp (Minoa, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa) led the game with 17 tackles, 16 of them being assisted tackles, while he broke up one pass.
Jeremiah Young (Buffalo, NY/Canisius) got all 13 of his tackles from team efforts and Cox had two solo tackles to go along with his eight assisted ones.
Tim Dahl (Cobleskill, NY/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and
Sam Wakeman (Corning, NY/Corning-Painted Post) both had nine assisted tackles as well.
The Saxons will next host Morrisville State College on Saturday, October 23 at 2:00pm at Yunevich Stadium in Empire 8 action. The game will feature AU's first ever Teddy Bear Toss where fans can bring a Teddy Bear in to throw at halftime in lieu of the price of a single ticket. All of the stuffed animals collected will be donated to the Salvation Army of Wellsville for their Angel Tree program.