Football | 11/14/2026 8:28:00 PM
ALFRED, NY – Senior quarterback Ryan Whitney delivered another dazzling rushing performance and senior linebacker Colin Faust turned in a career day as St. John Fisher closed the regular season with a 22-7 victory over Alfred State on a blustery Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Stadium.
The Cardinals moved to 7-3 (4-3 Empire 8 Conference), while Alfred State dropped to 6-4 (3-4 Empire 8). St. John Fisher has declared for an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) bowl game and will find out on Monday afternoon if it has earned a bid.
The Cardinals finished with 395 total yards and recorded their second straight game with more than 200 yards rushing, amassing 255 yards on 36 rushes (7.1 yards per carry). Whitney carried the ball 19 times for a career-high 191 yards – an average of 10.1 yards per rush – and ripped off a 78-yard score. Senior running back Shane Zaletofsky finished with 72 yards and a score on 12 carries, and senior tight end Nathan Delill recorded his first collegiate touchdown on a 1-yard rushing plunge.
Whitney completed 11 of his 15 passes (73.3%) for 140 yards. Senior wide receiver Jackson Cusack led the Cardinals with five catches for 101 yards.
Faust set career highs with 18 tackles and 2.5 sacks to lead the Cardinals' defense, which limited the Pioneers to 263 total yards (3.8 yards per play). Alfred State rushed for 131 yards but managed just 2.6 yards per carry.
Graduate senior safety Eric Sparkman Jr. and senior linebacker Kyle DaMore each made 10 tackles. Junior linebacker Jack Bierman made seven stops and earned credit for a half sack, while junior defensive lineman Brendan Toomey recorded his first collegiate sack.
How It Happened
Alfred State opened the game with a grinding drive that lasted nearly half the quarter, but it did not yield points in the end. The Pioneers kept their offense on the field for a 4th-and-1 from the Cardinals' 15-yard line, and St. John Fisher senior safety Timothy Vanderbrink stuffed Ryan Joseph for no gain on a run up the middle.
After the teams traded punts, Whitney opened the scoring with a 78-yard touchdown run on the first play of the Cardinals' second drive early in the second quarter. Fisher missed the extra point, keeping the score at 6-0.
The Cardinals forced Alfred State to punt on back-to-back possessions before adding to their lead late in the second quarter.
Whitney connected with Zaletofsky for 13 yards and Cusack for 18 before picking up 11 yards with his legs to get Fisher to the Alfred State 3-yard line. Zaletofsky capped the eight-play, 80-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run that put the Cardinals ahead 12-0.
The Cardinals began the second half with possession and wasted no time finding the end zone again. Cusack gained 65 yards on a catch-and-run to get Fisher to the 1-yard line on the second play of the drive, and Delill took a direct snap and bulldozed into the end zone on the next play to make it 19-0.
The Pioneers got on the board on the ensuing drive, an 18-play, 79-yard slog that lasted more than eight minutes and included two third-down conversions and two fourth-down conversions. Alfred State quarterback Chase Shepanski, who finished 15-of-19 for 132 yards, fired a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Jackson to cut the Cardinals' lead to 19-7.
Senior kicker Logan Laratta capped the scoring with a 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter to give the Cardinals a 22-7 lead.
Alfred State turned the ball over on downs on the subsequent possession, which ended with 10:35 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals drained the rest of the game clock with a 17-play, 60-yard drive.
Game Notes
-
Whitney's 191 yards rushing marked the most by a Cardinal since running back James Chambers rushed for 199 yards against Cortland in 2017. Whitney joined Chambers, Cody Miller (twice) and Ryan Kramer as the fourth Fisher player since 2010 to have 190-plus rushing yards in a game.
-
Whitney has three 70-plus-yard touchdown runs and an 82-yard touchdown pass this season.
-
Whitney has rushed for more than 100 yards two times this season and three times since last November.
-
Whitney now has 849 yards rushing this season, two shy of Ryan Kramer's single-season program record (851 yards in 2011) for a quarterback.
-
Whitney's 15 rushing scores rank fifth on St. John Fisher's single-season top-10 list. He ranks eighth in Fisher's record book with 21 career rushing touchdowns.
-
Whitney has rushed for a touchdown in nine games this season. The last Fisher player to record a rushing touchdown in nine games or more in a season was Cody Miller (11 games with a rushing score in 2013).
-
Faust recorded his third consecutive game with 12-plus tackles. He's the first Fisher player since linebacker Joe Miscia in 2021 to have three straight games with 12 tackles or more.
-
Faust's 12 tackles marked the most by a Cardinal since Miscia had 19 against Morrisville in 2021.
-
Cusack recorded his third 100-yard receiving game this season, the most by a Fisher player since Will Blake had six such performances in 2019.
-
Laratta has made nine consecutive field goals since the end of last season, a program record.
Up Next
The Cardinals will watch the ECAC Bowl Game Selection Show at noon on Monday.