ONEONTA, NY – Hartwick College looks to close out the 2009 regular season with a home victory on Saturday against St. John Fisher. A win over the Cardinals would give the Hawks their third straight over their Empire 8 rivals. The Hawks are bowl eligible following their come-from-behind win over Utica two weeks ago and can put themselves in solid position for an ECAC bid with a victory over the Cardinals.
Two weeks ago against the Pioneers, back Nate Rockefeller (Delhi, NY/Delaware Valley) notched 130 yards rushing on 23 carries for the Hawks, including rattling off three straight first-down runs for 55 yards and the game-winning touchdown with 1:19 left in the 33-27 win. Senior quarterback Brian Radley (Herkimer, NY/Dolgeville) completed 11 passes for 191 yards and three touchdowns and Noah Koreman (Albany, NY/Albany) made five catches for 139 yards and three scores. Defensively, Ben Tomaino (Oneonta, NY/Oneonta) made four sacks and 13 tackles for the Hawks. Koreman and Tomaino both swept Empire 8 and ECAC weekly awards for their efforts.
Entering the game, Koreman ranks sixth all-time at 'Wick in touchdown receptions with 29 and 9th in career reception yards with 2,070. DeMulder jumped into third place on the career rushing charts with 1,656 yards, and Tomaino has accumulated 35 tackles for a loss (T-3rd all-time), 17.5 sacks (4th), 221 career tackles (7th).
Koreman also ranks 6th in the country this season in reception yards per game. Tomaino is ninth in Div. III in sacks, and both Koreman (9th) and DeMulder (13th) are in the top 15 in scoring.
Fisher (5-3) has losses to Mount Union (52-10), Salisbury (38-20), and Alfred (31-28), but the Cardinals have rolled through the rest of their E8 games, including a 40-17 blowout of Ithaca. A Fisher win, coupled with an Alfred loss to Utica would give the Cardinals the E8 crown and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Junior quarterback Tim Bailey set the Fisher record for total offense in a game last Saturday against Springfield, racking up 417 yards. He passed for 338 yards and three touchdowns on 21-of-30 attempts with no interceptions. He also ran the ball eight times for 79 yards, including a career-long 59-yard run. The Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Week broke his own record of 389 yards of total offense, which he set last year. Andy Episcopo, the Empire 8's Defensive Player of the Week, led a defensive effort that held Springfield, who ranked 15th nationally in total offense and second nationally in rushing offense, to just 183 yards of total offense. Episcopo led the effort with 11 tackles and he forced a fumble and was in on two tackles for losses.
'Wick has won the last two meetings, both by identical scores 31-28. In 2007, the Hawks stunned the 5th ranked Cardinals taking the lead for good on a 40-yard Ryan Boyea field goal with 4:15 left. On the Cardinals' final drive of the game, Fisher drove to inside the Hartwick 3, converting on two fourth-down plays during the drive, but with 13.5 seconds left, after a Hartwick timeout, the Cardinals were stopped short on a quarterback sneak. Last season, Hartwick marched 56 yards on 10 plays (44 yards on the ground) on its final drive with Boyea splitting the up-rights from 32 yards out for the winning points. The all-time series is currently deadlocked with seven wins for Fisher and seven for Hartwick.
