FB: Liberty League

[UfanBill]

Union has posted their Game Day Program which includes this week's Two Deep... https://unionathletics.com/gameday/football-vs-20-21-susquehanna/football/1003/ ...Lots of youth including two first year's starting on the O-Line. Gioioso and Anderson were teammates at Xaverian Brothers in Massachusetts. They'll have a head start to gelling quickly...The defense is full of experience with 9 of 11 returning starters.   

[Caz Bombers]

Brockport 68
Buffalo State 0

Just drop the program already

[Ice Bear]

Brockport 68
Buffalo State 0

Just drop the program already

I watched some of this and had hope for the first five minutes. I feel for the players. The program hasn't had it in quite some time...

[IC798891]

It's getting to the point where I really wonder if Buff State is just better off going down to club for awhile.

They're not some small school that needs the 30-40 first-year students from football to stay open -- their enrollment is north of 6,000. And in 2025, they not only saw their first-year enrollment jump 3.7%, their retention rate of the Fall 2024 class jumped 7.8 percentage points from the year before and 16.7 from three years ago. On campus enrollment and retention are increasing at even higher rates.

How is their football program being this bad a positive for those involved? They went 17-61 (.217) between Boyes 1.0 and Boyes 2.0, and have managed to go 7-54 (.114) since then.

It looks like they have launched a JV team so maybe that will start to bear some long term fruit. But seeing them get handled this bad is really depressing

[IC798891]

Also, I stand corrected.

Matthew Parker *is* QB1 at Alfred, and he...kinda shredding them? 21-of-29 for 214 a TD and 0 picks, while adding (I think) 31 yards on three non-sack carries.

[IC798891]

Hobart looking like they will hang on though, up 24-17 with the ball and less than 4 minutes to go

[IC798891]

I simply do not get offensive coordinators.

Hobart is up 24-17, 2nd and 6 on their own 48, clock running just under 3 minutes. They have the best RB in the conference, if not the best player in the conference, and they try to get cute and run a reverse, the pitch of which is fumbled. Alfred recovers and returns it to the 28. They were lucky it wasn't taken to the house.

The Saxons drive to the 12 before Hobart's defensive line -- which ate Alfred's line alive all night -- finished the game off.

Like, what are we doing calling trick plays here guys? Give the ball to your workhorse, tell him to pick up six yards on two carries, and bring it home. If he can't, punt away from midfield, and tell your D-line, which had already sacked Parker 5 times, to pin their ears back and get more.

Sometimes I wish teams would lose when they do boneheaded things like that

[Bartman]

I simply do not get offensive coordinators.

Hobart is up 24-17, 2nd and 6 on their own 48, clock running just under 3 minutes. They have the best RB in the conference, if not the best player in the conference, and they try to get cute and run a reverse, the pitch of which is fumbled. Alfred recovers and returns it to the 28. They were lucky it wasn't taken to the house.

The Saxons drive to the 12 before Hobart's defensive line -- which ate Alfred's line alive all night -- finished the game off.

Like, what are we doing calling trick plays here guys? Give the ball to your workhorse, tell him to pick up six yards on two carries, and bring it home. If he can't, punt away from midfield, and tell your D-line, which had already sacked Parker 5 times, to pin their ears back and get more.

Sometimes I wish teams would lose when they do boneheaded things like that

Amen . Horrible call , up by 7 with 3 minutes to go on third down on your own 30 and call a reverse .... Fumble and give the ball back to Alfred. Parker played tough all night despite being sacked 7 times , he was one pass away from saving the game for Alfred. I had visions of one Parker TD pass followed by a two point conversion  and a win for Alfred based on an unnecessary reverse call. Luckily the defense held and Hobart avenged last years opening season loss.
EJ Taylor was a total stud with over 130 yards rushing and 70 yards receiving with 2 TDs and a two point conversion. He pretty much won the game single handidly . Billy Brosko was a beast at DT all night, as Parker will have nightmares tonight with Billy throwing him down repeatedly. These two players deserved their AA preseason awards. Hopefully the rest of the team will be inspired by them.

[Bartman]

Also, I stand corrected.

Matthew Parker *is* QB1 at Alfred, and he...kinda shredding them? 21-of-29 for 214 a TD and 0 picks, while adding (I think) 31 yards on three non-sack carries.

Parker was a great pick up for Alfred. Despite constant pressure from the Hobart defense he almost pulled this one out by standing in and taking some tough punishment much of the night. He showed his experience and will help the Saxons this season, for sure.

[IC798891]

Ithaca, predictably, is down 17-0 at halftime to Hopkins.

Union with something I've never seen before. A delay of game on the opening offensive play of the season. Followed up with a swing pass where the RB falls down for a two-yard loss, an incomplete pass that was initially ruled a lost fumble, and then an interception.

To recap the opening drive: Penalty, negative play, overturned turnover, actual turnover. If I were inclined to be generous, I'd say that at least the pick was essentially a punt. But still.

Susquehanna then drives to the one-foot line and fumbles it away.

Odd start in the capital region

[Caz Bombers]

Hop 30
IC 21

Honestly not that bad, I thought Hopkins would puree us.

[Caz Bombers]

OT in Schenectady! Susquehanna throws 34 yard TD pass with 2 seconds left and elects to kick rather than go all in.

[IC798891]

Union with one of the most inexplicable losses I've seen -- in a game that neither team seemed all that interested in winning.

After a great play gives Union a pick six and a 17-3 lead, they allow a TD to make it 17-10 and the offense stalls, thanks in part to back-to-back false start penalties after getting a 1st and 10 at their own 46.

Susquehanna nearly fumbles away the punt return, then take over on their 9 yard line with less than two minutes to go and no timeouts. With 35 seconds to go, they're still only on their own 35 yard line. But somehow, Union allows a 34 yard TD on what was essentially the last play of regulation.

In OT, Susquehanna gets the benefit of a no-call on a...somewhat dicey after the whistle sorta, kinda, hit while pulling up after an incomplete pass on 2nd down. I could absolutely see the flag being thrown there -- though even the Union announcers said there was no ill intent.

Union lines up for a FG, only to inexplicably get called for a delay of game. Which is just coaching malpractice considering that in OT, your FG team should be ready to go, and you have a timeout to use.

Union instead gets knocked back five yards, the kick is blocked and run back for 6.

Honestly, Union had this thing in the bag and let it slip. 17-3 lead with less than 8 minutes to go. But the offense struggled -- they averaged just 3.1 YPP and had three turnovers. And while the defense was great for 53 minutes, they allowed a ton of chunk plays in the passing game in the last 7.

What could have been a nice statement win for the LL was instead a crusher of a loss.

Ithaca showed some good fight, especially with a couple of defensive RZ stands. The overall offensive number look good, though YMMV on how much you care about the production in the latter stages of a game that was 23-0 with 4:00 to go in the third and 30-7 early in the 4th.

The optimist view would be that Ithaca didn't tuck tail, and kept fighting to make plays for the 60 minutes. The pessimist view would be that Hopkins controlled the game until the outcome was all but decided, and probably just took its foot off the gas a bit early defensively.

All told, 333 total yards, 3 TD/2 INT from Reed, and 6 catches for 102 yards and 2 scores from Nick Lang.

Very interested in Ithaca-Alfred next week

[Jonny Utah]

Hop 30
IC 21

Honestly not that bad, I thought Hopkins would puree us.

Yea, JHU was the better team and was up 30-7 in the 4th.  But Ithaca played much better this year than last years game.  I thought the offense moved the ball well all game, and just couldn't punch it in or convert when they needed to in the first 3 quarters.  But JHU made it look easy when they had the ball.  Their QB had a lot of time and that set up some easy catches in space for the Bluejays.  On the other end, Reed had much more pressure on him but he was still able to make plays and run when needed.  JHU still had skill guys that Ihaca could not match up with except for Lang who may be the best player in the country when it comes to catching footballs in tight spaces.  Reminded me of the RPI game last year where Reed and Lang basically won that game on their own. 

Anyway it was good to see them give JHU a game (or they didn't roll over like last year), and makes me more optimistic for the season.  Definetly some talent there.