FB: Liberty League

[Machiavelli]

Special Agent Utah! Put your phone down and drive! I just had a mini-stroke trying to read that. 😂

[UfanBill]

I wish there were a cowbell filter that would eliminate or at least greatly reduce the noise of all these cowbells on this stream. Ugh...

About those cowbells...With an assist from  a social media site called Group Spot, Union player parents have for years organized to provide a post game meal for the team at a tailgate, both home and away. A couple of years ago one of these moms began ringing a cowbell at games. Something she brought from her son's high school. Other moms wanted one and now they're pervasive. Ring those bells.(I don't hear them because I sit on the other side of the field ) 

About today's game. Union was it's own worst enemy today. Penalties and mistakes erased any chance they had to win a game that was much closer than the final score. Twice in the first half the Union defense was poised to get a 3 and out but committed penalties on Ithaca punts that kept the Bombers drives alive. First an offsides and then a roughing the kicker. Ultimately both resulted in TDs.    After Union had scored to even the game with 1:36 left in the half they inexplicably went for 2 instead of kicking for a 15-14 lead and it was 14-14. Then the play of the game happened. On a 2nd and 20 and the ball on the Bombers 19 Ithaca sent WR Nicholas Lang on a fly pattern down the right sideline and he was blanketed by Union DB Trey Rezendes. It looked like great coverage but a flag was thrown on Rezendes and his complaint directed towards the official brought an unsportmanship call. The 30 yards in penalties and another for 15 for roughing the passer set Ithaca up to score a late go ahead TD. Three Ithaca TD's all following Union penalties. 21-14 halftime.

Union started the second half driving deep into Ithaca territory but a false start penalty left them behind the chains and a 4th down pass while complete left them 4 yards short turning the ball over on downs. Later with Union once again driving deep into Bomber territory a fumble by QB Luke Sheehan ended that drive. The score remained 21-14 into the 4th quarter.

That failure by the Union offense essentially took the fight out of the Garnet and the Bombers bullied their way to two late TDs bringing the final to 35-14.   

[Jonny Utah]

Special Agent Utah! Put your phone down and drive! I just had a mini-stroke trying to read that. 😂

I might leave that up unedited.  D3boards.com blasts ads that cover my message text box where I have to post first  in order to see what I write because if I click anywhere near the screen the ads push my screen out.  Much better at home on the laptop!!!

[Machiavelli]

Special Agent Utah! Put your phone down and drive! I just had a mini-stroke trying to read that. 😂

I might leave that up unedited.  D3boards.com blasts ads that cover my message text box where I have to post first  in order to see what I write because if I click anywhere near the screen the ads push my screen out.  Much better at home on the laptop!!!

LOL. The ads on a mobile device are simply unbearable, kinda like flosports. Desktop is bad too, just a little more manageable.

My harsh Union jab earlier, present company excluded.

Lastly, I didn't watch all of the IC/Union game, but every time I did, I was seeing Union march down the field and stall or fumble. I feel like Ithaca may have gotten a pretty fortunate W today.

[Jonny Utah]

I have not watched any Union football this year, but what is their RB situation?  Some games Markowski gets 20 carries and others he gets 3.  Or Jones gets 10-15 carries and then the next game he gets 2.  Today jones had 8.  It seems Unions game plan was a ton or wr screens and quick passes.  Ithaca does that a lot too but Union doesn't use their RBs like most teams do it seems?  Not today anyway.

[IC798891]

I do want to say, I really like Union's announcer. He's always on top of the play, and in a very rare twist, is reasonably enthusiastic about the other teams's big plays, which makes it feel way more exciting regardless. When home announcers act morose when the other team scores, it really takes you out of it.

Give that man a raise

[Machiavelli]

I do want to say, I really like Union's announcer. He's always on top of the play, and in a very rare twist, is reasonably enthusiastic about the other teams's big plays, which makes it feel way more exciting regardless. When home announcers act morose when the other team scores, it really takes you out of it.

Give that man a raise

Agreed. It was a fantastic upgrade.

[Bartman]

Congrats to Ithaca on the win over Union . I really thought Union would rise up at home, but they seem to have folded after that PI call at the end of the half leading to the Ithaca TD . Ithaca took advantage of Union's other miscues/sloppiness, just like the Bombers did against Hobart. Tip of the hat to the Bombers for the two road wins. This sets up a showdown between RPI and Ithaca for the LL Championship.
I'm happy that Hobart put together a complete game with Aidan Conrath's return at QB and should be ready for an always competitive Yellowjacket team that gets up for Hobart no matter what the records are.This young Hobart defense( 5 Freshman starters) looks like they will be ready for a competitive post season game with 3 more games to solidify their experience.
Finally, congrats to Hilbert for putting up the fight of their season against Buffalo State, my 100 point prediction was the obvious motivation for the Hilbertonians.

[Machiavelli]

I know I've been poking some fun about the Top 25 voting for a few weeks now to have a little chuckle, but this NJAC thing is just starting to get out of hand.

CNU ranked 10(fine), Rowan at 23(Huge Question Mark, but whatever), then Salisbury still getting 6 votes, Montclair getting 1, all while Ithaca gets 1 vote....It's seriously just becoming more and more laughable. I've never been a huge fan of Massey-type ratings because I always thought common sense was a thing. But Massey is way more accurate in this situation with Ithaca(33), Rowan(41), Salisbury(53), and Montclair(62). Even a little sneaky RPI(52) ahead of 2 of them. Feels right for these teams. But the Salisbury stubborness continues and makes the rest of the dominos fall in line. Salisbury wins come against teams with a combine 11-25 record. NJAC 4-EVA!

Oh, Springfield is also getting 12 votes with their huge and impressive wins over MIT and WPI by 6 points. They played a UW-Assless Chapsville though so their ranking shoots right up the board. LOLOL

I'm not expecting Ithaca or a LL team to be top 25 right now, but getting 1 vote is the joke I am not getting. Sure, they might finish 7-3 when all is said and done, but they could also be 9-1 if they beat RPI and Cortland. Might sneak into the top 30 if they do that!

Side note: Does anyone else notice the d3 site(not d3boards) seems to go down like every 2 minutes as of late? Been happening to me for weeks. Are these horrible ads and pop-ups not enough to keep the lights on? Brutal and it stinks. I like d3football.com, but it's getting a little sad, unfortunately. Feels like it's dying off fast. Maybe they should get into bed with flosports, like Rochester, and get a few more gerbils to keep the lights on.

[Patrick Coleman]

Short version: We have been heavily scraped by bots for the past six months, across all of our sites.
PrestoSports does not want bots scraping our sites. It degrades performance for everyone.
Anti-bot measures sometimes knock down legitimate traffic.
We are all working on another solution but it will cost more than we have paid previously.

[Machiavelli]

Short version: We have been heavily scraped by bots for the past six months, across all of our sites.
PrestoSports does not want bots scraping our sites. It degrades performance for everyone.
Anti-bot measures sometimes knock down legitimate traffic.
We are all working on another solution but it will cost more than we have paid previously.

Excellent response and good to hear there's a legit reason for it! Much appreciated.

[UfanBill]

I do want to say, I really like Union's announcer. He's always on top of the play, and in a very rare twist, is reasonably enthusiastic about the other teams's big plays, which makes it feel way more exciting regardless. When home announcers act morose when the other team scores, it really takes you out of it.

Give that man a raise

I was at the game so I didn't hear the announcer until later. Union provides a link to all home game archives unlike many other teams. https://unionathletics.com/sports/2018/8/23/football-video.aspx ...Saturday's announcer was Jacob Johnson. Someone I had never heard before. A check revels he's a sports reporter for the Glens Falls Post-Star newspaper and also did play by play for Elmira Mammoth hockey. Since disbanded. Now he's taken an opportunity to work for ESPN as a freelance announcer. Look for him to do more work for Union like women's hockey. I too thought he was excellent.   

[Bartman]

Congrats to Aidan Conrath (So-QB) and MJ Wells(Fr-LB) of Hobart for being selected the LL Offensive and Rookie Performers of the week  Aidan is the best pure passer Hobart has seen since Shane Sweeney, he just needs to stay on the field. MJ is just special.

[IC798891]

Look, if Ithaca beats Cortland, they'll be ranked.

But look at Utica, who is the top team in receiving votes, and compare the resumes.

Utica's best win a 15-point win on the road against a Washington and Jefferson team that has won its next six games by a combined score of 309-17. Ithaca's best win is a 7-point road win over a Hobart, who has two other loses.

Utica's loss is a 10-point loss to an undefeated Cortland team, though the game wasn't as close as the score indicates. Ithaca's loss is a nine-point loss to a 2-5 Hopkins team, in a game that also wasn't as close as the score indicates.

If Utica's the best team not ranked, there's no way Ithaca can be ahead of them