Soccer Fan Blog

Two big wins from Holy Cross and Colgate took center stage in Patriot League football on Saturday. No. 23 Holy Cross knocked off No. 25 Harvard, 27-20, in Worcester and Colgate earned a 34-15 victory at Dartmouth as both teams moved to 3-0. In other action, Bucknell fell at Cornell, 33-9, while Georgetown suffered a 31-10 loss at home against Yale in the afternoon. In the nighttime contests, Lafayette and Fordham both lost at home. The Leopards fell to No. 24 Liberty, 19-13, while the Rams were outscored by Columbia, 40-28.

For a full recap of all of the games, including institutional recaps and box scores, click here

Below, check out some initital thoughts on Saturday’s action and the highlights for Patriot League teams and student-athletes.

* – Holy Cross is at 3-0 for the first time since 2000, and Colgate has a 3-0 record for the first time since 2003. Both teams are clearly living up to their billing as the top two teams in the Patriot League preseason poll in the first month.
* – Very big win for Holy Cross, who became just the second Patriot League team since 2005 to knock off a non-League ranked opponent. Ironically the other team to pull off the feat was Lafayette over then-No. 14 Liberty last season, but the Leopards could not pull it off again tonight at home.
* – Holy Cross’ defense appears to be making strides….they held Harvard to 6 points into the first half, a good performance against an offense that is usually pretty prolific. The Crusaders limited Harvard to 327 yards of total offense.
* – Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph was held under 300 yards passing for the second week in a row after tossing nine straight 300-yard games (though his 293-yard passing total was pretty close). But he also went without an INT for the second week in a row, and led the Crusaders in rushing yards while scoring a TD on the ground. He finished 25-of-39 for 293 yards and two touchdowns through the air, and 41 yards and a score on the ground. The Crusaders would exchange those numbers for 300-yard games any day of the week.
* – Colgate owns Dartmouth….that’s four straight wins, 10 of the last 11 and 16 of the last 18 against the Big Green.
* – They really do grow running backs on trees in Hamilton (and apparently offensive linemen too). With starting running back Nate Eachus out of the lineup, sophomore Jordan McCord stepped in to carry 44 times for 212 yards and two touchdowns. The 44 carries are just two off the Patriot League record set by Lafayette’s Erik Marsh against Lehigh in 1992.
* – A typically effective night for Colgate quarterback Greg Sullivan as well, who ran for 51 yards and two touchdowns and completed 12-of-19 passes for 172 yards and a score. Colgate didn’t put it away until the second half, but held a 464-173 edge in total yardage and a dominating 292-26 lead in rushing yardage.
* – Don’t be fooled by the final score in Georgetown’s 31-10 loss to Yale. The Hoyas held a 355-303 edge in total yardage, and trailed by just one touchdown in the fourth quarter. Quite the first start for freshman quarterback Isaiah Kempf, who was 32-of-59 for 332 yards and two interceptions.
* – Georgetown’s Robert Lane caught 13 passes for 149 yards. The 13 receptions are just two off the Patriot League record of 15, and tied for the seventh-best game in League annals.
* – Lafayette had a tough time early on against Liberty’s speed and spread offense, but the Leopards recovered nicely in the second half and outscored the Flames, 13-3, after the break.
* – Tough start for Fordham, going 0-2 against opponents they had beaten in each of the last two years. The offense has scored 28 points in each game, but unfortunately the defense is allowing 40.5 points per contest.
* – The bright spot for the Rams came from quarterback John Skelton, who threw for a career-high 383 yards and four touchdowns. Skelton did throw three interceptions while completing 25-of-47 passes.
* – The Rams have struggled against the run, something they will need to correct before traveling to Colgate for a Patriot League contest next Saturday.
* – Signing off for now….remember to go to www.patriotleague.org for more coverage.

Patriot League Media Relations Director Matt Dougherty

Thankfully, another college football Saturday is nearly upon us. For the Patriot League, that means two big opportunities for marquee wins and home games for four of the six teams in action. It is the only weekend of the season without any League contests, but there is still plenty at stake.

To read the Patriot League preview release for the weekend, go here. As always, game notes, live stat, audio and video links are included in the preview, with the coverage links also available at the Patriot League composite schedule. We’ll have updates following both the afternoon and evening contests here at the blog, and score updates at the Patriot League Twitter page throughout the day. Go to www.patriotleague.org at the end of the night for a full League recap as well as institutional recaps and box scores from all of the games.

With two ranked oppponents on the schedule, the Patriot League is receiving its fair share of attention from national outlets going into the weekend. Chuck Burton, a good friend and reporter for the League and all of the Football Championship Subdivision, selects No. 23 Holy Cross hosting No. 25 Harvard as the FCS game of the week in his College Sporting News article. The contest in Worcester is the only matchup between ranked opponents on the FCS schedule this weekend. However, Chuck does pick the Crusaders to go down, 34-31, and also thinks Lafyette and Fordham will lose at home. Guess we’ll have to prove him wrong! The predictions by Brett Kahn of The Sports Network are more to our liking: he thinks Holy Cross and Lafayette will both win at home. Interestingly enough, he has the Crusaders winning by the 34-31 final.

Lafayette beat then-No. 14 Liberty last season for the Patriot League’s first win over a non-League ranked opponent since 2005, so getting two such victories would obviously be huge this week. Along with the ranked games, the matchups with the Ivy League highlight the schedule. In addition to Holy Cross’ matchup with Harvard, Fordham hosts Columbia, Georgetown hosts Yale, Bucknell goes to Cornell and Colgate visits Dartmouth. Patriot League teams have gone 9-9 each of the last two seasons against the Ancient Eight, so this series between like-minded conferences bears watching again.

As always, enjoy the games and come here to the blog and the other Patriot League media outlets for wall-to-wall coverage throughout the weekend. And since every game is a non-League affair, we can really say “Go Patriot League!” for the entire weekend!

You know it’s a good week for Patriot League teams and student-athletes when we can post four different releases on national or regional honors, and still have tidbits left over to throw to all of you in the blog.

We’ll start with soccer, most notably on the men’s side. Colgate’s Alex Weekes, the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week, received the Player of the Week honor from the ECAC. Two players who just lost out to Weekes for the League honor, Bucknell’s Conor O’Brien and Lafayette’s B.J. Glenn, were selected as two of 11 players on College Soccer News’ Team of the Week. There was recognition for some of the teams as well, as five Patriot League schools were in the NSCAA Mid-Atlantic Region top 10. Lafayette took the top spot for a PL school at No. 2, followed by Bucknell at No. 4, Colgate at No. 5, American at No. 7 and Navy at No. 10. Lafayette, off to a 4-0-1 start, also received votes in the national rankings. The Leopards will face Northern Illinois and Northwestern in Chicago this weekend, while Navy plays Temple and Penn in Philadelphia and every other team takes to the pitch once. In the women’s soccer regional rankings, Navy is eighth in the Mid-Atlantic with a 6-1-1 record. The Mids host VMI and go to Mt. St. Mary’s on Friday and Sunday.

Two Patriot League football student-athletes followed up their League plaudits with a national honor, as Bucknell’s A.J. Kizekai was honored by the College Sporting News and Colgate’s Greg Sullivan was selected by the ECAC. There have already been three national honorees out of the Patriot League in just two weeks, with Holy Cross quarterback Dominic Randolph selected by The Sports Network last week. The Crusaders maintained their position in The Sports Network top 25, moving to No. 23 on the Monday. They will face off in a battle of ranked opponents when they host No. 25 Harvard on Saturday, while Lafayette hosts No. 24 Liberty in a great chance to provide two non-League wins over ranked opponents.

In field hockey, American climbed back into the national rankings at No. 19 in Monday’s Kookaburra/NFHCA coaches poll. The Eagles posted a 3-1 win over then-No. 13 Penn State on Sunday to earn the recognition, and will host California on Friday and travel to No. 13 James Madison on Sunday this week. Lafayette also showed up in the others receiving votes category, and the Leopards enhanced their case for national recognition by beating Penn State, 1-0, on Wednesday.

One of the bigger upsets came in volleyball, where Army knocked off then-No. 19 Pepperdine on the road on Saturday. It was Army’s first win against an AVCA Top 25 opponent. The Black Knights also received an honor for a recent graduate, as Briana Stremick ‘09 was named the 2009 ECAC Robbins Scholar-Athlete Of The Year

With the wins by Army volleyball and American field hockey, as well as earlier victories against nationally ranked opponents by the American men and Navy women in soccer, the Patriot League is looking pretty good on the national scene so far. And a couple of the League’s top football teams have a chance to add their name to that list on Saturday.

It’s been a few days since we were last on with a post on the Patriot League football scene….it’s amazing how much being without a computer changes your life. Oh well, it’s now Tuesday so here are some leftover Patriot League football thoughts from the weekend and a few looking toward the coming Saturday of games and beyond. To get started, here is Saturday’s recap and the Patriot League weekly release

* – Nice day in non-League games for the Patriot League on Saturday. Colgate, Bucknell and Holy Cross all scored home victories to give the Patriot League a 3-1 record, with the only loss by Lehigh at No. 3 Villanova. Especially impressive win by the Raiders, who knocked off a Stony Brook team that is expected to contend for the Big South title despite running back Nate Eachus sitting out the game due to injury.

* – There are some really, really good quarterbacks in the Patriot League. More than some, how about five or six really good quarterbacks. We all know about Dominic Randolph, who is now tracking FCS records after breaking just about every League mark. Fordham’s John Skelton is probably going to finish his career in the top five in League history in most passing categories, and already owns a League title and All-League spot. Lehigh’s J.B. Clark has the big arm to put up major numbers for the Mountain Hawks despite a slow start to the 2009 season, and excelled in the 2008 campaign for the Mountain Hawks. Colgate’s Greg Sullivan and Lafayette’s Rob Curley might not have the monster statistics, but they are both proven winners and give their run first, dominate on defense teams exactly what they want. Sullivan has led Colgate to 10 straight regular-season wins, and is an amazing 11-2 as a starter. He will likely go down as one of the top dual threat quarterbacks in League annals, and is already over 1,000 rushing yards for his career. Curley has led Lafayette to a 10-3 record as a starter, and just put up a career-high 259 passing yards and three touchdowns in Saturday’s 28-3 win over Georgetown. Bucknell’s Marcello Trigg has plenty of talent as well, while Georgetown searches for the next big Patriot League quarterback among a group of freshman and sophomores.

* – The League schedule has pretty much played out as expected, with Holy Cross and Lafayette each notching a victory over Georgetown. No League games this week, but the first “swing” game in the standings comes next Saturday as the last two Patriot League champions match up when Fordham visits Colgate.

* – This weekend’s games present a great opportunity for two Patriot League teams. No. 23 Holy Cross plays host to No. 25/25 Harvard, while Lafayette hosts No. 24 Liberty. Lafayette’s victory over then No. 14 Liberty last season was the first win for a Patriot League team against a non-League ranked opponent since 2005. It’s also been that long since the League recorded two victories against ranked teams in a season, but there’s certainly an opportunity on Saturday, especially with both teams playing at home.

Signing off for now…..still trying to recover from last night’s Bills game. Only they could lose a game like that!

Patriot League Media Relations Director Matt Dougherty

Another football Saturday is here, and for me that means a trip to a Patriot League contest with Lafayette visiting Georgetown. I’m heading off for the drive in the rain to DC in a matter of minutes, and hope to have internet access to update the Gameday Blog, Twitter page, etc…during the game. I’ll touch base again when I get there….hopefully. If not, I’ll be back on late, late tonight to recap the day.

Most of the action comes tonight, with just No. 25 Holy Cross hosting Sacred Heart at 1 p.m. That’s an interesting game to follow, as the Crusaders try to go to 2-0, keep and improve their national ranking and put up another strong performance at home. Holy Cross QB Dominic Randolph is worth watching as usual. He now holds most Patriot League records, but is starting to track down elite company in FCS history. More on that later on.

The Lafayette/Georgetown contest obviously highlights tonight’s action, with a 6 p.m. kickoff. The Leopards are expected to be in the title hunt once again and need to get off to a good start on the road, as they won’t play another PL game until Oct. 24. At 0-1, the Hoyas can’t afford another loss at this point of the season if they want to be a factor in the race. It’s the first night game at Georgetown so it should be a great atmosphere.

Colgate will host Stony Brook and Bucknell hosts Robert Morris in 6 p.m. starts, while Lehigh is at No. 3 Villanova at 7 p.m. The Raiders will go without star running back Nate Eachus as they try to move to 2-0, while the Bison have dealt with a few early injuries of their own. Lehigh will get a great read on where it is at heading into next week’s bye. I saw Villanova against Colgate in the FCS playoffs, and this Wildcat team is as good as any in the FCS (and probably quite a few in the FBS). Lehigh did have a good showing at Villanova last year, and could gain some momentun with a quality performance after last week’s loss to Central Connecticut State.

As always, enjoy the game, stay safe (and today, dry) and go Patriot League!