Though the football team is coming off its first loss of the season, a 37–6 defeat at the hands of St. John Fisher College and a bye week, the confidence level is running high for the Bombers.

The Blue and Gold will hit the road Saturday on the way to Northfield, Vt., to square off against conference rival Norwich University Cadets.

Last season, the South Hill squad trounced the Cadets 35–0, and the team is looking for a repeat performance Saturday. To do this, the offense is going to have to run a balanced attack between its ground and passing game combined with a consistent effort from the defense. With the two weeks the team has put into practice since its last game, every area that needed improvement has been addressed.

“We’re working very hard on doing our jobs,” senior cornerback Matt Samela said. “We have a good game plan going in against them.”

In last season’s victory over the Cadets, Ithaca College dominated the scoreboard by keeping the ball on the ground. The Bombers rushed the ball a total of 52 times for 386 yards while the passing game only attempted 15 tries through the air. Head coach Mike Welch said the Blue and Gold might try a similar tactic this week.

“The running game is an important part of our offense,” Welch said. “We will be running the ball, but how much we run depends on a number of factors — how they’re playing defense and how our success rate is.”

Similarly, Norwich tends to keep the ball on the ground. The Cadets’ mobile quarterback sophomore Guerschom Jean-Gilles is almost as likely to run with the ball as throw it when he is taking the snaps.

Jean-Gilles is second in overall rushing this season for Norwich with 158 net yards on the ground. Because of his mobility and the rushing attack of senior running back Darnell Jackson, the Bomber run defense is expected to step up Saturday.

“We always look to shut down the run,” Samela said. “That’s a pride we take on defense. This week we just need to work on containing the quarterback and not letting him get loose in the pocket.”

After the loss to conference rival St. John Fisher, the South Hill squad is trying to take the positives from that game and extend them throughout the season. The team had strong offensive performances from senior tight end Brian Weverbergh and junior running back Thomas Bergerstock, along with a nine-tackle performance by sophomore strong safety David Ahonen.

Senior offensive guard Chris Gray said capitalizing on what the team does well will easily give the Bombers another notch in the win column. Recognizing what went wrong against Fisher and correcting mistakes has been a theme in practice over the past two weeks.

“We need to take the positives and keep going,” Gray said. “We made some mistakes, and we’re going to fix those. But most importantly, we’re going to take the things we did very well and build on those.”

After only putting up six points against Fisher, the college’s offense should have an easier time against Norwich. The Cadets have had severe problems keeping their opponents out of the end zone this season, and the

Bombers are looking to take advantage of that.

The Cadets will host Ithaca after giving up 34 points to SUNY-Maritime on Sept. 27 and 42 points to Alfred University on Saturday. Senior Justin Kulp said he sees these numbers as a hurdle for the Bombers to clear this weekend.

“We’re looking to put up more than that,” he said.