The football team (4–0 overall, 2–0 Empire 8) travels to Alfred University (2–1 overall, 1–0 Empire 8) on Saturday, looking to remain undefeated and surpass its win total from last season.
Replacing Will Carter
The idea of brotherhood among football players exists in teams at any level. Sometimes it is a loose term, but sometimes, as seen last Saturday, it isn’t. As senior linebacker Will Carter lay in pain from what would later be diagnosed as a torn ACL, senior center Nathaniel Hemingway came out and helped carry his fellow captain off the field. Carter will not return to the field this season and may never play college football again. He, like Hemingway did this preseason, will watch the unit he leads play on without him. He will watch senior Dan Cimino replace him at middle linebacker and earn his first start of the 2012 season. Cimino and the other linebackers will have to stop an Alfred Saxon running game that has averaged almost 240 yards per game this fall.
Leaving homecoming
As we enter October and the middle of the season, it becomes the time for homecoming. While the Bombers will have their homecoming next week against Buffalo State, Alfred is having theirs this Saturday. Bomber Head Coach Mike Welch said he is expecting a hostile environment.
“It’s a small town, with college football being the major show in town,” Welch said. “It’s in a football area of New York State, and they get a real good crowd, especially when we come and bring some people. It’s a fun environment.“
It will be imperative that the Bombers gain control of the game early, through senior running backs Jarret Naiden and Clay Ardoin, to quiet the raucous crowd.
Conference championship game?
The only two Empire 8 Conference teams in the top 25 meet at noon Saturday as 10th-ranked Salisbury University (3–1 overall, 1–0 Empire 8) travels to Rochester to take on eighth-ranked St. John Fisher College (4–0 overall, 1–0 Empire 8). The Cardinals have drawn some claims of being overrated for shaky performances in their first three games, and a 43-13 win against Hartwick College two weeks ago did little to sway the critics. Salisbury senior quarterback Dan Griffin was knocked out of Salisbury’s 20-7 win against Buffalo State last weekend, but he is listed as the starter for the Sea Gulls and their option attack.
Tragedy for Washington & Jefferson
One of Fisher’s opponents from earlier this season, Washington and Jefferson College, is in mourning this week after senior running back Tim McNerney died in an apparent homicide in Washington, Pa. McNerney was pronounced dead at an area hospital at 4:42 a.m. Thursday morning due to blunt force trauma to the head. He was the team’s leading rusher and ran for 167 yards in the Presidents’ 28-24 loss against Fisher on Sept. 8.
