Gameday Week 10/11/2003 - Game #5 Buffalo St

DeVine Interception Secures Prof Victory 31-10 In the Bleachers With Ricky Patterson ricky@rowanfootball.com Vince DeVine intercepted a pass in the fourth quarter and returned it 70 yards to help secure Rowan's fourth victory of the season. With Rowan clinging on to a 17-3 lead early in the fourth quarter, Buffalo State appeared to be back in business. Buffalo State blocked a Prof punt fairly deep in Rowan's territory and took over with great field position. Two plays into their drive quarterback Mike Mikolaichick's errant throw towards the sideline found the brown jersey of DeVine. The Cherry Hill West product stormed all the way from to Buffalo's 11 yard line from his own 19 yard line. Buffalo State Game 5 Play WGLS-FM audio highlights The Profs offense looked sluggish at times; however they did enough to get past a bad Buffalo State Football team. To Buffalo State's credit, they played tough for the lack of talent that they have on their depth chart. Running back Curtis Hathcock was a workhorse for the Bengals carrying the ball 27 times for 97 yards. The Profs Defense was able to hold him in check and pressure Mikolaichick all day long. Linebacker Mike McClaine and defensive end Brian Bond led the defensive assault with two sacks a piece respectively. The two headed Triton monster, Todd Trout and Dominick Tomeo both played major roles as well, chipping in with a combined 22 tackles. After a scoreless first quarter, Sophomore Brandon Medine capped off a seven play drive with a three yard touchdown run. The Bengals missed a field goal on their next possession and Rowan took over with decent field position. Mike Orihel looked sharp as he completed three straight passes to Phil Silva for a total of 54 yards. That drive came to a streaking halt when Medine fumbled near the end zone. Later in the quarter Orihel was intercepted near the goal line cutting that trip into Bengal territory short of the end zone as well. Damian Shadow added a 22 yard field goal later in the quarter and Rowan went into the locker room leading 10-0. Patrick Thompson put the Profs a head with a 1 yard plunge into the end zone with 4:02 to go in the third and the Profs appeared to be in control. Thompson went over the century mark for the second straight week as he rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries. Hathcock returned the ensuing kickoff near mid field giving Buffalo State half of the field to work with. They could only manage three points out of the drive, but that was enough to give them hope. Buffalo's special team's came to life as they blocked a punt on Rowan's next possession. That block really fired up their team and momentarily put them back in the game. Enter: Vince Devine Exit: Buffalo's hope for a second victory over the Brown and Gold DeVine's 70 yard interception return was immediately followed by an Orihel touchdown strike to Mike Pernell. Orihel finished 21-32 for 196 yards to go along with his touchdown and interception. That touchdown gave the Profs a 24-3 lead in the fourth quarter and put the game out of reach. Quarterback Jabrill Joseph, showed flashes of being a Prof running back later on his career as he ripped off an impressive 23 yard run before scoring from one yard out to give the Profs a 31-3 lead. HT Williams caught a 34 yard touchdown pass during garbage minutes from Mikolaichick to cap out the scoring. Rowan, 21 point favorites, pushed the Bengals out of Glassboro.

Buff St. Faces Testy Rowan By Tom Wilson JT@rowanfootball.com The Profs will host Buffalo State this Saturday and attempt to rebound after losing a heartbreaker to TCNJ 22-20, snapping a five game winning streak against the Lions. Rowan has been slow out of the gate offensively in the first half of football games this year, and it finally bit them last Friday night. Season number two begins on Saturday. In 1996 and 1998, the Profs lost to the Lions in the regular season. Rowan proceeded to rebound all the way to the Stagg Bowl each time, while exacting revenge against TCNJ in playoffs. While its too early to consider playoff match-ups, the Profs must take care of the business at hand by winning on Saturday. Running the table starts with the Bengals. The Profs (3-1) are a talented team that hasn't played a complete dominating game thus far. Now they are angry. I don't like losing to TCNJ, but I like the Profs angry. Angry worked in 1996, 1998, and 1999 as Rowan lost the NJAC title to either TCNJ or Montclair, then proceeded to march on to Salem. The Profs racked up 224 of their 310 total yards in the second half against the Lions last week. So Rowan can make plays, but they need to take it to teams beginning from the opening bell. This is the 11th meeting between Rowan University and Buffalo State. The Profs have a 9-1 record against the Bengals. Last year, Rowan won at Buffalo State, 28-7. The Profs' only loss to the Bengals was on the road, 20-17 in 2000. Rowan and Buffalo State have met five times in the NCAA tournament (1998-96-95-93-92). On the road, Rowan defeated Buffalo State, 28-7. Quarterback Tony Racioppi passed for 259 yards and three touchdowns. He threw 20 completions in 30 attempts and his touchdown passes were 21, 18 and two yards. The Bengals scored the first TD of the game with a 10 yard run by Jeff Shostak. Rowan had two touchdowns in the second for a 13-7 advantage at the half. Creg Bethea had a 20 yard TD run and Jon Berry scored with a 21 yard pass from Racioppi. In the third quarter, Racioppi completed an 18 yard touchdown pass to Michael Osborne and a two yard TD pass to Tyree Jackson. For Buffalo State, Curtis Hathcock carried the ball 22 times for 135 yards. This is Buffalo State's final year as an independent. The Bengals will join the Atlantic Central Football Conference in 2004. The conference members are Brockport, Salisbury, Frostburg State, Wesley and Newport News Apprentice School. At home, Buffalo State had a 42-14 loss to Brockport. Curtis Hathcock scored both of the Bengals' touchdowns with runs of nine and four yards. Hathcock finished the game with 92 yards on 32 attempts. Quarterback Mike Mikolaichik passed for 148 yards with 12 completions in 31 attempts. Marc Hoppy led the receivers with five catches for 100 yards. Linebackers Nick Warren, Justin Draper and Hank Pirowski totaled eight tackles apiece. This is Bob Swank's third season as head coach at Buffalo State College. He is only the third head coach in the 21 years of the program. Last year the Bengals finished with a 1-9 record. Prior to Buffalo State, Swank was the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Methodist College (NC). He was at Methodist for six seasons and helped the team to a 37-23 record which included the Dixie Conference Championship in 2000. Prior to his arrival, the Monarchs had never had a winning season. Swank replaced Jerry Boyes who resigned to concentrate on his duties as athletic director. Under Boyes, the Bengals posted an 85-31 record since 1990 and 10 straight postseason appearances. Swank was the defensive backs coach at Midwestern State University (TX) from 1992-95. In the late 1980's, he played quarterback and defensive back at Widener University. During his career, Widener won two Middle Atlantic Conference Championships and had a NCAA tournament appearance. At Widener, he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration. He completed a master's in kinesiology at Midwestern in 1994. This is Mikolaichik's first season directing the offense. He transferred from Cortland after one season as the backup quarterback. Mikolaichik is averaging 166.4 yards per game. HT Williams averaged 18.9 yards per catch last season and is joined in the starting lineup by Hoppy and tight end TJ Cotrell who is a four year starter. Hathcock earned the number one spot at tailback at the end of last season. Patrick Moore has earned the starting fullback position. Last year the Bengals recorded 34 sacks and forced 20 turnovers. Nick Columbo, Mike Holbok and Dave McEntire are the returnees on the defensive line. Holbok has recorded six sacks for a loss of 50 yards and 13 tackles for a loss of 66. Strong safety Bo Sireika leads the team with three fumble recoveries. Sireika is also the team's punter and has a career average of 34.5 yards per punt. Ken Ciolek is handling the kicking duties. He has 12 points with nine PATs (10 attempts) and one field goal (three attempts). Jeff Shostak takes the kick (20.2) and punt returns (5.6). Buffalo is currently 1-4, but have one of the toughest DIII schedules in the country, with losses to DI-AA Robert Morris (4-1), DII Mansfield (4-0), DIII Cortland (2-3) and Brockport (5-0). They have given up 372 total yards per game and 196 of that on the ground to opposing offenses to date. However, the Bengals have managed a 10.8 yards per catch and 177 yards per game passing this year. Their 3rd down conversion pct. is 23% and they've given up 28.8 points per game. Rowan is (3-1) and their opponents to date are 12-5, .706 winning pct, with two national rankings # 22 TCNJ and #23 Christopher Newport. The Profs have yielded 10.2 points per game. Rowan has out-gained opponents on the ground with a 169.8 ypg. avg.vs. 88.2 ypg. for their opponents. The Profs have converted 35% of their 3rd and 45% of their 4th down opportunities. I think the Prof offense will come out of the gates hard, continuing their second half charge from last week. Successive and quick first downs will put the Fun and Gun back on track, with another 125+ yards on the ground. Profs win 38-7.

Christopher Newport 1 - 5	10
at
Rowan 4 - 1	31
Oct 11, 2003 John Page Field Glassboro, NJ 1:00 PM
Listen to the Game on Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM Pregame Show 12PM

NJAC Week #6

NJAC Week #5

2003 NJAC Standings