Gameday Week 11/09/02 - Game #9 WPU

Profs Punish Pioneers 70-7 Pioneer QB #10 Cristobal Rodriquez gets blown up by DE #58 Gerrit Tosh on the sack. After the play, it was incorrectly ruled a forward pass by the officials. WR #11 Michael Osborne takes a 20 yard pass from Racioppi and breaks tackles on his way to a lunge into the endzone. The score put the Profs up 34-0 in the 1st quarter. William Paterson Game 9 Play WGLS-FM audio highlights By Tom Wilson How many different ways can you say touchdown? John Sadak, the play-by-play man from Rowan radio WGLS must have had to be creative because the Profs scored ten touchdowns. Profs take it to the barn… Profs take to the house… Rowan goes to paydirt… The score was 56-0 at halftime and 70-7 at the end of halftime. Rowan's second and third stringers scored two more TD's almost completely on the ground in the second half. Final score was 70-7 and it wasn't even that close. The Prof starters rang up a 34-0 lead in the first quarter. Tony Racioppi passed for 342 yards on 23 completions. He threw TD passes of 13, 20, 66, 22 and 14 yards, all in the first half. WR #15 Endre Racz caught three passes for 88 yards and two TD's. RB #20 Pat Thompson had 106 yards on 14 carries and two TD's. WR # 11 Michael Osborne had 6 receptions for 75 yards and 1 TD. RB #5 Tremaine Hill had 15 carries on 95 yards and 1 TD. Rowan broke the school record for biggest point spread victory. The old mark was 57-0 against the Pioneers in 1997. They also set the school mark for total yards in a game with 662 yards. The defense contributed to the onslaught with 5 turnovers, 4 led directly to touchdowns. The NJAC title is up next in Montclair at 1:30 PM. Rowan is 5-0 in the NJAC while MSU is 4-1. This game determines the automatic bid into the NCAA playoffs.

Hapless Pioneers come to the Boro By Tom Wilson It doesn't look too promising for William Paterson this Saturday at John Page Field. The Pioneers are currently 1-7 and 0-4 in the NJAC. They have not scored against an opponent in three weeks and have had six straight losses this season. Two common opponents this season Cortland and Kean have beaten William Paterson by a combined score of 67-7. Rowan beat these two common conference foes (Cortland and Kean) by a combined score of 83-31. This could get ugly very quickly. This is the 32nd meeting between the Prof and the Pioneers. Rowan holds a 26-5 advantage and has won seven straight games. Rowan defeated William Paterson last year 67-17 at WPU. WPU last won in 1994 18-14 in Glassboro. Last Saturday, McDaniel (formerly Western Maryland) shut out WPU 34-0. Strong safety Lamar Askew recorded 20 tackles against McDaniel which is believed to be a school record. He was the NJAC Defensive Player of the Week. This is the third year for head coach Larry Arico. He has a 6-22 record (.272). In 1999, Arico guided FDU-Madison to a 5-5 record after from finishing 0-10 the previous year. Prior to WPU, he coached for seven years at Fairleigh Dickenson at Madison. He was the head coach from 1997-99 and served as offensive coordinator from 1993-97. On offense, the Pioneers are led by QB #10 Christobal Rodriguez, 38 completions in 99 attempts for 372 yards and 1 TD with 4 interceptions. Rodriquez has split time this season with QB #15 Sean O'Connor, 55 completiond in 116 attempts for 692 yards and 5 TD's with 7 interceptions. The receiving corps are led by WR #83 Brian Lowenstein, 25 receptions for 419 yards and 6 TD's. The ground game is powered by RB #1 Bryant Richardson and RB #5 Thomas Stovall who have combined for 506 yards and 3 TD's on 108 attempts. Defensively, WPU's leaders are SS Lamar Askew (65 tackles / 38 solo /2 ints) and LB Matt Busacca (52 tackles/ 22 solo). Statistically Rowan is first in the NJAC in red-zone efficiency on both sides of the ball, while WPU is fifth on both sides in red-zone efficiency. The Profs should be a little wary of letting the Pioneers hang around. Last month it took TCNJ touchdown in the final seconds for the Lions to escape with a victory 24-23 against the Pioneers. Rowan should execute well early and take WPU out of the game by halftime. Anything less than a ten win season puts the Profs playoff guarantee out the window. Counting on the NCAA selection committee for a Pool C bid is a zero sum game at this point. Why take the risk? Rowan by 35.

NJAC Week #10