Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Gridders Host Holy Cross in Parents' Weekend Contest
10/31/2003 7:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 31, 2003
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Two teams in potentially fragile states clash this week on Parents' Weekend at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. The Bison must bounce back from their first one-sided loss of the season, a 50-6 drubbing at the hands of 17th-ranked Colgate. Despite suffering their worst defeat in seven years, Bucknell still stands in third place in the Patriot League, just a game behind co-leaders Colgate and Lehigh. Meanwhile, Holy Cross has dropped six games in a row since a 42-34 win over Georgetown on Sept. 13. The Crusaders have struggled defensively, yielding 30 points or more in 7 of 8 games.
* IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?: Bucknell has experienced its fair share of significant injuries in recent weeks, none bigger than the loss of junior QB Daris Wilson to an ankle injury. Wilson was hurt on Bucknell's third series against Towson, and while the Bison did come from behind to pull out a win over the Tigers, they struggled in Wilson's absence against 17th-ranked Colgate on the road last week. The Bison are also hurting the secondary. CB Dante Ross played last week against the Raiders after missing two games with a turned ankle, and the Bison have lost their top two free safeties in the last two weeks. First, FS Virgil Rush twisted an ankle late in the first half against Towson and has not returned, then last week FS James Lachman, making his first career start, suffered a broken leg while blocking on a kick return in the first quarter against Colgate.
* WILL IT ADD UP?: Holy Cross has struggled defending the run this season, giving up an average of 209.6 yards per game. The Crusaders could have their hands full this week with a Bison team that averages 239.9 per contest on the ground.
* TACKLE LEADERS SQUARE OFF: This week's game features a matchup of the Patriot League's top two tacklers in Bucknell LB Kevin Ransome and Holy Cross DB Ben Koller. Ransome (85 tackles in 8 games) and Koller (71 tackles in 7 games) are the only two players in the conference averaging better than 10 stops per game.
* BROTHERLY LOVE: Bucknell reserve QB Christian Tenekedes will get a first-hand look at his older brother, Nick Tenekedes, this week. Nick, a junior, is listed as Holy Cross' No. 2 cornerback and has eight tackles in seven games this season. Christian, a freshman, hes yet to appear in a varsity game for the Bison.
* HOME COOKING: Bucknell has a stellar 302-143-13 (.674) record at home, including a 32-13 (.711) mark in games played at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium since 1995. Bucknell, which plays three of its final four games of the season at home beginning this week against Holy Cross, has not lost a non-conference home game since 1996, a 30-21 overtime loss to Pennsylvania. The Bison have won 15 straight against non-Patriot League foes at Mathewson Stadium, but they will have to wait until 2004 to face another non-league opponent in Lewisburg.
* A GOOD START: Bucknell jumped out to a 2-0 record in Patriot League play for the first time since 2001 and for only the fourth time since joining the conference.
* YOU'D BETTER SCORE EARLY: Bucknell has allowed only 10 second-half points in its last four games. In fact, the Bison went more than 96 minutes without allowing a second-half point until Colgate's Chris Brown scored late in the third quarter last week.
* NO FREE YARDS: Despite running new systems on both offense and defense under a new coaching staff this season, Bucknell is the Patriot League's least penalized team. After committing only one five-yard penalty last week at Colgate, the Bison are averaging only 34.6 penalty yards per game in 2003.
* BLAMAH HITS CENTURY MARK: Sophomore RB Blamah Sarnor recorded his 1,000th career rushing yard last week at Colgate. He did so in his 18th career game, making him the sixth-fastest player in school history to reach the century mark.
Fastest to 1,000 Rushing Yards:
Lemon 11th career game
Talmage 11th
Myers 12th
Langan 15th
Farbstein 16th
Sarnor 18th
Havrilak 19th
Henesey 19th
Powell 19th
* TURNOVERS ARE KEY TO SUCCESS: Through eight games, one statistic that can clearly be viewed as a difference maker is turnover margin. The Bison rank fifth in the country in takeaways with 26, sixth in turnover margin (+12) and third in interceptions (16). In four victories the Bison have an even gaudier +15 ratio (20 takeaways, 5 miscues), while in the three losses they are just -3 (6 takeaways, 9 turnovers). Bucknell recorded seven takeaways against Fordham, their most since a 29-22 win over Columbia in 1992.
* TOUGH STRETCH: No. 17 Colgate last week was the third nationally ranked team the Bison faced in the last four weeks. On Oct. 14, the Bison stunned 14th-ranked Fordham, a 2002 NCAA quarterfinalist, 31-10 in the Bronx. A week later Bucknell dropped a 14-13 decision on the road to No. 15 Penn when a 39-yard field goal fell short with 14 seconds left.
* ROAD WARRIORS: Bucknell has played six road games in the last seven weeks. The Bison went 2-3 on their recent five-game road swing, with all three losses coming against Ivy League opposition, by a combined six points. Bucknell is 2-4 on the road this season after going 0-6 on the road in 2002. The home slate does begin to balance out beginning this week, as three of Bucknell's final four games are at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
* CENTURY DUOS: For the first time since 1952, Bucknell earlier this season featured a pair of 100-yard rushers in consecutive games. At Cornell, RB Raphael Darrington ran for 107 yards on only nine carries, while QB Daris Wilson carried 24 times for 106 yards. The previous game against Delaware State, RB Frank Lazio and Wilson both topped the 100-yard rushing plateau. Prior to this season, the double-century feat had been done only twice in the last 23 years at Bucknell. It has now been done 19 times in school history, with the famed "Touchdown Twins" - Burt Talmadge and Brad Myers - accomplishing it eight times.
* PROUD HISTORY: Bucknell's string of seven consecutive winning seasons, which had been the ninth-longest such streak in Division I-AA, came to an end in 2002. Still, with an all-time record of 536-490-51 in 117-plus seasons, Bucknell ranks 15th among all I-AA teams in total victories.
* FOUR OVER 100: Bucknell has had four different backs eclipse the 100-yard rushing mark this season - RB Blamah Sarnor (147 vs. Duquesne, 107 vs. Towson), RB Frank Lazio (114 vs. Delaware State), RB Raphael Darrington (107 vs. Cornell) and QB Daris Wilson (107 vs. Delaware State, 106 vs. Cornell, 199 vs. Fordham and 113 vs. Penn). The last time Bucknell had four different 100-yard rushers in a season was 1979, when a school-record five players achieved the feat - Ken Jenkins (four times), Hassen Abdellah (twice), Paul D'Aloia, Marshall Hall and Larry D'Amico.
* YOUTH IS SERVED: Of the 44 players listed on Bucknell's offensive and defensive two-deeps, only 11 are seniors. Of those 11, six are starters, and one - DB Jerome Acy - has another year of eligibility if he wishes to use it after missing all of 2002 with an injury. Nineteen of the 44 players are freshmen or sophomores.
* BISON BRIEFS: The 50 points scored by Colgate last week were the most allowed by the Bison since 1994 (56-14 loss to Lafayette) and the most by either team in the 52-game series history ... three Bucknell players have had multi-interception games this season - DB Joe Glenn (3) vs. Duquesne, DB Virgil Rush (2) vs. Fordham and DB Jerome Acy (2) vs. Towson ... sophomores DL Jacob Burney and James Lachman made their first career starts last week ... freshman RB Ed Cortez returned four kickoffs for 53 yards and also had a 12-yard run from scrimmage against Colgate ... FB Blamah Sarnor has accounted for Bucknell's last three touchdowns over the last two weeks, all on 1-yard runs ... after booting 10 field goals in the first six games of the season, freshman K Ryan Korn has not had an attempt in the last two weeks.
* MARQUARDT MOVES UP: With 1,577 career receiving yards, senior WR Albert Marquardt now stands in ninth place on Bucknell's all-time list.
1. 2358 Tom Mitchell 1963-65
2. 2110 Jim Horan 1999-2002
3. 1980 Dave Kucera 1980, 82-84
4. 1825 Ron Rockett 1995-98
5. 1819 Lester Erb 1987-90
6. 1663 Dan Scocca 1987-90
7. 1609 Whitey Berardinelli 1989-92
8. 1608 Mike Guerrini 1987-88
9. 1577 Albert Marquardt 2000-pres.
10. 1390 Ardie Kissinger 1995-98
* NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS: Since 1995, Bucknell is 25-17 (.595) versus non-league opponents, including 11-10 against Ivy League foes. Bucknell is 14-8 against non-league foes over the last three-plus seasons. Penn was the last of Bucknell's five non-league foes in 2003.
