Bucknell University Athletics
Resilient Bison Still in Contention in PL Football Race
11/6/2003 7:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 6, 2003
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After bouncing back from a 50-6 drubbing at Colgate with a run-and-gun 53-31 win over Holy Cross, the Bison feel that they are still in the thick of the Patriot League title chase as they head to Lafayette this week. At 3-1 in the conference, Bucknell sits just a game behind Colgate and Lehigh. Those two teams play each other this week, while next Saturday Colgate faces defending PL champ Fordham, and Lehigh travels to Lewisburg. Lafayette, meanwhile, is still searching for its first league win of the season, a surprising development considering the Leopards returned many key components from last year's squad that finished third with a 5-2 PL record.
* HONOR ROLL: A trio of Bison earned weekly honors following the 53-31 victory over Holy Cross last week. Sophomore CB Dante Ross was the Patriot League Defensive Player of the Week after making nine tackles, picking off a pass, breaking up three passes and returning two kicks for 130 yards. Ross was also named Don Hansen's Football Gazette defensive player of the week. Freshman RB Ed Cortez picked up league rookie of the week honors after carrying 16 times for 70 yards in the first extensive varisty action of his career. Finally, junior QB John Henry Jackson was named the Lewisburg Hotel Bison Athlete of the Week after accounting for four touchdowns - two passing and two rushing - against the Crusaders.
* WILSON STILL ON THE MEND: Dynamic junior QB Daris Wilson has seen some improvement in his sprained left ankle, but he will likely remain sidelined this week against Lafayette. He injured the ankle in the first quarter of the Towson game on Oct. 18. Backup QB John Henry Jackson led the Bison back from a 10-0 deficit in that game and also performed well in last week's win over Holy Cross. Prior to the injury, Wilson had rushed for 94.0 yards per game while completing 64.5% of his passes.
* BOUNCING BACK: Bucknell showed some resiliency in climbing off the deck to beat Holy Cross last week, after taking a 50-6 beating at Colgate seven days earlier. It was the first time in school history that the Bison scored 50 points in a game one week after allowing 50.
* DEFENSE ON THE SPOT: The Bison have seen some fine passing quarterbacks this season, and this week will be no different with Lafayette's Marko Glavic waiting for them. The Leopards rank 13th in the nation in passing offense at 266 yards per game, while Bucknell ranks 96th in pass defense allowing 230 per game. While the Bison have yielded some aerial yards this season, they do boast an athletic secondary that ranks third in the nation with 17 interceptions.
* DANTE'S INFERNO: While Dante Hall of the Kansas City Chiefs has taken the NFL by storm this season with a flurry of spectacular returns, another Dante with a four-letter last name is making his mark in the Patriot League. Bucknell sophomore DB Dante Ross currently ranks third in the nation in kickoff returns with a 30.9 average, and he ranks 12th in I-AA in punt returns with a 14.2 average. Ross returned a punt 46 yards for a touchdown against Cornell earlier this season, and he nearly took a kickoff back for a score last week against Holy Cross but was knocked out of bounds at the 10-yard line after a career-long 81-yard sprint. He also had a 49-yard kickoff return last week, and both long runs set up go-ahead touchdowns for the Bison. Ross' 130 KO return yards ranks 5th on Bucknell's single-game list.
* TACKLE LEADERS SQUARE OFF: This week's game features five of the Patriot League's top seven tacklers. Bucknell LB Kevin Ransome leads the league with 95 stops, while LB Mike Leatherman ranks seventh with 72. Lafayette's Maurice Bennett (80), Blake Costanzo (79) and Wes Erbe (76) rank 3-4-5 in the league.
* POWER SURGE: Bucknell's offense last week set season highs for points (53), total yards (544), passing yards (242), first downs (25), plays from scrimmage (78) and average yards per play (7.0).
* ON THE ROAD AGAIN: The Bison have seen just about enough of Interstate-80 this season. This is Bucknell's seventh and final road game of the season, marking the team's busiest road calender since 1997. The Bison are 2-4 away from home thus far, with wins coming at Delaware State and Fordham.
* HOME COOKING: Now 3-0 at home this season, Bucknell has a stellar 303-143-13 (.674) record at home, including a 33-13 (.717) mark in games played at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium since 1995. Bucknell, which plays its final two games of the season at home, 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 is 3-1 in Patriot League play for the first time since 2001, and the Bison have won at least three of their first four league games for the seventh time since joining the league in 1986.
* TOUGH STRETCH: Bucknell recently went through a stretch of three out of four games coming against nationally ranked foes. Two weeks ago the Bison fell 50-6 to No. 17 Colgate, which has since jumped all the way to No. 11. On Oct. 4, 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. The Orange and Blue face another top-25 team next week when 24th-ranked Lehigh visits Lewisburg.
* GROUND FORCES: Bucknell's 2,221 rushing yards are third-most in school history, and the most since 1952 (2374). The 1951 Bison team that posted a perfect 9-0 record set the all-time rushing mark with 2,909 yards. The 2003 Bison need to average 229.3 yards over the final three games to eclipse that record.
* BLAMAH HITS CENTURY MARK: Sophomore RB Blamah Sarnor recorded his 1,000th career rushing yard two weeks ago 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:
Rich Lemon 11th career game
Burt Talmage 11th
Brad Myers 12th
Bob Langan 15th
Mitch Farbstein 16th
Blamah Sarnor 18th
Sam Havrilak 19th
Brian Henesey 19th
Jabu Powell 19th
* TURNOVERS ARE KEY TO SUCCESS: Through nine games, one statistic that can clearly be viewed as a difference maker is turnover margin. The Bison rank sixth in the country in takeaways with 26, eighth in turnover margin (+12) and third in interceptions (17). In five victories the Bison have a +15 ratio (21 takeaways, 6 miscues), while in the four 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.
* 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 537-491-51 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, 102 vs. Holy Cross), 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. Among the first-year players seeing quality field time this season are K Ryan Korn, who leads the Patriot League with 11 field goals; LB Dorian Petersen, a second-stringer who has 16 tackles; DB David Frisbey, who has played quite a bit on special teams; DL Andrew Rutherford, who is the snapper on field goals and extra points; and RB Ed Cortez, who had 70 rushing yards against Holy Cross last week.
* BISON BRIEFS: Last week's 84 combined points were the most in a Bucknell game since a 54-33 Bison victory over Lafayette in 1989 ... Bucknell's first-quarter two-point conversion, coming on a pass from QB John Henry Jackson to DL Zach Richards, was the team's first since 1999 ... sophomore K Ryan Bower kicked the PAT on Bucknell's final touchdown of the day against Holy Cross, marking his first career point ... WR Ian Nutt's 16-yard TD grab last week was the first of his career ... Bucknell was 3-for-3 converting fourth downs last week, and two of its touchdowns came on fourth-down plays.
* MARQUARDT MOVES UP: With 1,707 career receiving yards, senior WR Albert Marquardt now stands in sixth 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. 1707 Albert Marquardt 2000-pres.
7. 1663 Dan Scocca 1987-90
8. 1609 Whitey Berardinelli 1989-92
9. 1608 Mike Guerrini 1987-88
10. 1390 Ardie Kissinger 1995-98
