Last year when Springfield traveled to St. John Fisher in mid-October, I was able to witness one of most amazing performances by a single player of the season and perhaps in Springfield football history. In my D3sports.com travels, I’ve seen Allison Coleman of Eastern Connecticut State take over a women’s basketball game and will her team to win in the NCAA tournament. In my first year with D3football.com, I was able to see an injured Tom Arth drag John Carroll into the national semifinals with a gutty performance against Brockport on a frigid day in Rochester. Those are just two of many that come to mind.
But, nothing tops the performance last October by Springfield quarterback Chris Sharpe. Sharpe ran for seven touchdowns and 280 yards in a 55-38 win by Springfield over St. John Fisher. Each run was more mind-boggling than the next, including a 69-yard scamper for a touchdown on a broken play.
The two teams met in the playoffs at Springfield and St. John Fisher came away with a victory and generally held Sharpe in check.
Today, the Cardinals and the Pride step onto the new turf at Benedum Field for their third meeting in the last two years. The game will be videocast as part of the D3football.com East Region Game of the Week. Before the season, I’d have told you this would be a barnburner and be a battle of top 10 teams. And I still think it will be a scorefest since Sharpe is one of the most versatile quarterbacks in Division III and St. John Fisher’s offense can light up the scoreboard; the two teams have just taken different roads to get here.
Each team will be fighting potentially for their playoff lives as opposed to battling for first place a season ago. After haughty preseason expectations, Springfield’s come back down to earth and enters today’s game 3-3. Teams have slowed up Chris Sharpe and his numbers this year appear mortal. The good news for Springfield is that the majority of their remaining games are at home (after five of its first six on the road) and they can boost their own stock over the next few weeks with wins over teams in front of them in the Empire 8 – Fisher, Ithaca, and Hartwick.
While St. John Fisher is ranked eighth nationally, the Cardinals need a victory this afternoon. The Cardinals loss to Hartwick several weeks ago means that they need to win out in conference play and hope that Alfred stumbles in the final weeks of the season to clinch the Empire 8 auto bid. Alfred has yet to lose in conference, Fisher has one loss. The two teams will meet in the final week of the regular season. St. John Fisher certainly has a chance at a Pool C bid, but a second loss may knock them out of contention.
What will happen in this year’s meeting between St. John Fisher and Springfield? Tune in to the this afternoon to find out.
http://www.d3football.com/news.php?item=1292
Elsewhere this afternoon, every Top 25 team is in action and St. Norbert can virtually clinch a playoff berth with a win today. The only game where two Top 25 teams will meet is in Wisconsin where No. 20 UW-Stevens Point will host No. 3 UW-Whitewater.
The Saturday blog is open.
I’m in the home office today. Traveled six of the first seven weeks and it’s time D3football.com had a home game. Kind of like Springfield.
Ditto.
We’ll be back on the road next week, to the UMAC’s Dome Day and the St. John’s game.
Meanwhile, this is as good a time as any to stay home and watch the scoreboard & webcasts, since there are no no-brainer Games of the Week, but lots of games really key to conference races and playoff positioning.
Home days are for ninnies. 😉
Actually I’ve enjoyed those days at home, sitting in my sweats, watching/listening to games, trolling the message boards and live stats.
I’ll be watching the webcast. I’m pretty interested in seeing if Springfield can rebound from some pretty tough losses, as well to see how “real” St. John Fisher is.
BTW, no sweatpants here in the humidity of South Florida!
Interesting pregame on the Wesley radio side. Mentioning of possible opponents for next year Ithaca and CNU. That would be another tough schedule with Del Val and Widener already inked
Grad
They just explained that the reason the stadium holds 10,000 is that they use it every year for the special olympics
Lots of slipping and sliding at B-port for both teams
Well my bad!! It is called Special Olympic Stadium
Yeah, I knew that it was used for the Special Olympics. it’s called Special Olympics Stadium 🙂 … but I don’t think it is every year. I think it was used once for that reason.
In 1979
Wesley 7-0, 70 yrd drive after interception.
Bport returns kick for a td 7-7
Birmingham-Southern trying to get their first official D3 win today at home against Centre – tied 7-7 after one quarter.
For some reason, I can’t connect to the Alfred-Husson stream. Any word on a score?
MUC 14, B-W 0, 9:30 left in 2nd qtr
UW-Stevens Point scores on the first series of the game vs UW-Whitewater.
WW takes their kickoff, marches down the field at ties it at 7-7.
8 min. first quarter
Re: For some reason, I can’t connect to the Alfred-Husson stream. Any word on a score?
Never mind; I finally got it. Go Saxons!
Alfred up 46-21 over Husson in the 3rd Qyarter….
Wesley 17- B-Port 14 half
Alfred scores again, with 1:10 left in the 3rd; 53-21 Saxons.
MUC 28, B-W 0, Half
Whitewater 10 at Stevens Point 7…2nd quarter
Whitewater 17 Stevens Point 7 4:20 2nd quarter.
Point scores, WW leads 17-14, 1:30 in the 1st half.
Final in Alfred, NY: 53-21 Saxons
MUC 28, B-W 0, end of 3rd
Wesley 38-14 late in the third
MUC 35, B-W 0, start of 4th qtr
Otterbein 16, Capital 3
Yep, that’s an upset alert. 17-3 after the PAT and 12:30 left in the game.
Long Barker touchdown and Mississippi College has cut UMHB’s lead to 21-14 early in the second.
B-Port not going away cut the lead to 38-21 and driving 10 mins left.
Wesley relaxed a little to much after last td
Whitewater scores a the 3rd Danny Jones TD pass following a 70 yard drive to open the 2nd half at Stevens Point.
WW ups their lead to 24-14.
WW has the ball again are driving in Pointer territory.
Wesley holds on D and is running out the clock 4 mins to go. The Battle of RT 13 next week in Dover..
Capital scores, cuts the lead to 17-10 with 4:19 left.
Danny Jones strikes for his 4th TD pass. WW leads 31 – 14. under 2 in third.
Otterbein stuffs Capital on fourth down with 0:30 left. Capital’s going to lose here 17-10.
35-17 UMHB at the half with Mississippi College
check that – not quite the half yet
MC refusing to go quietly, but UMHB picks off a near touchdown pass with :29 left in the half.
Karma to Otterbein for pasting an “L” on Capital!
Pool C followers should be rooting for MUC to put another “L” on Capital next weekend, to hurt any chances for the OAC to get a Pool C bid.
All over in Stevens Point.
Whitewater 31, Stevens Point 14
42 – 17, Cru goes up against MC on their first possesion in the second half.
UMHB picks off a pass, goes up 49 – 17 against Mississippi College.
Anybody know if ”horsecollar” tackles are illegal in the NCAA?
Alfred wins by a similar margin as Hobart today… A huge game in Geneva is brewing for next week…
I know they are in the NFL. Just ask Roy Willams of Dallas.
BC won a tight game over E&H 17-14 thanks to a last second field goal by Kyle Beach. Next week promises to be another close one as W&L always plays us tough at their place. Hope to see many Eagle fans in Lexington next week. GO EAGLES!!
56-17 now, UMHB over Mississippi College. Mississippi College, no doubt, has one of the best teams in the south. Even though they fell to Hardin – Simmons, they are probably a better team than them and I really thought it would be a tighter game than this. To top it all off, the Cru got the ball back on a fumble recovery after the kickoff.
Get over to Central-Dubvuque cast.
Central fumbles into end zone in 2nd OT, then Dubuq