for 9-20-01
Friday
3:30 pm, JV Football vs Fork Union
Saturday
9 am, Mens Tennis vs Cornell
11 am, Volleyball vs Lafayette
1 pm, Football vs Fordham
3 pm, Volleyball vs Niagara
7 pm, Mens Soccer vs Bucknell
7:30 pm, Volleyball vs Wagner
Sunday
1 pm, Volleyball vs Marist
The big game of the weekend will be the home opener for the football team. The Red Raider's play their first Patriot League opponent, the Rams of Fordham University. The Rams finished in 6th place in the league last year, and went 3-8 overall. This year they were predicted to finish 6th once again. Fordham has lost to Colgate in the last 5 games of the series, including a 21-6 Red Raiders victory last season at Andy Kerr Stadium. Fordham returns most of it's starting team, and is trying to move out of the bottom of the league in their third year under the direction of Head Coach Dave Clawson, a former offensive coordinator for...Villanova. In Fordhams season opener, they defeated the Fairfield Stags, 46-14. In the 2000 season, Fordham beat Fairfield 34-7. Fordham only needed 17 first downs to beat Fairfield, but they got over 400 yards of total offense, 280 of those in the air. Senior Mark Carney did the passing, completing 19 of 27 attempts, with no interceptions and only getting sacked once. Fordham had two pass plays go over 40 yards for a touchdown. The most popular targets were, Javarus Dudley, who had 4 catches for 55 yards. He led the team in receiving last year, which was his freshman season. Dan McGrath had two catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. He is also a sophomore. Peter Modelski had 2 catches for 56 yards and a TD, again, he is a sophopmore this season, as was the teams leading rusher, Kirwin Watson, who ran for a total of 90 yards. Fordham fumbled once in the game. Fordham is also strong on special teams, with Brian Colsant being named first team all league last season as a kicker, and Matt Fordyce was second team as a punter. Fordhams offense is young, but has experience. They averaged 315 yards a game last year. The Rams defense has a few more question marks. Senior Chris Breen will be leading the defense from the linebacker position. Fordham had 6 sacks against Fairfield. The Rams are the strongest at the linebacker and defensive line positions, but have a weakness in the secondary. Fairfield only ran for 17 yards against them, but passed for 180.
For Colgate, Tom McCune will return to lead an offense that has only been averaging 238 yards a game against the two Atlantic 10 schools we played. Colgate has scored all three times we've reached the Red Zone this season, but we've had problems in getting there so far. Once again, the key will be to spread out the defense, with multiple offensive weapons. On defense, we just need to focus on our strengths and play a full game. Our secondary is the teams biggest strong point, but in the past few weekends, pass interference calls have hurt the team. As long as we are solid and consistant, we can stiffle the Rams offense. I'm predicting a 28-14 win.
The other game I am looking foward to the most is the mens soccer game against Bucknell. Colgate is now 1-4, and the Bison are 1-3 as both teams begin league play. However, the thought of a family weekend game against Bucknell immediatly reminded me of when these two teams met in 1999, on family weekend. It was a wild, wild game, that saw 4 yellow cards, some near fights, a Bucknell coach go nuts, controvertial goals and non goals, and then an overtime goal by Bucknell to end the game. There were also a ton of fans there, filling up the bleachers, and surrounding the field as many families and fans showed up for the game. Last season, Bucknell went 4-2 in league play, including a 3-0 win over the Raiders, in a game where Colgate outshot the Bison, and 3 yellow cards were recorded, and Bucknell was called for 20 fouls compared to 6 for Colgate. The Bison have lost 5 seniors, but bring in one of their best recruiting classes in recent years. The Bison were picked to finish 4th in the league, with offense being their greatest concern. They have been averaging just 10 shots a game so far. Bucknell lost their opener 5-1 against Penn State, before having 3 one goal games. This should be a good challenge for the Raiders, and a fun game.
The Volleyball team will battle several foes from other schools this weekend. They will also battle themselves, as the team has been on the verge of a meltdown these past few games. The first opponent is Lafayette. The Leopards were 1-26 last year, and are currently 0-8, oddly enough, they were also picked to finish last. This will be a tune up game for Colgate, who faces a total of three opponents that day. Niagara lost 2 letterwinners, and went 7-15 last year. They are currently 2-4. We should be a slight underdog in this game. Wagner went 4-27 last year, and lost about half of their letterwinners. They are now 1-7. Marist is our final opponent of the weekend. The Red Foxes, who should also be forced to drop "red" from their nickname, went 1-24 last year. They are winless right now, but had a close loss to Lehigh earlier this season. This is going to be an interesting weekend, the combined record last season of all the teams involved is 24 and 112. Not counting us, the record of our opponents last year was 13-92. Which of these teams will come out on top, and perhaps more importantly, what will become of the team that comes out on bottom?
The Field Hockey team takes to the road this weekend to play Holy Cross and Vermont. Last season, HC beat us 6-0, and Vermont beat us 3-0. Holy Cross lost a few more starters than UVM did, but Holy Cross beat UVM 7-1 earlier this season. The Crusaders are currently 4-1, the lone loss coming to the Providence College Friars, who we upset last year. American was picked to win the league, but HC beat them 4-0. Vermont is currently 1-5, beating Sacred Heart, losing to everyone else. Can Colgate pick up one win this weekend, or is the team too used to losing to put up a fight?
The Womens Soccer team is on the road at Columbia. Last year, Columbia won 4-3. They finished 7th in the Ivy league. Colgate was up 2-0 at one point in the game, but the Lions took the lead for good in the final minute. We did have an advantage in shots however. Columbia lost 3 starters to graduation. Columbia is now 3-0, they beat LIU 3-1, thats the team we beat in overtime earlier. So, I would put us as the slight underdog. We should hold Columbia to a goal or so, but can we score is the question?
It's going to be a pretty good weekend to see where our teams stand. We're getting into some games against opponents who are more or less our equals. We're going to see which teams are going to be able to salvage their season, and we will be able to see more clearly which teams are just off to a bad start, and which ones are in for a long season.
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E-mail me at RedRaider013@yahoo.com