SUNY CORTLAND FOOTBALL NOTES
Cortland Red Dragons (6-1, 6-0 NJAC) vs. Kean University (5-2, 5-0 NJAC)
Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012; 1 p.m.; Kean Alumni Stadium; Union, N.J.
Game broadcast live on WXHC, Homer (101.5 FM and www.wxhc.com)

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THE MATCHUP: Cortland travels to Kean University for a battle of the New Jersey Athletic Conference's (NJAC) top teams, both of which are undefeated in league play. Cortland, ranked 23rd nationally by D3football.com, is 6-0 in the NJAC with two games left and can clinch a share of the league title and the league's NCAA tournament automatic berth with a victory over the Cougars. Cortland is seeking its third NCAA berth in five years. The Red Dragons were the outright NJAC champions in 2008 and were tri-champions in 2010 and won a tiebreaker to the NCAA automatic berth. Kean (pronounced KANE), the defending NJAC champion, is 5-0 in league action with three games left.


THE SERIES: Cortland leads the overall series between the schools 14-2, but Kean has won two of the previous three meetings. The Cougars won 21-16 in Cortland in mid-September last year and 24-10 in Cortland in 2009. The Red Dragons posted a 24-12 victory at Kean in the 2010 season opener.

Last year in Cortland, Kean held on to win after stopping the Red Dragons on both 3rd-and-goal and 4th-and-goal from the 2-yard line with less than a minute remaining. The Cougars had taken the lead with 30 seconds left in the third quarter on a Will Evans 89-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Cortland held a 13-7 halftime lead on Dan Pitcher TD passes to Brian Haber and John Babin. Kean's first two scores were on Tom D'Ambrisi TD passes to Chris Suozzo.

Pitcher finished 22-of-36 passing for 265 yards, including seven completions to Babin and four to Kordel McInnis. Dorian Myles rushed 17 times for 91 yards. He replaced Justin Autera, who left after rushing for 73 yards with what proved to be a season-ending injury. Kyle Nisbett led the defense with nine tackles. For Kean, D'Ambrisi completed 15-of-23 passes for 192 yards and Chris DiMicco ran for 54 yards. James Boyd and Richard Esdaile led the team with nine tackles each. Cortland lost despite outgaining Kean in total offense, 455-277.

The teams have played every year since 1996, starting with non-league contests before Cortland joined the NJAC in 2000.


CORTLAND CAPSULE: Chris Rose completed 32-of-53 passes for 320 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winning 33-yard pass to freshman DJ Spencer with one minute, 26 seconds remaining, as Cortland defeated nationally 17th-ranked Rowan, 24-21, in Cortland last Saturday. Rowan had taken a 21-17 lead with 1:52 remaining, but Rose led a 3-play, 63-yard drive that took just 21 seconds and culminated in Spencer's winning TD catch. Rowan's last chance for a tie or win was halted by an Andre Green interception at the Cortland 7-yard line with less than 25 seconds remaining.

Sophomore Kordel McInnis caught two TD passes – a 20-yard connection in the second quarter and a 14-yard reception in the third quarter, each of which tied the game. Mike DeBole's 28-yard field goal gave Cortland its first lead with 3:02 left in the third, and neither team scored again until the game's final two touchdowns.

Senior Dorian Myles rushed for 56 yards and caught nine passes for 55 yards. Senior Mike Humphrey made seven catches, McInnis finished with six receptions and Spencer had four receptions – the first four catches of his collegiate career. Senior linebacker Chris Bright led the defense with nine tackles, eight solo, with two for losses. Green and sophomore cornerback Andrew Tolosi each had interceptions and Green also made seven tackles. DeBole averaged 46.3 yards per punt on six kicks.

For the season, Cortland is averaging 41.4 points and 462.3 yards of total offense per game. Rose is 148-of-243 passing (60.9 percent) for 1,736 yards and 18 touchdowns. He's been intercepted 11 times, although five of those came in the first game of the season at Buffalo State. Humphrey paces the receiving corps with 44 catches for 555 yards. He's scored five times. Sophomore Jack Delahunty has 32 catches for 353 yards and a touchdown and McInnis has made 31 catches for 422 yards and seven scores. Myles leads the running attack with 99.1 yards per game and he has scored four times. Sophomore Bronson Greene averages 43.6 yards per game with a team-high seven rushing touchdowns.

Green is the top tackler on the team with 45 stops. He's also intercepted two passes. Tolosi and freshman linebacker Troy Beddoe have 42 tackles apiece. Junior defensive end Gabe Ostrow leads the Red Dragons with five sacks and senior cornerback Pete Furey has a team-best three interceptions. Tolosi has picked off two passes and leads the squad with seven pass breakups. DeBole is averaging 39.9 yards per punt and has connected on 6-of-10 field goals and 33-of-34 point-after kicks.

Head Coach Dan MacNeill is in his 16th season with the Red Dragons. With last week's win over Rowan, MacNeill tied Carl “Chugger” Davis as Cortland's career leader with 105 victories. Davis was 105-67-17 from 1932-62. MacNeill's official record of 105-55 (.656) ranks him first at Cortland in career winning percentage. He was the NJAC Coach of the Year and a finalist for Liberty Mutual National Div. III Coach of the Year honors in 2008 after leading the Red Dragons to the league title and the NCAA quarterfinals.

MacNeill has guided Cortland to the NCAA playoffs in 1997, 2005, 2008 and 2010, and his teams have also played in six ECAC bowl games. His 2008 squad was honored with the Lambert Meadowlands Trophy and the ECAC Div. III Team of the Year awards. MacNeill is a 1979 Cortland alumnus and played linebacker and defensive tackle from 1975-78. An assistant coach at Division I-AA Villanova University from 1984-1996, MacNeill is Cortland's 11th head coach since the school's modern era of football began in 1924. MacNeill served as linebackers coach at Villanova and was the team's defensive coordinator from 1988-96.


A LOOK AT...KEAN UNIVERSITY: Kean opened the season with non-league losses to Albright and current undefeated and nationally second-ranked Mary Hardin-Baylor. The Cougars have since won five straight games, all in NJAC play.

Last Saturday, junior backup quarterback Chris Johnson scored on an 11-yard run with 32 seconds left as Kean rallied for a 34-30 win at The College of New Jersey. The Cougars trailed 27-14 in the third quarter and 30-21 with 6:56 remaining, but cut the deficit to two on a Sean McKee 2-yard TD run with 4:43 left. The defense then held the Lions a yard short of a first down on the ensuing drive and Kean started its winning drive from its own 24-yard line with 2:32 remaining. Junior quarterback Christian Bailoni completed 6-of-8 passes on the winning drive prior to Johnson's scoring run.

Senior Deandre Fowlkes established a new school single-game record with 211 receiving yards. He finished with 12 catches, including a 29-yard TD grab. Bailoni was 27-of-45 passing for 309 yards. Senior defensive end Joe Mendes, the NJAC and ECAC Southeast Defensive Player of the Week, finished with seven tackles, including two for a loss. He also broke up a pass and made a key fumble recovery on TCNJ's final drive to seal the victory. Senior linebacker Brad Higgins made a game-high 12 tackles.

Senior running back Darius Kinney was held to 38 yards rushing at TCNJ, but is still one of the nation's top rushers with 139.3 yards per game on the ground. He's scored eight touchdowns, seven rushing. Bailoni is 103-of-173 (59.5 percent) through the air for 1,308 yards and 15 touchdowns with just five interceptions. Fowlkes is the top receiver with 41 catches for 652 yards and seven scores.

Senior linebacker Daniel Wollman has made a team-high 59 tackles and Higgins has 49 stops. Mendes paces the team with four sacks. Junior kicker Bill Cullen is 25-of-30 on point-after kicks and 3-of-7 on field goals. Freshman Nate Pilipson averages 32.1 yards per punt. He's pinned opponents inside the 20-yard line 10 times with just one touchback.

Dan Garrett took over as Kean's head coach in 2006 after three years as the team's defensive coordinator. He has an overall record of 48-24 (.667) in six-plus seasons. In 2011, he earned NJAC Coach of the Year honors after leading the Cougars to the league title (8-1 record) and an overall mark of 10-2. Kean won its NCAA opening-round game versus Christopher Newport, 34-10, before losing at Salisbury in the second round in triple overtime, 49-47.

Garrett has also led the Cougars to ECAC Bowl appearances in 2009 (9-2 final record), 2008 (7-4) and 2006 (7-4). He graduated in 1997 from Montclair State, where he was a first team All-NJAC linebacker and defensive end in 1995 and 1996 and recorded more than 200 career tackles. He served as an assistant coach with the Red Hawks for six years, including four as defensive coordinator from 1999-2002.


NOTEBOOK:

* Three Cortland players earned NJAC weekly honors for their performances versus Rowan last Saturday. Mike DeBole was named NJAC Special Teams Player of the Week, DJ Spencer was NJAC Offensive Rookie of the Week and Andre Green was NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Week.

* Cortland is ranked in the top 25 for the first time this season by D3football.com. The Red Dragons are ranked 23rd after winning last week versus then 17th-ranked Rowan. Cortland is also ranked sixth in the latest ECAC Lambert Meadowlands Division III poll. The Lambert Trophy recognizes the best team in the East. Cortland won the award in 2008.

* Chris Rose's 32 completions last week versus Rowan are tied for the second-highest single-game total in school history. John Simek holds the school mark with 34 completions versus Albany in 1978. J.J.Tutwiler completed 32 passes versus Rowan in 2001. Rose's 53 pass attempts are also second highest in school history behind Simek's 67 versus Albany and just ahead of Tutwiler's 50 against Rowan.

* Cortland junior Nick Daley handles the Red Dragons' kickoffs, and through seven games he has recorded 20 touchbacks. The other eight NJAC schools combined have a total of 19 touchbacks, with the next-highest totals of five by Rowan and four by Kean.

* Cortland is averaging 41.4 points per game through seven games. The school record for scoring average in the regular season is 38.0 points per game in 1990. Last year's squad averaged 36.8 points per game in 10 regular-season games (34.7 points per game counting the ECAC Southeast Bowl).

* Senior tailback Dorian Myles is averaging 6.8 yards per carry on 102 rushes this season. While that average has dropped from 9.9 yards per carry after four games, it's still on pace to set a school record. The current school record for best yard-per-rush average (minimum 100 carries) in a season is 5.7 yards per carry by Scott Berent in 1990 (1,181 yards on 208 carries in 10 regular-season games).

* Cortland has gained more than 400 yards of total offense in each of its first seven games this fall. This streak is a new school record, breaking the mark of six straight 400-yard games set last season.

* The Red Dragons have 18 sacks in seven games, on pace for 25 sacks in 10 games. Cortland has recorded at least 30 sacks each of the last 11 seasons, including 39 last year and 50 or more in both 2005 and 2006. Cortland's 50 sacks in 2006 were the best nationally in Division III. The Red Dragons set a school record with 52 sacks in 2005 (sacks have been officially tracked at Cortland since 1982).

* Cortland has allowed only six sacks on 253 total pass plays (247 passes plus six sacks) for a 2.37 percent sack rate. The Red Dragons set a school record last year with a 2.61 percent sack rate (nine sacks in 344 pass plays), and the second-best rate was 3.58 percent in 2002. Kean, however, is more impressive this season, having allowed only four sacks on 190 pass plays (2.11 percent).

* The Red Dragons have scored on 77 percent of its trips into the “red zone” (inside the 20) this season. Cortland has scored on 27-of-35 red-zone trips with 21 touchdowns and six field goals. Cortland opponents are 12-of-19 (63 percent) in the red zone, with all 12 of those scores touchdowns.

* Cortland is in its 13th season as a football-only member of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC). The Red Dragons compete in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) in most of their other sports. Cortland was the first non-New Jersey school to join the NJAC for football, starting in the 2000 season, and was joined by Western Connecticut State, Buffalo State, Brockport and Morrisville. However, Buffalo State has since left the league for the Empire 8, Western Connecticut will leave after this fall to join the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) for football only, and Brockport will leave the NJAC after the 2013 season to join the Empire 8.

Cortland has finished at least tied for first in the NJAC five of the last seven years (2005-08, 2010) and has earned the league's NCAA automatic bid twice (2008, 2010).

* Cortland and Kean rank in the top 40 nationally in Division III in the following team and individual categories:

CORTLAND:

12th, Turnover Margin, +1.4/game
13th, Scoring Offense, 41.4 pts./game
19th, Sacks Allowed, 0.9 sacks/game
29th, Total Offense, 462.3 yds./game
29th, Net Punting, 35.4 yds./punt

Mike DeBole, 24th, Punting, 39.9 yds./punt
Mike DeBole, tied 36th, Field Goals, 0.9/game

KEAN:

6th, Kickoff Returns, 25.7 yds./return
8th, Sacks Allowed, 0.6/game

Darius Kinney, 9th, Rushing, 139.3 yds./game
Darius Kinney, 9th, All-Purpose Running, 178.9 yds./game
Deandre Fowlkes, 20th, All-Purpose Running, 162.4 yds./game
Deandre Fowlkes, 31st, Receiving Yards, 93.1 yds./game


Cortland's Weekly Award Winners (game date/opponent in parentheses)

Troy Beddoe, Fr., Linebacker
NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Week (Sept. 29 vs. Montclair St.)
NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Week (Oct. 6 at The College of New Jersey)

Chris Bright, Sr., Linebacker
NJAC Defensive Player of the Week (Sept. 22 at Morrisville St.)
D3football.com National Team of the Week (Oct. 13 vs. Brockport)

Mike DeBole, Jr., Kicker/Punter
NJAC Special Teams Player of the Week (Sept. 29 vs. Montclair St.)
ECAC Southeast Special Teams Player of the Week (Sept. 29 vs. Montclair St.)
NJAC Special Teams Player of the Week (Oct. 6 at The College of New Jersey)
ECAC Southeast Special Teams Player of the Week  (Oct. 6 at The College of New Jersey)
NJAC Special Teams Player of the Week (Oct. 20 vs. Rowan)

Matt Deiana, Fr., Kickoff Returner/Tailback
NJAC Special Teams Player of the Week (Sept. 15 vs. Western Conn. St.)
ECAC Southeast Special Teams Player of the Week (Sept. 15 vs. Western Conn. St.)

Pete Furey, Sr., Cornerback
NJAC Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 13 vs. Brockport)
ECAC Southeast Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 13 vs. Brockport)

Andre Green, Fr., Safety
NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Week (Sept. 22 at Morrisville St.)
NJAC Defensive Rookie of the Week (Oct. 20 vs. Rowan)

Bronson Greene, So., Tailback
NJAC Offensive Player of the Week (Oct. 13 vs. Brockport)
ECAC Southeast Defensive Player of the Week (Oct. 13 vs. Brockport)

Dorian Myles, Sr., Tailback
NJAC Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 15 vs. Western Conn. St.)
ECAC Southeast Offensive Player of the Week (Sept. 15 vs. Western Conn. St.)

DJ Spencer, Fr., Wide Receiver
NJAC Offensive Rookie of the Week (Oct. 20 vs. Rowan)


SCHEDULES/RESULTS:

CORTLAND (6-1, 6-0 NJAC)

Sept. 1      at Buffalo St.                             L 31-49
Sept. 15    * WESTERN CONN. ST.               W 72-14
Sept. 22    * at Morrisville St.                      W 56-14
Sept. 29    * MONTCLAIR ST. (NJ)                W 20-0
Oct. 6        * at The College of New Jersey   W 42-28
Oct. 13      * BROCKPORT                            W 45-27
Oct. 20      * ROWAN (NJ)                           W 24-21
Oct. 27      * at Kean (NJ)                            1:00
Nov. 3       * at William Paterson                   1:00
Nov. 10     ITHACA                                      12:00

* NJAC game      HOME GAMES IN CAPS

KEAN (5-2, 5-0 NJAC)

Sept. 1     ALBRIGHT (PA)                            L 26-29
Sept. 8     at Mary Hardin-Baylor (TX)          L 7-34
Sept. 22   * BROCKPORT                             W 14-6
Sept. 29   * at Morrisville St.                       W 51-28
Oct. 6       * WESTERN CONN. ST.                W 58-7
Oct. 13     * at William Paterson (NJ)           W 45-33
Oct. 20     * at The College of New Jersey    W 34-30
Oct. 27     * CORTLAND                               1:00
Nov. 3       * at Rowan (NJ)                          1:00
Nov. 10     * MONTCLAIR ST. (NJ)                 1:00

* NJAC game      HOME GAMES IN CAPS

CORTLAND vs. KEAN – SERIES RECORD
(Cortland leads 14-2)

Year                  Winner                   Score                  Site
1996                  Cortland                  31-10                  Cortland
1997                  Cortland                  47-21                  Kean
1998                  Cortland                  53-27                  Cortland
1999                  Cortland                  26-13                  Kean
2000                  Cortland                  48-0                    Cortland
2001                  Cortland                  37-20                  Kean
2002                  Cortland                  35-14                  Cortland
2003                  Cortland                  23-20                  Kean
2004                  Cortland                  49-17                  Cortland
2005                  Cortland                  27-6                    Kean
2006                  Cortland                  24-14                  Cortland
2007                  Cortland                  35-14                  Kean
2008                  Cortland                  32-28                  Kean
2009                  Kean                       24-10                  Cortland
2010                  Cortland                  24-12                  Kean
2011                  Kean                       21-16                  Cortland