At a glance
The Alfred State football team opened up their home portion of the season with a 22-7 victory over St. John Fisher JV on Sunday. The Pioneers improve to 3-1 on the year while the JV Cardinals fall to 2-1.
The Alfred State football team opened up their home portion of the season with a 22-7 victory over St. John Fisher JV on Sunday. The Pioneers improve to 3-1 on the year while the JV Cardinals fall to 2-1.
The 1st half featured very little offense but a trick play in the closing seconds gave the Pioneers a halftime lead. Punter Keegan Phalen (East Aurora) lined up to punt but instead threw a 58-yard pass to Collin Frazer (Woodbridge, VA) to get the blue & gold on the board with just 12 seconds left in the half.
St. John Fisher marched down the field in their first possession of the 2nd half and tied the game up on a five-yard run by Steve Strumolo.
Alfred answered right back with a two-yard run by Will Westbrook (Edmeston) to cap a four-play 57-yard drive to give the Pioneers the lead for good. Alfred State added to their lead early in the 4th quarter when Sammy Diaz (Dansville) rushed in from eight-yards out after Alonzo Joyner (Queens/Info Tech) intercepted a pass and returned it to the Fisher eight-yard line.
Phalen capped the scoring with 8:38 remaining when he hit a 26-yard field goal.
Alfred's offense gained 337 yards on the day (221 passing and 116 rushing) while Fisher accumulated 257 (150 passing and 107 rushing).
Colton Caldwell (Dublin, OH) was 6 for 18 for 86 yards while Joey Frendo (Fremont, MI) was 4 for 9 for 77 yards. Diaz finished with two catches for 63 yards while Erik Simmons (Elmira Free) had five catches for 59 yards. Dileel Bartley (Rochester/Edison) led the rushing attack with 53 yards on 12 carries.
Matt Naton was 8 for 19 for 117 yards for Fisher while Strumolo rushed for 56 yards on eight carries. Pete Luizzi caught three passes for 52 yards and Bobby Campese caught four passes for 39.
Michael Gibson (Capital Heights, MD) led the Pioneers with nine tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble. Robert Howard (Syracuse/Nottingham) had seven tackles and a sack, David Howell (Rochester/Greece Athena) had six tackles and a sack, and Thomas Daniels (Bronx/ICE) and Phalen each had five tackles and a sack. Phalen also had a forced fumble and a fumble recovery on the day.
Trevor Haut led Fisher with 12 tackles and a sack while Zach Zaloga had eight tackles.
The blue & gold return to action on Saturday when they host Globe Tech for Homecoming 2012. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Pioneer Stadium.