By Pat Cummings
D3sports.com
Through the first six weeks in the season, five teams remain undefeated in the south region -- and three of those are within the Mid-Atlantic sub-region. Johns Hopkins, Lycoming, and Salisbury claim these spots and the potential road to the playoffs continues to take shape.
Hopkins has four games remaining and its opponents are a combined 11-8, the toughest schedule amongst the three. Lyco has three home games and plays five teams with a combined 14-12 record. Salisbury continues to carry a light load, and will play opponents with an 8-11 record from here to the finish line.
Grab your calculators
Emory and Henry's Fullerton Field has a listed capacity of 5,500. Well, slightly more than 7,750 showed up on Saturday for the Wasps' game against Hampden-Sydney and witnessed a spectacle as both the teams combined for 1,270 yards of total offense.
Imagine the usual crowd behind the Fullerton end zone, only about three times that size.
Tigers quarterback J.D. Ricca completed 27 of 40 pass attempts for 476 yards while Todd Henry bested Ricca by 12 yards, nailing 32 of 51 for 488 yards. Three HSC players tallied more than 100 yards receiving for the Tigers: Conrad Singh (130), C.W. Clemmons (125), and Brian Rolander (116).
A quick glance at the game's statistics and several notes jump off the page. There were 13 drives resulting in touchdowns for both teams. Ten of the 13 touchdowns were scored on drives totaling less than three minutes and four of the scores were tallied on the first play of a drive. The 41 points scored by EHC marked their largest output on the season and also the most points allowed by HSC. Swiss cheese defense, prolific offense, or just one of those days? The Tigers bounced back offensively after stalling in the second half of their loss against Bridgewater.
Life on the battlefield
Football is fun again amidst the historical monuments and apple orchards in south central Pennsylvania. The Bullets of Gettysburg are 4-1 for the first time since 1994 and their 30-20 win against highly regarded McDaniel was their first since 1996. Gettysburg chalked 326 first-half yards en route to 27 points in the initial 30 minutes, enough to hold off McDaniel 30-20.
Head coach Barry Streeter's wing-T offense has been a staple of the gridiron at the battlefield for years and the Bullets are firing. Their lone loss this year came at No. 18 Hampden-Sydney and they lay claim to 5-1 Waynesburg's only mark in the "L" column.
Lions roar over Pioneers
John Port connected with Jesse Dorais with 18 seconds left to lead the Lions of Albright over Widener in a 30-29 win. Albright's one-point victory was its first over Widener since 1997 and their third win against the Pioneers since 1978.
Obscure Mid-Atlantic Region Media Guide Factoid of the Week
Susquehanna standout Mark Bartosic, featured in last week's column, has had at least one reception in every game of his career. By the way, Bartosic has been in the starting lineup for each game since he has been on campus. A red-shirt transfer from Division I-AA Bucknell, Bartosic can claim all receiving records in Susquehanna's 105-year program.
Mid-Atlantic Region Top 5
Ask the people and the people respond. Last week, I summoned the readers to provide me with their opinion on the Mid-Atlantic Region Top 5, and the voter turnout was better than the California recall. The readers' top five teams through week five included:
1. Johns Hopkins
2. Bridgewater
2. Christopher Newport
4. Lycoming
5. Hampden-Sydney
Votes for the Mid-Atlantic Region Top 5 came both before and after last week's games and therefore, I combined both votes since there were no upsets and I doubted that their performances would have changed much. Johns Hopkins emerged as the top squad in the region, with only a one-point advantage over Bridgewater and CNU tied for the second spot.
Johns Hopkins garnered enough votes to push them to the top, barely. The Blue Jays are respected despite a lighter schedule with a vaunted defense, allowing an average of five points per game and near the top of Division III in turnover ratio.
There is no doubt that the fans have come to respect Christopher Newport; the comments on the Captains came from all types, students, coaches, fans, and parents.
"I don't like to put someone with a loss at No. 1, but I think they would beat Lyco," said one Pennsylvania-based parent, "and I think they are still getting better this year."
Despite my own thoughts that Lycoming's win against King's was much closer than it appeared (I witnessed the tenuous three-point lead Lyco held with two minutes to play), I received several notes claiming the Warriors tallied two respectable double digit victories (the other being Wilkes). I continue to think that Lyco may struggle as the season continues and they must be vigilant against Del Val this weekend.
Another observer brought to light a most interesting point. "Beating Bridgewater alone should give CNU the No. 1 spot. This third year team did what 29 other teams couldn't do in the regular season." Let the record show that it wasn't 29 other teams but rather what no other team could do in 29 regular season games.
"CNU beat Bridgewater and Hampden-Sydney lost to BC," continued the writer, "why are both teams still ranked ahead of CNU and will probably end up ranked higher than the Captains at the end of the season?
Here lies a tremendous question. Since CNU, Bridgewater, and Hampden-Sydney all have one loss, it would seem that the Captains win over the Eagles trumps the region (or at least the "Virginia Three") using a reasonable derivative model. Obviously, this is not always the case. Bridgewater carries a reputation as a proven playoff team and an established program. Regardless of wins and losses in the regular season against each other, until CNU can gain some footing a national scale with playoff victories, most voters in both the D3football.com Top 25 poll and others will typically rank the Eagles ahead of the Captains. Fair? Not really. Just the way polls are.
I will continue to hold off on my regional top five. The status of the region is way up in the ionosphere and the picture may clear after Lyco and JHU play on Saturday.
Games of the Week
Gettysburg at No. 24 Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Md., Friday, 7 p.m.: Hopkins finally breaks into the D3football.com Top 25 and will host upstart Gettysburg. Pat Coleman and I will have the call on from Homewood Field in our Game of the Week.
Delaware Valley at No. 11 Lycoming, Williamsport, Pa., 1:30 p.m.: Lyco has six home games this season and before they kicked off back in September, this one ranked towards the bottom in terms of attraction to the D-III fan. A 5-0 start by the Aggies changed that, and Lyco faces a must-win.
Attention SIDs and all
Feel free to contact me with any info, questions, comments about your squad and more. Especially welcome are tidbits of useless knowledge for our "Obscure Media Guide Factoids" segment.
