The Saints return home to play at Leckonby Stadium for the first time since Oct. 1 when St. Lawrence defeated Springfield 42-14. St. Lawrence returns to play in front of what should be the largest crowd of the season with a Homecoming/Hall of Fame weekend matchup with Union College.
The home field has been friendly to the Saints over the past four season. The team is 16-2 at Leckonby since the start of the 2013 season and have won 11 of the last 12 games. The lone loss in that 12-game stretch was a 2-pont loss (29-27) to No. 7 ranked Hobart in 2014. The Saints have won eight straight since then.
Series
Union leads the overall series 35-19-5 but the Saints have won each of the last three meetings and four of the last six. Prior to that the Dutchmen won 14 consecutive meetings dating back to 1996. The teams have met every year since 1989.
Last Year
Last year the Saints opened the Liberty League season at Schenectady and after a close first half - with St. Lawrence holding a 21-17 advantage – pulled away outscoring the Dutchmen 21-6 in the second half. The Saints took the lead for good in the second quarter when Leondre Simmon scored on a 3-yard reception on offense and then 13 seconds later returned an interception 39 yards for a TD for a 21-10 lead. The Interception return for a touchdown was one of two in the game for the Saints as Isreal Squires returned one 60 yards in the final quarter.
Mike Lefflbine threw for 219 yards, Maurice Irby ran for 90 yards and Matt Gardiner had nine receptions for 113 yards while Skyler Williamson had 15 tackles to lead the defense. Three different players (Simmon, Squires and James Holley-Grisham) had two interceptions each for the Saints.
Last Week
The Saints returned from the off week with a slim 8-0 win over Merchant Marine to retain the Hoffman Cup. Skyler Williamson earned the game MVP award for the second consecutive season as he recorded 20 tackles, 1 ½ for loss and a sack. The lone touchdown was early in the third quarter when quarterback Sean Richardson took off on a 78-yard scoring run. Holder Tyler Burns ran in the two-point conversion after a muffed snap on the extra point attempt.
Richardson finished with 161 yards passing and 91 yards rushing while Vincenzo Ferraro had 10 catches for 85 yards. Williamson led the defense and Jayson Leigh, Riley Cott and Ryan Byrne contributed nine tackles each.
Sacks (Streak)
Skyler Williamson and Ryan Byrne combined for the only sack of the game against Merchant Marine and the sack continued a streak of 11 consecutive games with at least one sack. The Saints have recorded a sack in 18 of the last 19 games dating back to the final game of the 2014 season.
Low Scoring Wins
The Saints were able to win despite scoring just eight points against Merchant Marine. The eight points scored in a victory was the lowest total since 1974 when SLU posted a 6-0 win over Alfred. In 1976, the Saints had another low scoring game against the Saxons. Trailing 3-2 late in the fourth quarter, the Saints lined up for a short field goal attempt to win the game but kicker Mitch Brown's kick against a strong wind was blown back and actually landed behind Brown and the Saints ended up losing by a point in one of the lowest scoring games in school history.
Against Merchant Marine the Saints were held scoreless in the first half. The last time that happened to the Saints was in 2012 when Rochester kept St. Lawrence out of the end zone for the first 30 minutes of the game. The Saints outscored Rochester 20-9 in the second half but dropped a 30-20 decision in Rochester.
Longest Run from Scrimmage
When Sean Richardson took off on his 78-yard run for the only touchdown in the win over Merchant Marine he made a bit of history. Looking back, it was the longest run from scrimmage since Ethan Sutton had an 80-yard run against Merchant Marine in the 2010 matchup. The interesting thing about Sutton's run was that it wasn't really a run. The Saints lined up for a punt and had a fake punt play called. Sutton was supposed to run to his left toward the sideline and the first down marker to get a fresh set of downs. The fake was pretty effective as Sutton took off to the left and just kept running with defenders giving chase but none there to force him out of bounds and 80 yards later, Sutton was in the end zone celebrating a touchdown.
Later in the game, Sutton broke a 6-6 tie in the fourth quarter on the receiving end of a 75-yard touchdown play on a pass from JP Kearney as the Saints posted a 13-6 win. Sutton was named the MVP for the 2010 game and also won the award the following year as well.
Awards/Honors
Skyler Williamson took home the hardware from the Hoffman Cup game with his MVP plaque but also earned several weekly honors as well. The junior linebacker was selected as the SLU Male Star of the Week, the Liberty League Defensive Player of the Week, the ECAC North Defensive Player of the Week and also earned a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week. In the seven weeks of the season, St. Lawrence has had at least one player selected to the national team of the week.
Hall of Fame Celebration
Several members of the last undefeated regular season St. Lawrence football team are in Canton this weekend to be inducted into the St. Lawrence Athletic Hall of Fame. The eight players that all earned All-America honors for the 1982 team will be introduced at halftime. The head coach of that 1982 team that advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament before falling for the first time all year with a loss to Augustana was Andy Talley. Talley led the Saints to 28 wins in his five years before moving on to Villanova where he had a brilliant 32-year career that will end at the conclusion of this season with his retirement. Hall of Fame inductee and quarterback of the 1982 squad, Mark Ferrante is set to take over as head coach at Villanova.