The Ithaca Bombers (5-2, 2-1 Empire 8) held the nation's third-ranked rushing attack nearly 250 yards below its season average in beating the visiting Springfield Pride (5-2, 2-2 Empire 8) 23-14 Saturday. Ithaca allowed just two touchdowns and 170 yards on the ground to a Springfield team that came in averaging nearly 40 points and 419 rushing yards per game.
Senior quarterback Rob
Zappia (Greece Athena/Rochester) threw for a career-high
301 yards, with senior wideout Thomas Vossler (Loon
Lake/Saranac Lake) posting career-best figures of 12
catches and 121 yards. Vossler and senior tight
end Dan Higgins (Greece Athena/Rochester) both
caught a touchdown pass and junior Andrew Rogowski
(Canisius/East Amherst) kicked a career-long 44-yard field
goal.
Vossler's
touchdown catch came on his 12th and final reception of the game
(one short of Ithaca's single-game record) and capped a
10-play, 74-yard drive after the Pride had scored a pair of
third-quarter touchdowns to pull within two points.
Both Springfield touchdowns were
set up by Bomber mistakes on punts; six plays after a blocked punt
by senior Ken Goodwin (Foxboro/Foxboro, Mass.)
that Springfield recovered on the Ithaca 20-yard line, Mike
Davis (Daniel Hand/Madison, Conn.) scored the
Pride's first touchdown on a one-yard run. On Ithaca's
next punt, a high snap was downed at the Ithaca 25. Alex
Mendez (Cranston West/Cranston, R.I.) gained all 25 yards
and sophomore Ricky Peacock (Tucker/Tucker, Ga.)
added his second extra point to close Ithaca's lead to
16-14.
Zappia threw for
70 of the 74 yards on Ithaca's final scoring drive with
Vossler's three-yard touchdown catch closing
the scoring. Springfield gained just 55 yards on 21 plays on three
final drives; the Pride turned the ball over on downs each
time.
Ithaca's three-man line led
the defense; senior tackle Andrew Haim (Douglas
MacArthur/Levittown) recorded 13 tackles – including
two for loss, senior end Matt Dibble (Columbia/East
Schodack) finished with 11 and senior end Sean Gil
(Sachem North/Holbrook) added eight. All three were
career-high totals. Dibble also collected a
career-best four tackles for loss – and added a sack (the
third surrendered by Springfield this year) and a pass break-up
(the second).
Junior linebackers Ryan
Clarke (Archbishop Spaulding/West Friendship, Md.) and
Eric Toporoff (Montville Township//Montville,
N.J.) made nine tackles apiece. Sophomore linebacker
Will Carter (Westlake/Thornwood) added eight
as Ithaca held Springfield without a run of more than 17 yards. The
Pride have averaged just 201 rushing yards and scored just eight
touchdowns in the last five meetings at Butterfield Stadium.
Mendez gained 50
yards to lead Springfield. Junior quarterback Josh Carter
(Marlborough/Marlborough, Mass.) gained 36 and was forced
to throw 15 passes, completing just four.
Junior linebacker Scott
Christy (Masuk/Monroe, Conn.) made 12 tackles, including
six solo. Senior end Cody Flanigan (Union
Springs/Auburn) had two tackles for loss among his eight
total stops.
Ithaca hosts Utica in an Empire 8 game next Saturday; the Pride play at Alfred.
- 30 -
Box Score
Springfield vs Ithaca (10/23/10 at Ithaca, N.Y.)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Springfield......... 0 0 14 0 - 14 Record:
Ithaca.............. 6 3 7 7 - 23 Record:
Scoring Summary:
1st 00:33 IC - Rob ZAPPIA 1 yd run (Andrew ROGOWSKI kick blocked), 9-66 4:44, SPR 0 - IC 6
2nd 09:10 IC - Andrew ROGOWSKI 44 yd field goal, 9-29 4:57, SPR 0 - IC 9
3rd 10:48 IC - Dan HIGGINS 4 yd pass from Rob ZAPPIA (Andrew ROGOWSKI kick), 10-81 4:12, SPR 0 - IC 16
03:54 SPR - Mike Davis 1 yd run (Ricky Peacock kick), 6-20 1:52, SPR 7 - IC 16
00:31 SPR - Alex Mendez 3 yd run (Ricky Peacock kick), 3-25 0:56, SPR 14 - IC 16
4th 10:16 IC - Thomas VOSSLER 3 yd pass from Rob ZAPPIA (Andrew ROGOWSKI kick), 10-74 5:08, SPR 14 - IC 23
SPR IC
FIRST DOWNS................... 10 18
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 55-170 33-22
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 23 301
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 15-4-0 40-28-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 70-193 73-323
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 3-36 3-23
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 5-115 3-42
Interception Returns-Yards.... 0-0 0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 6-36.7 7-31.3
Fumbles-Lost.................. 0-0 3-1
Penalties-Yards............... 4-33 1-15
Possession Time............... 24:11 35:49
Third-Down Conversions........ 7 of 17 7 of 16
Fourth-Down Conversions....... 0 of 5 0 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances....... 2-2 4-4
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 2-11 1-9
RUSHING: Springfield-Alex Mendez 13-50; Josh Carter 17-36; Mike
Davis 15-33; Joe Myhren 4-24; Antoine King 3-15; Mark Safer
3-12.
Ithaca-Clay ARDOIN 17-35; Adam LAJARA 5-8; Andre JAMISON 1-3; Rob
ZAPPIA 5-2; Jared PRUGAR 2-0; TEAM 3-minus 26.
PASSING: Springfield-Josh Carter 4-15-0-23.
Ithaca-Rob ZAPPIA 28-40-0-301.
RECEIVING: Springfield-John Schmaltz 3-12; Tim Brady 1-11.
Ithaca-Thomas VOSSLER 12-121; Dan RUFFRAGE 8-90; Adam LAJARA 3-26;
Clay ARDOIN 2-18; Dan HIGGINS 2-13; Matt CRANDALL 1-33.
FUMBLES: Springfield-None. Ithaca-TEAM 2-0; Rob ZAPPIA 1-1.
Ithaca-Matt DIBBLE 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Springfield-Scott Christy 6-6; D. Lawrence 4-5;
Cody Flanigan 5-3; Chris Kulcsar 4-3; Ken Goodwin 2-5; Will Turner
4-1; Paul Freeman 1-4; Matt Ramos 3-1; Rob Ruggiero 2-1; James
Kikel 2-0; Niall Murphy 2-0; Max Ford 1-1; Tim Schumacher 1-1; Sean
Miller 1-0.
Ithaca-Andrew HAIM 1-12; Matt DIBBLE 4-7; Ryan CLARKE 2-7; Eric
TOPOROFF 2-7; Will CARTER 3-5; Sean GIL 2-6; Chris O'BRIEN 3-4;
David AHONEN 2-4; Josh LIEMER 3-1; M. ABDELNOUR 0-4; Mike CONTI
1-2; Joe GILFEDDER 1-2; Spence WHITE 2-0; Kevin CLINE 1-1; Chris
COLLIER 1-1; Brendan HARPER 0-2; Jake SANTORA 1-0; Andy LONSKY 0-1;
Pat SCOTT 0-1; Myron AVANT 0-1.