The St. Lawrence University football team enters the ninth week of the season looking to get a monkey off its back. That monkey goes by the name of Hobart College. The Saints have had winning seasons in each of the last three years but each season includes a loss to the Statesmen. Hobart has won five straight meetings and 23 of the last 24 matchups. The lone win in the stretch for the Saints was in 2010 when St. Lawrence posted a 24-21 win at Leckonby Stadium.
Similar to last season's meeting, the 2016 matchup could clinch a Liberty League championship for St. Lawrence with a victory over the Statesmen. The Saints, ranked No. 13 in the AFCA poll and No. 16 in the D3football.com poll, enter with a perfect 8-0 record and a 5-0 mark against Liberty league opponents. Hobart is the lone league opponent with only one loss – a 21-17 setback to Rensselaer on Oct. 8 – and are currently in the also receiving votes section (basically No. 33 in the country) of the D3football.com poll and are No. 25 in the AFCA poll.
Series
As mentioned earlier, the series history is not pretty from the St. Lawrence perspective. Hobart leads the overall series 49-36-2 with 23 of those victories coming in the past 24 years. The teams first met on the gridiron in 1901 when Hobart posted a 10-0 win in Canton. The Saints won for the first time in the series the following year with an 11-6 win at home for St. Lawrence. From 1981 – 1991 St. Lawrence won nine of the 11 meetings including all five games played in Canton.
Last Year
The statistics show a 19-17 victory for Hobart with a touchdown in the final seconds of the game for the Statesmen but the score was anything but normal as the last second score was under review from the officials for several minutes before they decided that coincidental possession in the end zone resulted in the go-ahead touchdown for Hobart. In the days following the game, the review of the game film from the ECAC officials ruled that the call may have been incorrect or at the very least, the process by which the call was made was flawed.
The bottom line was that the Saints needed to wait an extra week to celebrate a Liberty League championship after beating Merchant Marine at home to wrap up the regular season.
St. Lawrence scored all 17 of its points in the first half and held a 17-7 lead at halftime. Hobart rebounded to score 12 points in the fourth quarter for the victory. Leondre Simmon and Mitch Gallagher caught touchdown passes from quarterback Mike Lefflbine and Andrew Carvalho hit a 27-yard field goal to account for the St. Lawrence scoring. Defensive back Brendan Donahoe led the Saints with 11 tackles (10 solo) while linebacker William Garrity had seven tackles, three for loss, two sacks and two quarterback hurries.
Last Week
St. Lawrence kept its undefeated record in tact with a 26-14 victory over Union on Homecoming Weekend in Canton. Rodrick Payne led the offense with a career high 124 yards on 21 carries and two touchdowns while Chyron Brown-Wallace led the defense with eight tackles including one for loss in the end zone for a safety. Austen Lauricella punted five times and landed three of them inside the 20 (with another landing on the 20), had a pair of kickoff returns for 85 yards, including a season long 57 yarder and also contributed five tackles on defense.
Hobart came from behind for the fifth time this season and scored in the final seconds to pull out a 35-31 victory over WPI. Quarterback Shane Sweeney was 26-for-36 for 346 yards and four touchdowns and receiver Jack Pfohl hauled in 12 passes for 197 yards and two scores.
Regional Ranking
The first NCAA Regional rankings were released earlier this week and St. Lawrence found itself in the No. 5 position in the East Region. Alfred (8-0) is the top ranked team in the East followed by Stevenson (8-0), St. John Fisher (7-1) AND Salisbury (7-1). The Saints are fifth with Hobart (7-1) in sixth followed by Albright (6-2), Wesley (6-2), Western New England (8-0) and Frostburg State (7-1). Mount Union is the top team in the North, Mary Hardin-Baylor in the South and Wisconsin-Whitewater in the West.
The regional ranking takes into account the strength of schedule (SOS) for teams and only Western New England in the East rankings has a lower strength of schedule than St. Lawrence. The Saints have a .472 SOS compared to a .450 for Western New England. Mount Union is listed with just a .460 SOS. A win over Hobart would help the St. Lawrence SOS but since the Statesmen are not in the national rankings, the upward movement for the Saints could be limited. Alfred closes the season with a matchup against St. John Fisher Nov. 12 and a loss will drop one of those teams at least a few spots.
Sacks Streak Snapped
The run first offense of Union College limited the opportunities for the St. Lawrence defense to record a sack in its 12th consecutive game. The Dutchmen attempted just 11 passes on the day and the lack of a sack stopped the streak at 11 games for the Saints. The St. Lawrence defense has at least one sack in 18 of the last 20 games.
Awards/Honors
For the seventh time this season a member of the St. Lawrence football team has been selected to the D3football.com Team of the Week as Chyron Brown-Wallace earned the honor for the second time this season and fifth time in his career. Joining Brown-Wallace with selections this season are Vincenzo Ferraro (week 2), Mitch Gallagher (week 4 and 6), Austen Lauricella (week 4) and Skyler Williamson (week 8).
Brown-Wallace was also named the Liberty League Defensive Player of the Week and Rodrick Payne earned a spot on the Liberty League weekly honor roll.
Richardson Closing in on 2K
Quarterback Sean Richardson has been ranked among the leaders in the country all season for pass efficiency and is currently 162-for-274 for 1,878 yards. He is just 122 yards form 2,000 yards for the season and would become just the third quarterback in St. Lawrence history to eclipse the milestone. Only 2016 Hall of Fame inductee Mark Ferrante (2,042) and current school-record holder Mike Lefflbine (2,387) have cleared the mark. Richardson is 52 completions away from Lefflbine's season record of 214. The fleet footed Richardson is also closing in on the season record for total offense. Lefflbine set the record last year with 2,391 yards and Richardson is currently at 2,320 yards with his 1,878 pass and 442 rushing yard totals and needs just 72 yards to set a new mark.