ITHACA, N.Y. – Another battle of top 25 teams will grace South Hill this Saturday, September 14, as the No. 24 Ithaca College football team hosts No. 17 Endicott College at 1 p.m. at Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium for Homecoming Weekend.
GAME NOTES
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ALL-TIME SERIES: Ithaca and Endicott have played once, which occurred last season in Beverly, Mass. The Bombers pulled off the victory, 20-17, as IC scored 13 points over the final seven-plus minutes of the game. Sam Kline caught the game-winning pass on a 30-yard completion from A.J. Wingfield with 2:06 to go in the game.
RECAP FROM LAST WEEK: Ithaca jumped out to a 17-point lead against No. 8 Johns Hopkins University in the 2024 season opener at Bertino Field at Butterfield Stadium, but the Blue Jays scored 20 unanswered points to take the lead and held on to top IC, 27-23.
Colin Schumm threw for 250 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 48 yards and two more scores. Jalen Leonard-Osbourne accounted for 38 yards on the ground, 64 yards receiving and 127 in kick return yards, while Jake Williams caught a touchdown and finished with 26 yards receiving and 23 yards rushing. Nicholas Matos caught four passes for 97 yards.
Defensively, Darren Brunner and Sam Tourangeau each recorded 13 total tackles.
LIBERTY LEAGUE RECOGNITION: In the first Liberty League weekly award selections for the football season, Sam Tourangeau and Derek Baldin were honored. Tourangeau was named the Defensive Performer of the Week, while Baldin was the Special Teams Performer of the Week.
Along with the 13 tackles, Tourangeau also broke up two passes, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble. Baldin connected on a 45-yard field, converted two PATs and average nearly 63 yards on five kickoffs, two of which went for touchbacks.
NEWEST HALL OF FAME CLASS: During halftime of Saturday's game, Ithaca will recognize the newest Hall of Fame class, which will be officially inducted Friday evening in Emerson Suites as part of the 54th class. This year's inductees are the 2004 and 2005 women's rowing national championship teams, Katherine Bixby '10 (women's basketball/lacrosse), Taylor Borda '10 (men's tennis), John Cole '86 (baseball), Scott Connolly '96 (football/wrestling), Jame Donovan '08 (football), Ricardo Gomez-Perez '13 (wrestling), James Ravener '04 (men's cross country/track & field) and Josh Rifkin '11 (men's tennis).
IN THE RANKINGS: Both teams are nationally ranked by D3football.com in the Week 1 Poll. Endicott moved up from 18th to 16th, while the Bombers dropped from 20th to 24th. This will be the second straight season in which both teams are ranked prior to kickoff. The AFCA has Endicott ranked 15th and the Bombers 24th.
LAST TIME OUT FOR ENDICOTT: The No. 18/18 Endicott football team defeated St. Lawrence, 44-13, on September 7 in the season opener for both teams at Leckonby Stadium. Endicott jumped out to a 16-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back in the contest.
Clayton Marengi finished the contest 13-17 passing (76.5%) for 190 yards and three touchdowns. The Gulls displayed a balanced attack with 221 yards passing and 209 yards rushing, while holding St. Lawrence to just 153 yards of offense.
MORE ABOUT THE GULLS: Endicott is a member of the newly named Conference of New England (formerly the Commonwealth Coast Conference) and has sponsored football since 2003. The Gulls have won five conference championships and have made five appearances in the NCAA Division III Championship but have never won a first round game.
UP NEXT: The Bombers will make a trip out to the Boston area on September 28 to take on Curry College. Kickoff is 12 p.m. and the two teams have not played since 2008.