WHO – Catholic at Susquehanna
WHEN – Saturday, September 30 | 1 PM
WHERE – Selinsgrove, Pa. | Amos Alonzo Stagg Field at Doug Arthur Stadium
WATCH | LIVE STATS
LANDMARK FOOTBALL TIME - For the first time-ever Landmark Conference football will be played this weekend. After spending the past five seasons in the NEWMAC, Catholic will join five other Landmark Conference football schools in opening the 2023 Landmark season this Saturday. The Cardinals, who were picked third in the preseason coaches poll, will take on 12th-ranked Susquehanna, the unanimous favorite to take the inaugural Landmark Conference crown. Alongside Catholic's 1 p.m. kick at Susquehanna will be Keystone at Moravian (1 p.m.) and Juniata at Wilkes (12 p.m.). Lycoming will open the conference season with a bye week.
LAST WEEK –
Catholic 6, Alfred 9 | Susquehanna 26, Western New England 18
On a nasty weather day in D.C., the Catholic University Cardinals fell 9-6 to the Alfred Saxons on Saturday afternoon at Cardinal Stadium. Catholic fell to 2-2 as it enters Landmark Conference play. Catholic held Alfred to just 147 yards of total offense and 2.6 yards per play. The Saxons ran for 90 yards on 44 attempts and gained 57 yards through the air on just six completions. Alfred was just 1-15 on third downs and two-of-five on fourth down.
The Susquehanna University football team completed their non-conference season with a 4-0 start on Saturday via a 26-18 rain-soaked win over Western New England. The River Hawks fought through the elements with a ground game electrified by
Tommy Grabowski's two touchdowns, three interceptions and one fumble on defense, then four field goals from
Christian Colasurdo to put just enough distance in front of the Golden Bears for their 15th straight regular season victory, one away from the school record set between 1985-87.
Catholic Game Recap | Susquehanna Game Recap
TOP TWO AND HE'S NOT TWO
Catholic senior signal-caller
Madden Lowe ranks in the top 25 of a handful of statistical categories at the Division III level, but the Stafford, Va. product is unmatched in completions per game with 33.50 completions per contest. Lowe matched his program record for completions in a game two weekends ago at Randolph-Macon, completing 41 passes, before completing another 37 two Saturday's ago at SUNY Morrisville. The senior quarterback has completed 31 or more passes in three of the four contests this season. Lowe also holds four of top six completion games in Catholic football history.
Lowe's completion percentage of 82.2% at Morrisville was also the highest single-game completion percentage in Catholic history in a game with at least 20 pass attempts. Lowe surpassed Derek McGee's mark of 81.0% from a 1999 contest vs. Methodist.
| Completions Per Game |
1st |
33.50 |
| Completion Percentage |
10th |
72.0% |
| Passing Yards |
15th |
1,098 |
SUCCESS OUT WIDE
Statistically, Catholic's wide receivers also factor into the national rankings with Jeffrey and
Andrew Tabor both ranking inside the top 15 in an individual category while Jeffrey finds himself in a similar spot to Lowe, littered throughout the top 25 in Division III. 14 different players have a reception for the Cardinals this season while seven players have at least five receptions. Tabor leads the way with 37 receptions while Jeffrey is comfortably the team leader with 416 yards. Tabor (250),
Anthony Giordano (122), and
Nole Henry (118) have also surpassed 100 yards receiving for the season.
PUTTING THE SPECIAL IN SPECIAL TEAMS
Catholic special teams continue to thrive under
Jonathan Rutledge's leadership. Catholic ranks in the top-26 nationally in a pair of special teams categories while senior
Connor Gill is also in the top-50 nationally in punting. With Gill kicking off and a sound coverage unit, the Cardinals rank 13th in the country in kick return defense, allowing just 14.14 yards per return. Rutledge's punt unit also ranks 26th in net punting average, logging 36.94 net yards per boot. Despite water-logged conditions on Saturday, Gill still remains in the top-50 in punting, ranking 46th with 37.5 yards per punt.
THAT'S ANOTHER CATHOLIC...FIRST DOWN
Catholic holds the first down edge over its opponents in 2023, winning the battle in three of four contests while falling short vs. Randolph-Macon. The Cardinals have recorded 84 first downs this season while allowing 69. 45 of the Cardinals first downs have come via the pass, 34 have come via the rush, and five have come via penalty. Catholic picked up 10 first downs on the ground in the first two weeks combined before moving the chains 24 times on the ground in the past two weeks.
LIVING IN THE BACKFIELD
Junior linebacker
Carson Henry has made his presence in opposing backfields known in 2023. Henry ranks at the top of the Landmark Conference and in the top-10 nationally in tackles for loss, racking up eight thus far. Henry has at least 1.5 TFLs in each of the four contests this season while also ranking second on the team with 31 overall tackles. Henry has gotten to the quarterback twice and has broken up a pass as well in an outstanding start to the campaign.
LANDMARK LOVE
Catholic has earned a pair of Landmark honors through four weeks with
Preston Jeffrey earning Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Week (Week 1 vs. McDaniel) and
Aidan Long earning Landmark Conference Defensive Player of the Week (Week 3 at SUNY Morrisville). Jeffrey caught five passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns in the season-opening victory vs. McDaniel while Long returned an interception for a touchdown to seal the deal at Morrisville in week three. Catholic also has a number of athletes placed in the top-three in statistical categories in the conference.
MILESTONE MADNESS
- #2 Preston Jeffrey – Jeffrey's ninth catch of the day on Saturday was the 150th of his Catholic career. Jeffrey has surpassed 2,000 yards for his career as well in 2023 and is two touchdowns shy of 25.
- #10 Carson Henry – Henry reached 150 tackles for his Catholic career with 12 stops on Saturday. He is also 1.5 TFLs shy of 20 for his career after adding 1.5 to his tally in Saturday's contest.
- #23 Luke Brautigan – Brautigan surpassed the 100-tackle mark for his career on Saturday afternoon, making four stops to put him at 101 for his career. His next TFL will be the 10th of his career.
- #33 Malachi Hansen – Hansen caught a 10-yard touchdown pass in week one before exiting the game. He is 169 shy of 1,000 receiving yards for his career.
PRESEASON POLL
Catholic University football was picked to finish third in the inaugural seven-team Landmark Conference Football preseason poll it was announced earlier today. The Cardinals posted a 6-5 record under
Mike Gutelius in 2022, earning a bid to the New England Bowl Series, the program's first trip to a bowl game since 2008.
Catholic nabs third-place in the poll with 25 points, finishing behind 22nd-ranked Susquehanna (36 points) and Wilkes (31 points). Lycoming (22 points), Moravian (15 points), Keystone (11 points), and Juniata (7 points) round out the coaches poll.
COORDINATION IS KEY
Mike Gutelius' staff will feature two new coordinators in 2023 with the departures of Max Drisko (OC) and Kevin Hubbard (DC) to the Division I level.
Adam Shaker was announced as the program's offensive coordinator back in March after a three-year run at Mississippi State under the late Mike Leach. In 2022, Shaker served as the Bulldogs' Assistant Wide Receivers Coach, taking over as the Wide Receivers Coach for the 2023 Reliaquest Bowl versus Illinois.
Shaker started as an Offensive Fellow and moved up to Offensive Quality Control Assistant before taking on a major role with the wide receivers. He helped develop standout pass catcher Makai Polk who caught 105 balls in 2021 to lead the SEC.
Prior to his time at Mississippi State, Shaker coached the receivers and acted as the Special Teams Coordinator at Concord University in West Virginia. He served in the same role at Southern Virginia and made stops during his career at Virginia, Brigham Young, Georgetown, and Old Dominion.
Entering his sixth year on the staff,
Brandon Beech was promoted to Defensive Coordinator this summer, returning to the defensive side of the ball after a stint with the offensive line. Beech and Gutelius will work hand-in-hand on the defensive game planning.
Beech served as the program's Defensive Line Coach in 2020 and the Defensive Backs Coach from 2018-2020. Prior to joining Gutelius at Catholic, Beech was the defensive coordinator at Dalton L. McMichael Sr. High School in 2017 and 2018.
MEET THE STAFF
The 2023 Catholic University Football Staff is as follows:
ALL-REGION RETURNER
Junior wide receiver
Malachi Hansen is back after a standout campaign on both offense and special teams. Hansen, a Philadelphia, Pa. native, was named a Third Team All-Region 1 selection in 2022 by D3football.com.
Under Special Teams Coordinator
Jonathan Rutledge's tutelage, Hansen has proved to be a dynamic returner in his first two seasons as a collegiate athlete. Hansen was also an All-NEWMAC First Team selection as a returner after combining for more than 850 return yards, ranking him in the top-five in Division III. Hansen ranked in the top-50 nationally in All-Purpose yards per contest when adding in his 554 receiving yards.
A FRESH START
As noted above, Catholic was picked to finish third in the Landmark Conference's inaugural preseason poll. This will be the first season in which football is a sponsored sport in the conference thanks to the additions of Wilkes and Lycoming as full-time members, and Keystone as an affiliate member for football.
With the addition of football, 23 of Catholic's 25 intercollegiate programs will all compete under the Landmark Conference umbrella. The Cardinals previously spent five seasons in the NEWMAC, setting the program record for All-Conference selections in back-to-back seasons with 10 in 2021 and 12 in 2022.
BOWL ELIGIBLE
After earning an invite to the New England Bowl Series in 2022, marking the first Catholic football bowl appearance since 2008, the Cardinals are looking to return to postseason play once again in 2023. The Landmark Conference and Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) have joined together in a four-year bowl series partnership. The Chesapeake Bowl Challenge will begin in 2023 with the top seed in the ODAC hosting the second seed from the Landmark while the top seed from the Landmark hosts the second seed from the ODAC. When the announcement was made, Gutelius added "The Chesapeake Bowl Challenge matchup series between the Landmark and ODAC is something we are very excited about. Our football team was a member of the ODAC for a very long time and has a history of great games against many of those schools. This announcement between our two conferences is almost the best of both worlds. We will get to live in the Landmark Conference like all the other sports here at Catholic, but we will occasionally get to see some old foes from the ODAC. I think it will be a really good setup for both conferences."
