WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Cardinals will look to bounce back on Saturday at Lycoming after falling to 0-2 in Landmark Conference play this past weekend. Kick off between Catholic and Lycoming is set for 12:00 p.m. in Williamsport, Pa.
SERIES HISTORY: Lycoming leads 2-0
LAST YEAR'S MEETING
Catholic football fell to Lycoming in a rain-soaked outing on Saturday afternoon, 28-25, after the Warriors scored a pair of touchdowns within two minutes of each other in the fourth quarter. The Cardinals dropped to 2-5 on the year with a bye week upcoming.
Nico Casares replaced starting quarterback
Madden Lowe in the second quarter and proceeded to throw it 67 times, completing 45 of them for 399 yards and three scores.
Preston Jeffrey logged his second game of the season with more than 100 yards as he made nine grabs for 159 yards. His 35-yard score was the 26th receiving touchdown of his career and marks his third straight game with a score.
Jeffrey wasn't the only pass catcher to have a career day.
Anthony Giordano set new career-highs with 11 catches for 94 yards in the contest while
John Maynes (7-82) and
Sam Cornacchione (7-36) both found the end zone for Catholic.
GAME RECAP
HERE
LAST TIME OUT -- CATHOLIC EDITION
Catholic (2-4, 0-2) dropped Saturday's Landmark Conference contest to Moravian (4-2, 2-0) thanks to a 20-point second quarter for the Greyhounds.
After tying the contest at 7-7 on the first play of the second quarter, Catholic allowed Moravian to score 20 unanswered, taking a 27-7 lead into the fourth quarter. The Cardinals once again trimmed the deficit to two scores, but the Greyhounds added the final blow with 5:08 to play.
Daequan Harvin got the bulk of the work on the ground for Catholic, rushing 17 times for 85 yards and his second rushing score as a Cardinal.
Tyler Donnelly picked off a Jared Jenkins overthrow on the final play of the first quarter, returning it 43 yards to the Moravian 13 before a penalty on the Greyhounds put Catholic on the six. Harvin rushed it in to open the second quarter of action, tying the game at 7-7. Harvin finished the game with two rushes of 10-plus yards, including a 16-yard scamper in the fourth quarter.
Full Game Recap -
HERE
LAST TIME OUT -- LYCOMING EDITION
The Lycoming College football team scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to highlight a 53-28 setback at Wilkes University to open its Landmark Conference season on Saturday afternoon, Oct. 12, at Schmidt Stadium.
Sophomore
Terrence Oliver (Sharon Hill, Pa./Academy Park) rushed 13 times for 86 yards and Benson finished with 128 all-purpose yards, rushing for 22, receiving one 18-yard catch and getting 88 yards off his kickoff return. Junior
Karson Kline (Clearfield, Pa./Clearfield Area) had six catches for 45 yards to lead the receivers. Huber finished 11-of-23 for 98 yards and a score and Fish was 8-of-17 for 65 yards and two touchdowns.
Junior
Tyler Marshall (Trappe, Pa./Perkiomen Valley) and senior
Jeramaiah Cooper (Windsor Mill, Md./Forest Park) led the Warriors with six tackles each, with Marshall posting a tackle for loss, Cooper forcing and recovering a fumble and adding a breakup. Junior
Mario Samony (Old Forge, Pa./Old Forge) had two pass breakups.
Full Game Recap
HERE
SCOUTING THE CARDS
Now moving into the second half of the season, the Cardinals sit at 2-4 and 0-2 in Landmark Conference play after taking on Moravian on the road. Catholic enters the contest averaging just under 20 points and just under 290 yards per game. Defensively, the Cardinals are allowing 30.2 points and 402 yards per game.
Joey Gulbin returned to the lineup and completed 20-37 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown on Saturday. For the season, the graduate is completing 63.2 percent of his throws for 923 yards and seven touchdowns.
Operating as the lead back, Harvin had his best game of the season on the ground, rushing 17 times for 85 yards and a score. For the season, Harvin leads the team with 252 rushing yards on 59 carries. He has found the end zone twice on the ground and once through the air as he has added 13 receptions for 110 yards.
Anthony Giordano and
Malachi Hansen each reached the the 100 career reception mark on Saturday. Giordano leads the team with 27 receptions for 269 yards and a score. Hansen is the team's yardage leader with 291 yards on 18 receptions and two touchdowns.
Andrew Tabor caught his third touchdown of the season and has 17 grabs for 170 yards.
Defensively, the statistical category leaders are as follows:
SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
Lycoming welcomes the Cardinals into the weekend with a 2-3 record and an 0-1 mark in Landmark play. The Warriors opened the conference season with the aforementioned 53-28 loss at Wilkes after splitting their non-conference games. Lycoming has wins over Widener (48-12) and Hilbert (48-0) and losses to #2 Cortland (7-70) and Utica (17-42).
The Warriors are scoring 29.6 points per contest and totaling 295.8 yards per game while allowing 35.4 points and 354 yards per game in 2024.
Will Fish and Jay Huber have split time at quarterback, each appearing in all five games. Fish has 95 attempts, completing 36 for 546 yards and seven scores while Huber has thrown it 56 times, completing half of his passes for 310 yards and five touchdowns. Terrence Oliver has been one of the top backs in the conference with 418 yards on 73 carries (5.7/carry) and four touchdowns.
Dawson Debebe and Karson Kline lead the Warriors with 14 receptions each with Debebe the team's leader in yards at 209. He has also found the end zone three times for Lycoming.
Defensively, the statistical category leaders are as follows:
- Tackles - Joey Rivituso (33.0)
- TFL - Stephen Goodman (5.5)
- Sacks - Goodman/Rivituso (1.5)
- INT - Tyler Marshall, Ryan Pentz, Tenye Martin, Collin McKeague, Louie Shank (1)
- PBU - Zannder White, Mario Samony, Cam Tolbert (2)
WEEK THREE STANDOUTS
- Harvin | Sophomore | Running Back - 17 rush, 85 yards, 1 TD, 2 rec. 8 yards
- Lawson Haylock | Junior | Defensive Lineman - 10 tackles, 2 TFL, 1 sack
- Donnelly | Junior | Defensive Back - 8 tackles, 1 INT
SAVING HIS BEST FOR LAST
After returning for a final season as a graduate, punter/kicker
Connor Gill is putting together his best season yet. Gill is averaging an impressive 42.0 yards per punt on 33 attempts, ranking him 15th in the country. Gill ranks second in the Landmark Conference as well with his punting average while as a collective unit, the Cardinals rank 16th in the nation in net punting with a mark of 39.0. Gill has now accumulated over 100 career attempts, averaging 39.9 yards per punt. Gill has a career-high six punts of 50+ yards in 2024 with a career-long punt of 57.
MILESTONES REACHED
Henry joined the 200 tackle club in week one at McDaniel, logging 11 stops to give him 202 for his career. Henry reached double digit tackles for the first time since September 23, 2023 vs. Alfred. Henry now has four games with 10 or more tackles for his career.
Senior captain Stillwell reached 150 career tackles with four in the opener. The senior safety had a career-high 62 tackles in 2022, following it up with 55 stops last season. He also has six career interceptions.
Junior linebacker Hopkins went over 150 tackles for his career with eight versus Morrisville on Saturday. He has 21 tackles on the year, raising his career average to 6.4 tackles per game. He recorded a career-high 78 tackles in 2023.
Hansen's 46-yard touchdown reception vs. Morrisville marked the 10th of his career. He has a receiving touchdown in each season of his career with a career-high six of them coming in 2022.
Hansen & Giordano each reached 100 receptions for their careers against Moravian on October 12.
MILESTONE WATCH
- #11 Anthony Giordano is 13 yards shy of 1,000 for his career. After logging a career-high 379 yards on 40 catches a year ago, he is up to 269 yards through six games in 2024.
- #33 Malachi Hansen is 106 yards shy of 1,500 receiving yards. Thus far, he has posted the second-most yards of his career with 291.
- #21 Zach Williams has logged 991 yards from scrimmage for his career (761 rush, 230 receiving) leaving him just nine shy of 1,000.
WHAT'S NEW IN '24
The Catholic football staff will feature some familiar faces in new roles this season. Former Assistant Head Coach & Special Teams Coordinator
Jonathan Rutledge earned a promotion to Associate Head Coach and will take over play-calling duties as the program's offensive coordinator in 2024.
Also moving up the ranks is seventh-year assistant
Brandon Beech who will serve as Assistant Head Coach in 2024 after taking over as the Defensive Coordinator in 2023.
Also joining the staff for the upcoming season is
George Coles who will coach the offensive line after leading the running backs at Wilkes University in 2023. Coles helped develop All-Landmark First Team running back Elijah Jules and helped the Colonels to a bowl game in '23.
Other new members to the staff include
TyRonne Turner (Running Backs), the former University of Richmond standout and former star receiver
Preston Jeffrey.
THE NEWCOMERS
The Cardinals welcome 34 new faces into the program and welcome back one old face in 2024. The freshman class includes:
Julian Fresen (QB),
Augustine Howard (WR),
Tyler McVicker (DT),
Omid Aliaskari (DB),
Khamari Wilson (RB),
Ja'Khi Boulware (DB),
Latevias Cunningham (DB),
Carter Virsik (DB),
Malachi McIver (WR),
Isaiah Green (WR),
Roman Landamia (RB),
George Mekras (RB),
Justin LaMorte (K),
Duron Bruce (DB),
Caden Lopez (LB),
Daniel Moore (LB),
Alexander Saunders (LB),
Charles Beckwith III (LB),
Jake McGowan (DE),
Gavin Drescher (DT),
Mark Enamorado (DE),
Ethan Carmichael (OL),
James Varellas (DE),
Dalton Orsak (TE),
Shan Azamy (WR),
Adrian Fresen (WR),
Jake Melograna (WR),
Tory Scott (DE), and
Storm Haney (DT). Other newcomers include:
Daequan Harvin (RB),
Tabari Muhammad (WR),
Joshua Mun (RB),
Hugh Connell (DE), and
Joey Gulbin (QB). Returning back after a year away from the team is
Nicholas Chang (DB).
SUCCESS IN THE CLASSROOM
After the 2023 season, Catholic placed a program-record five student-athletes on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team. To be eligible for nomination, a student-athlete must; be at least a sophomore academically and athletically, maintain at least a 3.50 cumulative grade point average, play in at least 90 percent of the team's games OR start at least 66 percent of the team's games.
Earning the honor for Catholic were
Samuel Dumas, Giordano, Hopkins,
Connor James, and Wicks. Dumas, Giordano, and Hopkins are all back and will have a chance to be in the mix for the honor again this season.
.500 OR BETTER
Catholic has finished each of the past three seasons with a winning percentage or .500 or better. After a 2-5 start, the Cardinals rallied to finish 5-5 to keep the streak alive, giving them three such seasons in a row for the first time since
Tom Clark did it seven years in a row, finishing in 2001.
Catholic went 6-4 in 2021, 6-5 in 2022, and 5-5 in 2023. The Cardinals spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons in the NEWMAC before the Landmark launched its inaugural football season this past year. The Cardinals reached the New England Bowl in 2022. Gutelius has four seasons of .500 or better ball under his watch, matching
Dave Dunn.
HALL OF FAME REPRESENTATION
On September 20, former running back
Matt Taylor will be inducted into the Catholic Athletics Hall of Fame. An All-American in 1996, Taylor is second in program history with 3,802 yards and 52 touchdowns. He holds the program record with 22 rushing touchdowns in a single season. He joins former teammates
Kevin Ricca (Class of '20 inductee) and
Jeff Clay (Class of '16 inductee) in the Hall of Fame.
ALL-CONFERENCE RETURNERS
Catholic returns four players from the seven that earned all-conference honors in the first season of Landmark football. Stillwell, a senior captain, was a first-team all-conference defensive back in 2023 after totaling 55 tackles, an interception, a fumble recovery, and six PBUs. For his career, Stillwell has 147 career tackles, six interceptions and 16 PBUs.
A second-team linebacker in 2023, Henry is back as well after tallying a career-high 14 TFLs to go with 72 tackles and two sacks. Henry is nine tackles shy of 200 for his career.
Fellow linebacker, Hopkins, was an All-Landmark Honorable Mention choice at linebacker. As a sophomore, he led the team with 78 tackles, adding seven TFLs, and picked off two passes. Playing in all 21 games of his career, he has totaled 133 tackles and 13.5 TFLs.
Finally, despite missing time, Hansen was respected as an all-conference return man, marking the third straight year in which a conference honored his return ability. He averaged 32 yards per kick return in the eight games he saw action in.
