UTICA, NY - The Utica College football team looks to double down on its season-opening win as it hosts non-conference opponent Buffalo State on Saturday, September 14th at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium. Opening kickoff of the matchup is set for noon.

First Source Federal Credit Union High School Student and Pop Warner Day: The Pioneers will host High School Student and Pop Warner Day on Saturday. High school students wearing their high school gear, and youth football players in uniform will receive free admission to the game. Additionally, First Source Federal Credit Union will give out free pompoms to the first 500 fans in attendance on Saturday. 

Save The Dates: Join us on campus from October 18th to 20th as Utica College celebrates its 2019 Homecoming, Alumni, and Family Weekend. As part of the festivities, the Pioneers will take on local rival Morrisville State on Saturday, October 19th at 1 p.m. More information on the weekend's events will be coming soon at http://homecoming.utica.edu/.
 
Believe Bowl: Saturday, October 12th marks the third edition of the New York State Tool Believe Bowl. Come on out to Gaetano Stadium that day as the Pioneers match up with St. John Fisher. The Believe Bowl was created by the Believe 271 Foundation, New York State Tool, and Utica College football to assist children at the Thea Bowman House as well as firefighters battling cancer and life-threatening illnesses. More information on the game will be made available in the near future.
 
12th Man Club: Applications for the Utica College Football 12th Man Club are still being accepted for the 2019 season. Your tax deductible membership donation provides valuable support to the Utica College Football program in their continued pursuit of excellence. Your membership can get you access to exclusive items, including parking passes, season tickets, apparel items, and more. More information on how to join the 12th Man Club can be found here.

Follow Along: Fans can follow the contest via Pioneers All-Access live video and stats: http://bit.ly/2wtxUV5. This week's broadcast is presented in association with WPNR 90.7 FM, Utica College Pioneer Radio, who will also have the call of the game over local airwaves and at PioneerRadio.org. Utica College students Adam Ziobrowski and Rob Stevens team up on the play-by-play and color analysis, with Sports Information Assistant Ray Biggs on the sidelines this week. Fans interested in viewing the game on their televisions are also offered a streamlined experience for their television connected devices through the Empire 8 digital apps. The apps are available for popular devices including Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire. See your respective app store for availability.
 
Oliver Named to Good Works Team: Graduate student linebacker Ryan Oliver (Vernon Center, NY/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) received one of the highest honors in all of college football this week. Oliver is just one of 22 players nationally this season to receive the award, which recognizes college football players who are actively involved with a charitable organization or service group while also maintaining a strong academic standing.  Oliver earns the award for his work with the Haiti Rehabilitation Project. He was part of the original group that began work to establish a physical rehabilitation clinic to serve people in need of physical and occupational therapy services in Gonaives, Haiti. He will receive an all-expenses paid trip to New Orleans to participate in a special service project and attend the Allstate Sugar Bowl, where he will be recognized at halftime.  
 
State of the Pioneers: Utica opens the season at 1-0. The Pioneers have won their last four games, a streak that began with a win over Buffalo State last season. UC is on the heels of a two-game opening homestand, and will play the next two games on the road against RPI and Cortland. The team's bye week will run in between the two road contests.

About The Matchup: The Pioneers and Bengals have met each year since 2012, and this will be the eighth meeting between the two. The Pioneers lead the all-time series five games to two and have won the last three. The most recent meeting was a 36-3 win for Utica, which marks the largest margin of victory in the series for either side. Utica is 4-0 when playing Buffalo State in Buffalo, but will be looking to improve on history with a 1-2 home record against the Bengals all-time. Utica won the last meeting to take place at Gaetano by a score of 34-12 in 2017. What will separate this matchup from previous seasons is that it is no longer a conference game. The Bengals were an Empire 8 associate member for football from 2012-2018, but have since jumped to the Liberty League.

Last Year Against The Bengals: On November 3rd, 2018, The Pioneers erased an early 3-0 deficit with 36 unanswered points as they hammered Buffalo State by a 36-3 score at Coyer Field in Buffalo. It was a dominant performance on both sides of the ball. The Utica defense trimmed the Bengal rushing total to just 30 yards, and Buffalo State mustered just 265 yards of total offense on the day. The Pioneer defense finished the game with five forced turnovers and six sacks. Antonio Scala (Coram, NY/Longwood) led the unit with fifteen tackles, one sack, and an interception. Kwasi Addo (Menands, NY/Shaker) added eleven tackles, two tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks. The defense also got on the board with a safety, and the special teams defense added a score as well. A bad snap by the Buffalo State punting unit was snagged by Tim Hogan (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove) in the endzone for a fumble recovery touchdown. The Pioneers totaled a whopping 470 yards of offense, with quarterback Logan Wilcox (Utica, NY/Proctor) throwing for 276 yards and three touchdowns. Peyton Miller (Chemung, NY/Waverly) caught seven of Wilcox's passes for 155 yards and a touchdown, and Imani Vincent (Brooklyn, NY/Sheepshead Bay) caught the other two touchdown passes. Running back Malcolm Stowe (Coram, NY/Longwood) also had a monster day with 178 rushing yards, and the Pioneer running game averaged 6.5 yards per carry.
 
Stomping The Saints: The Pioneers pitched a first half shutout en route to a 30-0 halftime lead, and wavered very little from there as Utica opened its season with a 40-14 win. The Pioneers had three interceptions and returned two of them for touchdowns as Elijah Belle (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield) and Marquis Simpson (Middle Island, NY/Longwood) each recorded a score on the defensive side of the ball. Belle added a second interception for Utica. In total, the Pioneers held a +5 advantage in the turnover battle after the Saints ceded control of the ball on downs twice in addition to their three first half interceptions. Utica outgained the Saints offense 399 to 367 on the day, and the Pioneers held the advantage on third downs as Utica went 6-of-14 while holding the Saints to 3-of-13. Rover Jon Nish paced the Utica defense with eleven tackles as the Pioneers capped the Saints to just 109 yards rushing. On offense, quarterback Logan Wilcox (Utica, NY/Proctor) threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns.

Lifting The Lid: With Saturday's win, The Pioneers are now 15-4 in season openers. They have now won eleven straight home openers dating back to 2009. Head Coach Blaise Faggiano improved to 11-1 in home openers as a head coach.

Defend Gaetano: The Utica College football program has an established tradition of success at home in recent years. The Pioneers have finished at a .500 record or above in each of the last five seasons when playing at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.

On The Line: Utica is searching for its second straight 2-0 start, and its third in the last four years. The Pioneers opened last year with wins over St. Lawrence and the Catholic University of America on their way to a 7-4 record and a bowl win. In all three seasons that Utica has attended the postseason, a 2-0 start has been part of the team's season.

Player of the Week: Kicking specialist Maki Medici (Watervliet, NY/Shaker) was named the Empire 8 Conference Special Teams Player of the Week on Monday. Medici handled the field goal kicking and punting chores for Utica on Saturday. As a kicker, he made both of his field goal attempts from 24 and 34 yards while also drilling four point after attempts through the uprights. As a punter, Medici was an instrumental part of entirely negating the Saints punt return unit. He punted five times at an average of 42.20 yards for the evening, and sported a long of 52 yards. Three of his five punts were fair caught, and he aided the coverage with the rest as the Saints did not sport a single punt return yard in the contest.
 
Keeping Count: The 40 points scored by Utica during week one was the third best point total among Empire 8 Conference teams this week. Utica's fourteen points allowed ranked fifth.  The Pioneers were third in the Empire 8 conference last season in scoring offense at 32.7 points per game, and fourth in scoring defense at 22.7 points allowed per matchup.

Offensive Opus: The Pioneers finished week one third in the Empire 8 conference in total offense at 399 yards of total offense. Utica had the fourth best passing total in the conference at 203 yards, and were an impressive second among Empire 8 teams in rushing with 196 rushing yards to trail only Alfred University in that category.

The Wilcox Files: Sophomore quarterback Logan Wilcox (Utica, NY/Proctor) opened with an 11-for-26, 203 yard, two touchdown performance in the season opener on Saturday. The sophomore signal caller totaled the second most yards by an E8 quarterback in week one. He threw two touchdowns and did not throw an interception during the game. Wilcox has now gone three straight games without an interception and has attempted 111 passes without throwing a pick dating back to last season. His last interception came against Buffalo State in Week 10 last year. Saturday's game was Wilcox's fourth straight with multiple passing touchdowns, and was his eighth in eleven career appearances.  Last season, the Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Year set school freshman records in passing yards (2,725), passing touchdowns (23), passes completed, and passes attempted. He tied the single season school-record for passes attempted. He also set the school record for passing yards in a game with 467 in the bowl game against Ithaca, and has the school record for longest completion at 81 yards. He was 24th in the nation in total passing yards, 41st in passing touchdowns, and 17th in passing yards per game.

On The Ground: As expected, Utica utilized a committee approach on Saturday en route to 196 net rushing yards. Brad Dougherty (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) was listed as the starter and received the greatest workload with thirteen carries for 63 yards and his second career rushing touchdown on Saturday. Tim Hogan (Glen Cove, NY/Glen Cove) netted 51 yards on five carries, and fellow veteran back Lamont McGriff (Yonkers, NY/Iona Prep) rushed for 34 yards on eight carries. Newcomer Jamarious Morgan (Utica, NY/Thomas R. Proctor) carried the ball three times for 41 yards.

Miller Time: Wide Receiver Peyton Miller (Chemung, NY/Waverly) finished with four catches for 55 yards and a second half touchdown on Saturday night. The game was his fourteenth straight with multiple catches, and he has caught a touchdown in three of his last four appearances. The 2018 first team All-Conference selection  had 987 receiving yards in ten games to rank second for a single season in school history, and he set a new school record with 7.9 receptions per game, which was also fourteenth in the nation. He caught six touchdown passes.

The Great State Of Nate: Wide Receiver Nate Palmer (Verona, NY/Vernon Verona Sherrill) has established a tendency to come up big in the early stages of home openers for the Pioneers. After catching an 18 yard strike from Wilcox for his first career touchdown in last year's home opener against Catholic, Palmer notched another score during the first quarter of the 2019 home opener. Less than five minutes in, Palmer was found wide open down the left side for a 49 yard touchdown. Palmer now has three career receiving touchdowns.

Tip Your Cap to the Big Men: The Pioneers' offensive line played a huge role in the win Saturday. They kept quarterback Logan Wilcox (Utica, NY/Proctor) off the ground, while also paving the way for the second best Empire 8 conference rushing performance in week one. The offensive line did not allow a sack. That unit is led by starters Michael Carr-Johnson (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech), Ryan McCormac (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford), Ben Widas, Matthew Nell (Vernon, NY/Vernon Verona Sherrill), and Nick Badalamente (Scranton, PA/Abington Heights).

First Down Breakdown: The Pioneers were well balanced in moving the chains on Saturday evening. On a total of sixteen first downs converted, the Pioneers got eight of them on the ground, and another eight through the air. The Pioneers delivered the fourth best third down conversion percentage in the conference for week one at 42.9 percent. They did not attempt a fourth down conversion all night.

The Penalty Picture: Utica was positioned much better when it came to penalty flags and yardage this year against St. Lawrence than they were a season ago. After getting saddled with 275 penalty yards in that matchup last year, the Pioneers were flagged for just 46 total yards on Saturday night.

Get Out, and Stay Out: Utica's success at keeping opponents out of the endzone with the running game has continued to start the 2019 season. The Pioneers did not allow a rushing touchdown to the Saints on Saturday night to stretch their streak to fourth straight game without conceding a touchdown via the ground game. Utica only allowed six rushing touchdowns for the entire season last year, and those touchdowns all came in four of the team's eleven games. Utica was a perfect 7-0 in the games where they did not allow their opponents to score a rushing touchdown last year.

The Defensive Breakdown: Utica allowed 367 yards of total offense on Saturday to rank sixth coming out of the opening week in the Empire 8 conference. They were sixth against the run at a meager 109 yards allowed, and sixth against the pass at 258 yards allowed.

Here's Johnny: Rover John Nish (Canastota, NY/Oneida) was exceptional on Saturday evening. Nish filled in the role vacated by graduated senior Dehstin Smart (Paterson, NJ/Hackensack), and he proved to be just as sure a tackler as his predecessor. Nish had a team-best eleven tackles, and ten of those stops were credited as solo stops. He also added three tackles for loss and a sack.

Ring The Belle: With his two interceptions on Saturday, Elijah Belle (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield) now has six interceptions for his career. That moves him into a tie for fifth all-time alongside Lazarus Morgan, Anthony Bierria-Anderson, and active teammate Anthony Beaubrun (West Hempstead, NY/West Hempstead). He has now returned two interceptions for touchdowns in his career to tie for the most in school history, and becomes just the second player in program history to run back two interceptions for touchdowns in a Pioneer uniform after alumnus Rob Alexander.

Pitching In On Defense: Other top performers on Saturday for the Pioneer defense included linebacker Kwasi Addo (Menands, NY/Shaker) with seven tackles, safety Mark Taylor (Buffalo, NY/Kenmore West) with six tackles and two pass breakups, and cornerback Robert Diaz-Judson (Rochester, NY/Irondequoit) had an impressive game with five tackles and a pass breakup in just the second game he has appeared in during his career.

A Plethora of Picks: Saturday marked the second straight game in which Utica has picked off three passes, and also returned two of them for touchdowns. On Saturday, Elijah Belle (Plainfield, NJ/Plainfield) has an interception return touchdown in back-to-back games, while Marquis Simpson (Middle Island, NY/Longwood) had his first collegiate interception on Saturday, which he also ran back for a score. Kwasi Addo (Menands, NY/Shaker) had two picks in last year's bowl game to comprise Utica's run of six picks in the last two games, and he ran one back for a vitally important score to lift Utica to its first postseason win last year. The Pioneers have recorded an interception in six straight games. The last time they did not have a pick was in a loss to Morrisville State on October 13th, 2018. Last season, the defense set a new school single-season record for interceptions with eighteen, while returning a school-record five of them for touchdowns and piling up a school-best 344 return yards along the way for the season. They were sixteenth in the nation in team interceptions and tied for third nationally in interception return touchdowns and defensive touchdowns.

Non-Conference Success: In eleven seasons under Faggiano, the Pioneers are 27-12 in non-conference play.

The Search for 75: Utica's win on Saturday was the 73rd in the history of the program. The Pioneers could presumably reach the 75 win mark as a team by the end of the month with wins over Buffalo State and RPI.
 
2018 Season In A Flash: The Pioneers finished the 2018 season with a record of 7-4. It was a historic campaign as the Pioneers tied their program best for wins in a season, and took it one step further with the first postseason win in school history, a 44-42 win over Ithaca in the ECAC Scotty Whitelaw Bowl game. Defensive lineman Keanu Heedram (Rochester, NY/Rush-Henrietta) was named a D3Football.com All-Region selection to lead the defense, and freshman quarterback Logan Wilcox (Utica, NY/Proctor)  was named the Empire 8 Conference Rookie of the Year on offense. Running back Malcolm Stowe (Coram, NY/Longwood) became the first back in school history to crack 1,000 rushing yards in a single season, and also became the team's all-time career leader in rushing yards. Slot receiver Peyton Miller (Chemung, NY/Waverly) led the conference with 987 receiving yards in just his first full season at the position. The linebacking corps led the team in tackles, with Antonio Scala's (Coram, NY/Longwood) 93 total stops setting the pace. A school record thirteen players were named All-Conference. Highlights of the regular season include wins over St. Lawrence, Catholic, St. John Fisher, Alfred, Hartwick, and Buffalo State, and a nail biting thriller against nationally-ranked RPI that went into overtime.

About Buffalo State: The Bengals are in their first season under new head coach Christian Ozolins. They are 0-1 after taking a week one loss to St. John Fisher College by a 23-6 score at Coyer Field. The Bengals were outgained 336-236 in the game. They passed for 183 yards and only rushed for a meager 53 yards in week one. St. John Fisher intercepted debuting starting quarterback Zak Ciezki three times as the rookie Bengal signal caller finished 15-of-29 for 183 yards and a touchdown. Ciezki was a three year guard on the Buffalo State basketball team before deciding to come out for the football team this season. Top receiving target Jordan Evert, an Empire 8 honorable mention pick, had eight catches for 101 yards. Running back Martin Bailey carried the ball fifteen times for 41 yards. Anthony Wasiyo had thirteen tackles for the Bengals. Buffalo State finished with a record of 1-9 in 2018, and they were 1-6 in the Empire 8 conference in the final season under longtime head coach Jerry Boyes.

On The Road Again: The Pioneers hit the road for their next outing as they meet Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the lights at the ECAV Stadium in Troy, NY. Kickoff for the non-conference game is set for 6 p.m.