Saturday, October 07, 2006
EFL Pre Game Press Coverage October 7th
The fresh new look of historic Bleecker Stadium on Saturday Night, becomes the backdrop for what has become a regular occurrence as, the Albany Metro Mallers host an Empire Football League Playoff Game against the Bulldogs for the third straight season. As was the case in 2004, tomorrow's contest is for bragging rights in the EFL’s Southern Division and a berth in this years Empire Football League Championship Game next Saturday at either Watertown, NY or Colchester, VT. EFL teams from those towns are also battling it out on Saturday night, for the Northern Division crown. Last Season the Mallers and Bulldogs met at Bleecker Stadium in the EFL Championship, which was won by the Mallers to cap their undefeated regular and league campaign at 15-0.
This season the visiting Bulldogs, formerly of Orange County have moved about fifteen minutes south of their old Monroe NY home to new high tech digs at Torne Valley, and adopted a new moniker, the Tri-State Bulldogs, have played an EFL only regular season earning second place in the 5 team south, finishing with a 7-3 record, which they followed up with a first round playoff win last week over Broome County to earn the trip to Albany.
The defending champion Albany comes in at 9-1 in league play and 12-2 overall and a remarkable 3 season mark of 39-4 (.907) with solid performances on the offensive side of the ball as the Maller attack features: the league leader in rushing and scoring, by running back Sylvester Cooperwood with 1082 yards on 159 carries, 15 touchdowns and 100 points; along side Cooperwood, Quarterback Scott Lawson, who continues to raise the bar for EFL Quarterbacks, with the top rating for QB’s for the second straight season at 125.9 in league play. Add to the totals Lawson's’ aerial mark of 2227 total yards and 18 scoring strikes. In just his second season, Culture Branch ran away with the 2006 receiving marks leading the league with 48 catches for 1007 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Defensively, the Mallers are a solid unit behind veteran All-Americans Greg Woodward of Colonie and Anthony DeChairo of Albany. Safety Jeff Turman leads the league with 7 interceptions on the season but team defense, not individualism is the key to the Maller Game plan behind Albany stalwarts Lawan Cancer, Brian Northern, Farid Baaklini, Brian “Nitro” Domingo, Terry “Father Time” Cumberbatch, and Ray Russell. Meanwhile, Maller’s defensive depth of Carson Johnson, James Mitchell, Sean Singleton of Rotterdam, & Albany Conquest standout Agean Robinson interject their own quick hard hitting style in to the mix.
Albany’s Defense gave up just 101 points over the 10 game EFL season, a figure that came in just a touch above Tri State who only allowed 96.
Game time at Bleecker Stadium Saturday evening is 7:30 PM
Sports
Saturday, October 7, 2006
Vermont notebook
Published: Saturday, October 7, 2006
The Vermont Ice Storm continue their quest for the Empire Football League championship when they take on the Watertown Red and Black in the second round of the playoffs tonight in Watertown, N.Y.
Vermont (9-2) advanced to the Northern Division championship with a 34-14 win over the Lake City Stars last weekend in Colchester. Quarterback Brad Ruderman led the Ice Storm to their third win of the year over
Ruderman will have to continue his success in the air against a