Ryan Gates

The Niagara Purple Eagles’ Men’s hockey team hosted the Canisius Golden Griffiths in the first matchup between the Atlantic Hockey League rivals this season. The teams battled throughout the game to a 1-1 tie.

The first period proved that special teams would play a big part in each teams performance. A total of 5 penalties were taken by the teams and both goals in the period were influenced by special teams. Canisius’ Dan Jessey would begin his personal march to the sin bin taking the first penalty of the game only a minute and 14 seconds into the first stanza. However, Canisius would be the team to benefit from the man disadvantage. Matthew Grazen blocked a slap shot from the point which sent him and teammate Torrey Lindsay on a 2 on 1 break. Lindsay would bury his shot blocker side on Niagara goaltender, Cody Campbell to give Canisius the 1-0 lead. It was the second shorthanded goal of Lindsay’s season, and his third total. The teams continued to cancel each other out even strength until Dan Jessey took his second penalty of ther game to give the Purple Eagles their second oppurtunity with the powerplay. Niagara would tie the game just three minutes later as Ryan Rashid’s shot from the halfwall was tipped past Dan Morrison by Giancarlo Iuorio. The teams would play the rest of the period scoreless as they entered the lockerroom tied at 1 a piece.

The second period was incredibly similar to the first. Both teams combined for a total of 5 penalties (3 for Canisius, 2 for Niagara). However neither team managed to find the twine in the period. Going into the final period the teams were tied 1-1. Niagara outshot Canisius 13-10 in the second for a two period total of 23 for for Niagara and 16 for Canisius.

In the third and final period each teams exchanged chances. Canisius had a 5-3 two man advantage for 50 seconds halfway through the final frame. However, the abysmal showing for Canisius on the powerplay continued. Coming into the game Canisius was operating at 7.4% among the worst in Divison 1 hockey. The team did not help themselves squandering away 5 powerplay oppurtunities. After an entertaining period, Niagara and Canisius held each other scoreless and we on their way to a 5 minute sudden death overtime period.

It was the first time that the two teams faced each other in overtime since Niagara won 6-5 last November at Canisius. The teams traded chances, and Niagara nearly won the game in the final 30 seconds of the game but failed to convert a plethora of chances to finish the matchup. The game ended in a 1-1 tie. It is only the second time in series history that Canisius and Niagara tied, the other coming in 2004. The goalies for each team proved to be the stars of the game allowing only 1 goal a piece. Cody Campbell made 21 saves for the Purple Eagles, and Dan Morrison was huge for the Golden Griffiths making 32 saves, and keeping his team in the game. Both teams go back to action this weekend. Canisius hosts 12^th ranked Lake Superior State, and Niagara travels to face #18 Cornell.

The University at Buffalo Bulls (2-6, 1-3) lost their first MAC game at home this season to Northern Illinois (5-3, 3-1) at UB Stadium on Saturday afternoon, 31-24. The Bulls kept it close in front of the hometown crowd of 13,370 throughout the first half, with the score being tied at 10 deep into the second quarter.

The Huskies would score the next 21 points of the game, but the Bulls would show some resilience at home. They put up 20 unanswered points on a career day by Chazz Anderson (35 completions, 401 yards). They had the opportunity to tie the game with 14 seconds remaining in the game, but Peter Fardon would miss the point after attempt. The Bulls lost many opportunities to score throughout the game as Anderson threw two interceptions, and the team lost three fumbles.

Click below to read all of the big plays and highlights from the game.

Buffalo has won the coin toss, and will receive the football first.

FIRST QUARTER:

13:15 NIU 0, UB 0- UB commits two penalties early, and they go three and out on their first drive. PUNT to the Northern Illinois 40 yard line.

12:03 NIU 0, UB 0- Northern Illinois unable to move the ball, they go three and out as well. PUNT to the Buffalo 17 yard line, FAIR CATCH by Ed Young is MUFFED, recovered by Northern Illinois at the Buffalo 19.

11:11 NIU 0, UB 0- Northern Illinois still unable to gain any ground on the Bulls, FIELD GOAL attempt BLOCKED by Colby Way to keep the game tied at zero.

7:27 – UB moves the ball into Northern Illinois territory, Branden Oliver FUMBLES. Recovered by NIU’s Nabal Jefferson. Second fumble of the game for the Bulls.

6:57 NIU 0, UB 0- NIU QB Chandler Harnish 30 yard completion to Nathan Palmer to the Buffalo 24 yard line and into UB territory.

5:26 NIU 3, UB 0 - NIU stalls at the Buffalo 24 yard line. 40 yard FIELD GOAL attempt by Mathew Sims is GOOD.

3:25 NIU 3, UB 0- UB moving the ball, 27 yard pass from Chazz Anderson to Alex Neutz to the Northern Illinois 14 yard line.

1:16 NIU 3, UB 3- Northern Illinois defense holds the Bulls in the red zone. 31 yard FIELD GOAL attempt by Peter Fardon is GOOD.

SECOND QUARTER:

13:10 NIU 3, UB 3- UB moving the ball well again, but unable to capitalize from within the red zone. 38 yard FIELD GOAL attempt by Peter Fardon is SHORT, score remains tied.

5:50 NIU 10, UB 3- Northern Illinois moves the ball down the field and is stopped at the Buffalo 1 yard line. Head coach Dave Doeren chooses to keep his offense on the field. Rush up the middle by Jasmin Hopkins for one yard TOUCHDOWN. Extra point by Mathew Sims is GOOD. NIU burned a lot of clock on that drive, as it was 18 plays for 79 yards and 7 minutes, 25 seconds.

5:25 NIU 10, UB 3- UB answers on their first play of the drive with a pass from Chazz Anderson to Alex Neutz for 27 yards and into Northern Illinois territory.

3:21 NIU 10, UB 10- Chazz Anderson 3 yard QB keeper into the end zone for a UB TOUCHDOWN. Extra point by Peter Fardon is GOOD. A quick response and a good sign for the Buffalo offense. They moved the ball 69 yards on 7 plays in only 2 minutes and 18 seconds to tie the game.

0:37 NIU 17, UB 10- Chandler Harnish runs the two minute offense well, and ends up in the end zone on a 6 yard keeper for a TOUCHDOWN. Extra point by Mathew Sims is GOOD. The field is opening up for both offenses before halftime, and that is a tough score to give up for UB after coming back to tie the game before halftime.

:00 NIU 17, UB 10- UB moves the ball well in their final drive of the half, but ran out of time. The final play of the half was a 23 yard pass from Chazz Anderson to Branden Oliver that ended up at the UNI 22 yard line as the clock expired. END OF THE HALF.

THIRD QUARTER:

14:45 NIU 17, UB 10- UNI comes out and throws on the first play of the half, as Chandler Harnish connects with Perez Ashford on a 39 yard hook up.

14:15 NIU 24, UB 10- Jasmin Hopkins walks into the end zone for his second TOUCHDOWN of the day on a 12 yard run. Extra point by Mathew Sims is GOOD. UB let them march down the field in just 42 seconds, this does not bode well for the Bulls as the second half begins.

12:08 NIU 24, UB 10- Chazz Anderson pass on 3rd and 1 is INTERCEPTED by Dechane Durante. Northern Illinois takes over at their own 20 yard line. Buffalo tried to get tricky and ran a flee-flicker, when they probably should have just ran the ball. A bad interception with NIU moving the ball like they have been.

11:17 NIU 24, UB 10- Two plays into the ensuing drive, veteran defensive lineman Steven Means gets injured (appeared to be a stinger) and stays down for nearly five minutes before walking off the field under his own power. Buffalo forces fourth down on the following play. He is having precautionary neck x-rays, return is doubtful.

10:53 NIU 24, UB 10- Northern Illinois PUNTS the ball to the Buffalo 40, ball is MUFFED by Cortney Lester, recovered by Northern Illinois at the 38. This is the third fumble lost by Buffalo on the day.

8:49 NIU 31, UB 10- The Huskies capitalize on yet another UB error just five plays later when Jasmin Hopkins got his second TOUCHDOWN of the day from the one yard line. Mathew Sims extra point is GOOD.

0:53 NIU 31, UB 10- Since the game began getting out of hand with the touchdown earlier, not a whole lot has happened. The defenses have stepped up, and neither team has been able to move the ball. UB’s third punt returner of the day, Devon Hughes, receives a punt at the 50 yard line to begin another Bulls drive.

FOURTH QUARTER:

14:49 NIU 31, UB 10- UB goes for it on fourth down. Chazz Anderson is pressured out of the pocket and COMPLETES a pass to Ed Young for 18 yards to the Northern Illinois 26 yard line. FIRST DOWN Bulls.

12:38 NIU 31, UB 17- UB once again went for it on fourth down from the 5 yard line, and this time Anderson found Alex Neutz in the end zone for a TOUCHDOWN to put Buffalo back in the game. Extra point by Peter Fardon is GOOD.

7:49 NIU 31, UB 17- UB head coach Jeff Quinn asks his team to go for it on fourth down for the third time this quarter. On fourth and about 1, Anderson scrambles up the middle from the shotgun for a gain of 7 yards, and UB once again converts on fourth down.

6:38 NIU 31, UB 17- Chazz Anderson pass INTERCEPTED by NIU’s Rashaan Melvin. Northern Illinois takes over at their own 17 yard line. This is Anderson’s second interception of the day.

5:13 NIU 31, UB 17- NIU goes three and out by UB, and PUNTS to the UB 45 yard line. FAIR CATCH by Devon Hughes.

4:14 NIU 31, UB 24- Anderson finds Marcus Rivers for a 15 yard TOUCHDOWN on a four play scoring drive. Extra point by Peter Fardon is GOOD to put the Bulls within one score.

2:49 NIU 31, UB 24- NIU is once again held to three and out. Ryan Neir PUNTS to the Buffalo 13 yard line, FAIR CATCH by Devon Hughes. It’s time for Buffalo to run the two minute drill to try and tie this game.

1:10 NIU 31, UB 24- Fourth down conversion time on 4th and 10, and once again UB does it. Anderson COMPLETES a pass to Neutz for a 16 yard gain to the NIU 28 yard line. This is the fourth time that UB has converted on fourth down this quarter. Chazz Anderson now has 401 yards passing on the day, only the second QB in Division I-A history to accomplish this feat.

0:14 NIU 31, UB 30- Chazz Anderson finds Ed Young for a three yard TOUCHDOWN on a fourteen play, 88 yard drive in 2 minutes and 35 seconds. Extra point by Peter Fardon is NO GOOD, he hooked it left.

0:13 NIU 31, UB 30- Onside kick RECOVERED by Northern Illinois. That will do it from UB Stadium in Buffalo.

After losing three straight, the University of Buffalo Bulls hosted a MAC rival in the Ohio University Bobcats on Saturday afternoon. The Bobcats entered the contest riding high off their first MAC win of the year against Kent State, while the Bulls returned home after a tail whipping against Tennessee last weekend.

The game was highly competitive with three different lead changes, and many ties throughout the game. When it was all said and done, UB had their first MAC win of the year, 38-37.

The Bulls (2-4, 1-1) got off to a fast start. On just their second drive of the game, they moved the ball 60 yards, culminating with a 12 yard touchdown run by Branden Oliver to give them a 7-0 lead. It would not take long for the Bobcats (4-2, 1-1) to answer, as Donte Harden would return the ball 67 yards on the next play, and he would eventually score on a 13 yard QB option three plays later to even the score at 7-7.

In the 2011 season home opener for the University at Buffalo Bulls, they faced a fellow State University of New York member, Stony Brook. After scoring first in the game the Bulls opened up the offense beating the Seawolves 35-7.

The Stony Brook Seawolves entered the game coming off of a near-upset of UTEP where they lost in overtime to the Miners. Buffalo was coming off a loss as well, albeit not as close of a loss. They Bulls were beaten soundly on the road by Pittsburgh, 35-16.

This was the first meeting for these two schools and the third straight year that the Bulls have hosted an FCS team.

A total of 21,993, the seventh largest crowd in UB football history showed up to watch the game and provide their hometown a boost.

The Bulls opened the game with all the fire to be expected in a home-opening game. Terrell Jackson opened the game by taking his 67^th career kick return (2^nd most in UB history) 53 yards on to the Stony Brook side of the field. That kick return was brought back 15 yards after a holding call.

With the crowd into the game early, UB struck gold on the first play from scrimmage, a 57 yard touchdown pass from the senior, Chazz Anderson to sophomore Alex Dennison who was wide open down the right side of the field. The catch was Dennison’s first for his career and as such, his first touchdown as well.

Later in the first quarter, Terrell Jackson provided more excitement with a lightning fast 35 yard punt return straight through the middle of the Seawolves’ punt coverage. UB could not convert the good field position into points but their defense remained stellar.

UB was bringing the heat on to quarterbacks Michael Coulter and Kyle Essington, who rotated in throughout the game and with five minutes left in the quarter brought the quarterback down for the third time. Buffalo had also hurried the quarterback once prior to the sack. They would end the game with those three sacks.

The second quarter opened with a statement drive by the Seawolves, marching 92 yards down the field in just over five minutes. The drive was capped off by a pass into the left flat for Jordan Gush who barreled over defenders en route to a 16 yard touchdown.

It was from this point on that the game became the Branden Oliver Show. Oliver, with incredible breakaway speed scored from 22, 49 and 43 yards out. His three touchdowns marked the first time a running back had scored three touchdowns in a game since 2009 at Western Michigan.

The Bulls offense finished with 342 yards, split 177/165 into passing and rushing respectively.

In the third week of the season, the Bulls will enter MAC Conference play with a game at Ball State. Stony Brook will have their home-opener against Brown next week.

The Brockport Golden Eagles started off the game with the ball. The offense was driving down the field until a Joe Scibilia interception would halt the drive on the Bombers side of the field. That would not be his only pick for the game, as Scabilia finished the day 0-0 with 000 yards a touchdown and three interceptions. Alex Hendrickson wasn’t so hot himself rushing for on 00 yards on 0 attempts.  Scabilia would throw his other two interceptions in the second quarter. Fortunately for Brockport, the defense was able to pick up the slack.

The Brockport defense is a complete 360 of what it was just a season ago. Even with the loss of Nate Bull, the former NJAC player of the year, the Brockport defense faired very well against a high power offense in the Bombers. Ross Ragonesi started off the defensive game with an interception from Paul Neumann, which he returned to the Ithaca side of the field. Other contributors in the first half alone were outside linebacker Derrick DeCandia and Doug Larson, who both had a sack and multiple quarterback hurries. The Brockport defensive had great penetration on the line and the secondary, which was a huge concern last season, was able to execute their assignments. The only defensive downsides of the game for Brockport were two long down field passes, one a forty-yard bomb by Paul Neumann and another forty-yard touchdown pass by Jason Hendel.

Brockport would go into the locker room down 13-0, because of a missed extra point, and the one thing on Coach Rocco Salomone’s mind was “execution” by his offense. Coming out of the tunnel second half, executing is exactly what the Brockport offense did. But, the Brockport defense would be the ones to start it off in the second half as rookie cornerback Maurice Brown, intercepted a Paul Neumann pass and took it all the way to pay dirt to bring Brockport within one score of taking the lead. After another defensive stop, it was time for Joe Scabilia to pull it together in the second half. Scabilia was flawless, throwing no interceptions and seemed to be a lot more relaxed in the pocket. Scabilia would be responsible for the second Brockport score as he connected with Jordan Hogan over the middle of the field, who had to break a tackle to complete the 81-yard touchdown pass. Now the Golden Eagles were up by one.

Late in the third, Brockport’s defense had been on the field for a while and Ithaca took advantage of exhausted defense. The Bombers on a 3^rd and goal would pound the ball in, but miss the extra point, to give them the 19-14 lead. With roughly five minutes left in regulation, Brockport was on defense once again, but not for long as Derrick DeCandia had an interception and would run it back to around the Bomber forty. Unfortunately, the Golden Eagles were not about to execute on offense and would turnover on downs after a failed fourth down conversion. Brockport’s defense, with two timeouts, was able to get the ball back with just under two minutes left in play. Joe Scabilia looked phenomenal in the two-minute drill, driving his team down to the Bomber 35-yard line with just five seconds left on the clock. The team watched him throw one more desperation heave towards the endzone that would sail out of bounds to secure the Bombers 19-14 victory.

There is no reason why Brockport should be disappointed with this loss. The team showed great mental toughness and they never once put their head down. You can tell that this team has the talent it has been looking for, but just need to execute better earlier on in the game. There are many good things to come for this Brockport Golden Eagle Football team. If they can play every game the way they played this prolific Ithaca Bomber team, they will see a lot more notches in the win column.

The NFL season is upon us and it’s time to breakdown the league, division-by-division with The Point After crew. We revealed our picks last week on the show and here they are! Feel free to let us know what you think.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Video-Time-Square-street-hockey-during-Hurrican?urn=nhl-wp11277

Out here at Locust Hill County Club for the 3rd day of golf, make sure to keep checking back and stay tuned to 89.1 for live updates from the Wegman’s LPGA Championship.

-(9:48) 7 groups out on the course early for the first day of the weekend. As we speculated earlier yesterday the cut was made at +2. That leaves 78 golfers left in the field vying to take down the #1 player in the world Yani Tseng who leads the tournament with a -8.

-(11:35) Following around Australian, Sarah Kemp a bit, her caddy, Danielle Downing is from Spencerport. Played her collegiate golf at Auburn University, lost her tour card due to injury but the local girl makes an appearance helping out a fellow golfer.

-(1:51) Scoped out the 9th green for well over a half hour, had about 6-7 groups come through and only 1 bogey and 1 birdie through those 12-14 golfers. Hole seems like it could be attacked easier than some other hole locations today. Anna Nordqvist and Mika Miyazato making the biggest splashes on day 3 so far. Nordvist is at -4 (-3 today) and Miyazato -4 (-4 today). Still plenty of golf to be played and again, the leaders take the course at 2:40.

-(5:05) A lot of time spent out on the course watching these amazing golfers at work. A running story throughout the tournament has been the presence of Michelle Wie’s dad and it’s well-known the pressure she is under and I (Gary) have seen it firsthand. Wie is constantly being drilled, coached, and worked before and after her rounds. When I walked by the driving range a couple minutes ago she was hitting balls a solid 2 hours after her round with her dad right there. The price of being a pro.

-(7:06) Day 3 in the books, Yani Tseng another tremendous day (-5) to lead the tournament at -13. Her next nearest competitors are Cindy LaCrosse (-8) and Morgan Pressel (-8). Make sure to stay tuned to 89.1 The Point and especially for the 11 o’clock report for a full recap and full coverage of the final day tomorrow.