HARTWICK GAME NOTES
ITHACA, N.Y. — It is difficult to win any football game after allowing the opposition to race out to a 24-0 lead, but during last Saturday's Empire 8 clash at Utica College, that's the situation the Ithaca College Bombers faced after committing four turnovers and being sacked eight times.

Showing poise and resiliency, the Bombers responded by scoring 24 unanswered points in a span of 11:05 bridging the third and fourth quarters to pull even with the Pioneers.

The Bombers even scored first in overtime on senior Max Rottenecker's 30-yard field goal on Ithaca's first possession of overtime, but Utica walked away with a 30-27 win after scoring a touchdown on its overtime possession.

Despite the mistakes, longtime Ithaca head coach Mike Welch was impressed with how his team rallied down the stretch on the road against a good opponent, and he hopes that his student-athletes bounce back from their first loss when Ithaca (3-1, 1-1 Empire 8) travels to conference rival Hartwick College (2-2, 0-2) for a 2 p.m. kickoff at Wright Stadium.

"You use the losses any way you can to make your team better, and I'm confident that our team will respond to the disappointment of that loss the right way," said Welch, Ithaca's Hall of Fame coach who has compiled a 163-68 record (.706 winning percentage) in his 22 years leading the Bombers.

"The fourth quarter was outstanding for all three areas, and the play of our defensive line and linebackers were also outstanding. Max did a great job with our kicking game in terms of kickoffs, and I liked his composure on field goals and extra points. A lot of good things came of that game."

Junior quarterback Wolfgang Shafer finished with 298 yards passing with three touchdowns and four interceptions. Welch said Shafer did a great job shaking off his earlier mistakes as the Ithaca offense came alive in the fourth quarter. Shafer completed two touchdown passes to senior wide receiver Josh Oliver, and one to senior tight end Kyle Hastings.

Sophomore Tristan Brown rushed 16 times for 73 yards in the loss. Defensively, sophomore Kenny Bradley had nine tackles, including two for a loss, and junior Skyler Kauf added seven tackles with a highlight reel interception.

Sophomore Dan Loizos made seven tackles (two for a loss). Senior Malik Morris also had an interception, while classmate Logan Mur­phy added six tackles with a sack and a pass breakup for the Bombers.

After falling behind 17-0 early in the third, the Ithaca defense clamped down and forced Utica into an interception and five punts on its final six possessions while completing the comeback and forcing overtime.

So what lessons does Welch want his student-athletes to take away from their first loss of 2015?

"Certainly the one that sticks out is we need to play better offensively. We didn't run the ball or pass the ball very effectively until we had to towards the end of the game," Welch said.

"We need to come out and play real sound football and make good decisions. We need to get back to putting sustained drives together, and defensively we can't give up the big play. We will be fine if we eliminate the big play defensively and control the football better."

Offensively, senior co-captain Scott Anderson, a three-year starter at left tackle, said the entire offensive line takes responsibility for surrendering eight sacks to Utica. He added the unit has had a great week of practice and is ready to put last week's performance in the past and focus on slowing down a Hartwick defense that has a penchant for rushing the passer.

"We are not proud of the fact we let up eight sacks. We are working on our communication and toughness on the offensive line to make sure that never happens again," Anderson said. "We had an off game but we have been working on our cohesiveness as a unit. We made it a point to watch extra film this week so that we really have a great offensive outing against Hartwick. We're a very close unit and we have learned from our mistakes last week. Losing is never a good thing, but the lessons learned from a loss can be rewarding. That was a wake-up call for us; we need to be great in every game we play."

Hartwick has outscored its opponents by an average margin of 33.5 to 30 in its first four games. The Hawks are allowing their opponents to rush for 235 yards per game while averaging 90 yards rushing per game.

Welch said the Hawks present a challenge with their prolific passing attack, which is currently fourth in all of Division III with 374.5 yards passing per game.

Quarterback John Garcia has two 400-yard passing games this year and ranks seventh in the country with 1,399 passing yards.

The Bombers counter with the 13th best rushing defense in the country and have a top-30 overall defense in Division III. Ithaca's defense is only allowing opponents 73.5 rushing yards per game, and a total of 268 yards per game.

"Hartwick's strength has always been their offense and they always seem to have a quarterback that can really throw the football with some talented wide receivers," Welch said. "Defensively, Hartwick likes to pressure you. It's what they do and they're very active which presents a great challenge for us. We have to have patience with the ball and when we have the opportunities, we have to hit our big plays."

This will be the 24th time that the Bombers and Hawks have met, with Ithaca leading the all-time series 17-6, including a 42-7 triumph Sept. 20, 2014 at Butterfield Stadium. Ithaca has won all but two of the meetings since 2002.