FB: Ohio Athletic Conference

[skunks_sidekick]

Back from the game....major props to Ithaca for a well-fought game today.  Their QB is the real deal.  His one receiver #8 was a real jekyll/hyde guy.  Would make a great catch, and then drop a ball when he was wide open.

Mount's pass defense needs to get MUCH better as they move on.  Offensively Mount was "good", but not great.  Great effort by Kmic, and Garcon was the most talented player on the field by a MILE.

I know that the Ithaca people said their kicking game was weak...but COME ON!  I saw the guy warming up before the game and he couldn't kick as well as a few kids I had on my son's PeeWee team.  Couldn't they recruit a kid off the soccer team?

The officiating was HORRIBLE!  I think the penalty yardage was something like 15-150.  There was at LEAST three phantom holding calls, and the Mount kid clearly tipped the ball before hitting the punter but they called it any way.  BAD BAD BAD officials.

[capfanforever]

CAP goes down to the number two team in the nation.  Capital will work their way back again.  Hopefully after getting to the playoffs three years in a row will bring a little more depth to their roster.  Coach Collins has made an impact with the Capital Crusaders program.

GO MOUNT.  Bring the title home!

[Tags]

If you want horrible officials, you should have been at the Fisher / Hobart game.

[bushman]

congrats to the Bombers, as they bombed Mt's secondary for most of the game.  However, they could not run the ball and their defense although solid was too slow for Mt's speed esp. garcon.  I thought Mt's offense was slow to start but got going mid way into the first quarter.  IC's QB was impressive as he took some big hits but came back and hit some big third down plays.  This was a tuff opening game for Mt. as opposed to Hope last year.  IC hit the slant passes over the middle all day long.  They were successful against Mt's zone defense and made a lot of long passes up the sidelines.  Mt. adjusted somewhat at half but never really shut down the IC passing schemes.  the officiating was poor at best.   Mt's pass defense needs to improve for next week.  Mt's punter shanked at least two maybe three punts today.  Garcon had apunt return for a TD called back on an illegal block to the back.  Too many holding calls against Mt's O line.  I observed some very obvious holding on IC but they were not called.  refs did not call the game evenly in my opinion.  Speed kills as IC found out today.  Congrats to Garcon who played a geat game today as did Kmic with his usual hard running and quick moves.  TCNJ up next.  GO RAIDERS.

[reality check]

Tough breaks for CAP but they came in the underdog and turned the ball over 5 times in the game.  That doomed them.  

It was clear that they played hard and represented the OAC pretty well.  You just can't turn the ball over like that on the road and against the #1 team in your bracket.

CAP will most definitely be back with lots of talent and great coaching next year.  What they desperately need (and they've seemingly always needed) is a running back.  

[mtfan]

Reality Check
The penalties were a major "thorn in the side" for Mount, as having one TD called back and another drive stopped , along with a roughing the kicker in which it seemed Kostelic tipped the ball on the punt but the official not seeing it that way, gave the Bombers life again to sustain another drive which i beleive they scored on. Mount's penalties kept it closer than it would have came out, but not taking anything away from the Ithaca offense, they played very well, with Juvan(sp) the QB, holding in the pocket and making his reads and passes quite well. The Bomber receivers a few times had passes right to them that they dropped, but the pressure from the Mount D on Juvan was proving to be too much. Not sure why the Mount secondary continued to play too deep in the pass mode, as Juvan hit is short reads over the middle on slants very well and were not picked up quite quick enough by the secondary. Imagine the secondary was playing more to prevent the big paly behind them, but sometimes when you know your LB's and Ends are making the QB go to short reads, you gotta take the gambles from time to time.  Mount's Defense all but totally shut down Donovan out of the backfield very well. A major problem it seems to plague our games are the NCAC officials, not saying that Mount wasn't guilty of some of the calls against them , but MANY MANY and i repeat MANY missed calls were made on the other side of the ball. A late hit out of bounds on Garcon, and some obvious holding calls not made come to mind, as Larry was quite vocal about as well, but guess sometimes you gotta take what you get when it comes to officials. I just know it was a year or two ago when we had the NCAC officials and the same problems surfaced as well!
Would like to acknowledge though Ithaca played a very good game, and made for an interesting game, probably similar to a BW caliber game, but with a little better offense and a bit less on the defensive side. Looking at the Mount Bracket, I would probably not see Ithaca as an #8 seed with the other teams there, but that's IMHO. Congrats on a well fought win for the Raiders, and a great season for the Bombers.

[mtfan]

HScoach
HEy, that spread wasn't bad at all, lol, even though it bit me in the arse! Congrats to Jaypeter on making that pick! Great job on the radio, by both you and Ric even though sitting in the stands and trying to listen to the radio gets to be more and more a challenge with OSU playing at the same time   WAY TO GO RAIDERS and BUCKEYES, what a sweet day!!

[mtfan]

HOW ABOUT CASE WESTERN RESERVE!!!! WOOHOOO another Ohio win today!! WHAT happen to W&J's defense WOW, knew they gave up some points through the season but emphasis here has to be on the words "GAVE UP"  ..hmmmmm

[muc-raider]

I just could NOT BELIEVE the officiating the first half of the Mount-Ithaca game.  It was the worst officiating I have seen in a long time.  Even Mount players were having a difficult time handling the calls.  If there is one bad call on occasion they can handle that, but it was call after call--almost all of them bad.  Not only were the calls bad on Mount Union--there were a lot of calls NOT CALLED on Ithaca--like holding (seveal times) and a late hit on Garcon out of bounds.  Ithaca played a good game--a lot of talent on that team.  But if the officiating were honest and decent the score would not have been nearly as close.  

[mtfan]

CONGRATS CAPITAL CRUSADERS ON A GREAT SEASON, HANDLING ALL THE ADVERSITY AND SETBACKS YOU GUYS HAVE DEALT WITH, YOU CAN HOLD YOUR HEADS UP HIGH IN GETTING TO THE SECOND SEASON AND REPPING THE OAC VERY WELL. Anyone just looking at the final score of this game won't realize that UWW had to earn it from the get go! Congrats again Crusaders!!!

[SJF Fan]

Earlier in the week, I had mentioned that the East would probably be a higher level of competition than MUC was used to facing so far this season as it appeared (by the average score per conference game was 51-1) that the OAC may have been off compared to prior years.

That was a highly criticized posture. 

For those that saw the IC/MUC game.  And based on that IC scored more points on them in one game than the OAC did in all of '07, has your opinion modified at all regarding the East?

[bushman]

As I said earlier, hats off to IC as they played an excellent game against Mt.   They have a very good team and showed that today.  That being said, I never felt that Mt. was in jeopardy of losing today.  Too much offensive talent for IC to deal with.  Mt. will adjust and shore up their pass defense for next week.  that's why they have won so many rings.  The next two weeks will tell how strong the East is this year.  I suspect the scales will tip in your favor. Mt. should prevail but it appears based on IC performance today it won't be easy. 

[TheeBuffaloSabres]

the people at the game say ithica played mount union tough. i cant say for sure not seeing the game, but MUC gained 543 yards of offense while amassing 146 yards in flags. im assuming this tough stuff is coming from ithicas success through the air, seeing as how they couldnt run the ball. so i guess what im asking is did they play them tough, or did they play them close, was the score an indication of how close the game was, or was it closer?

Reality Check: Great call on Cap shutting down UWW rushing attack.

[union89]

Ok fellas, here comes your triple monkeystomp.....TCNJ has NO offense and MUC will be able to move the ball well on thier 'D'....

RPI has a stronger passing game than Ithaca, but stumbled all over itself today.

The matchup of TCNJ vs. MUC is brutal and will result in an azzwhuppin' for the OAC and kill Tags' prediction.

[union89]

As I said earlier, hats off to IC as they played an excellent game against Mt.   They have a very good team and showed that today.  That being said, I never felt that Mt. was in jeopardy of losing today.  Too much offensive talent for IC to deal with.  Mt. will adjust and shore up their pass defense for next week.  that's why they have won so many rings.  The next two weeks will tell how strong the East is this year.  I suspect the scales will tip in your favor. Mt. should prevail but it appears based on IC performance today it won't be easy. 

Not really true Bush....all of us out East said Ithaca would compete with MUC....watch what everyone says about next weeks opponent.....MUC in a cakewalk.....