Buffalo Football Turns Lights Off on St. John Fisher, 30-7

BUFFALO, New York — A campus-wide power outage just before kickoff could not slow Buffalo State as the Bengals raced out to a 23-0 halftime lead and cruised to a 30-7 homecoming victory over visiting St. John Fisher in an Empire 8 contest Saturday at Coyer Field.

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Buffalo State – 30, St. John Fisher - 7
LOCATION:  Coyer Field, Buffalo, N.Y.
RECORDS:  Buffalo State (2-2/1-2), St. John Fisher (1-3/1-2)

INSIDE THE BENGAL BOX SCORE

• Junior quarterback Aaron Ertel (Depew/Depew) finished 21 of 35 for 223 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions in his first collegiate start.
• Tre Jones (Rochester/Greece-Athena) was the team's leading rusher with 63 yards on 15 carries, and added a 33-yard touchdown reception.
• Dale Stewart (Niagara Falls/Niagara Falls) added 45 yards on just six carries, including a 37-yard scoring run.
• Isaiah Clarke (Brooklyn/Grand Street) was the leading receiver with seven catches for 50 yards.
• Marquis Artis (Amherst/Amherst) led a Bengals' defense that forced three critical turnovers, registering 10 tackles with a sack and a forced fumble.  John Alessandra (Tonawanda/Kenmore East) added nine stops.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Buffalo State dominated on both sides of the ball for most of the game, racing out to a 30-0 lead, before the Cardinals broke the shutout with just 47 seconds remaining. 
• The Bengals outgained Fisher, 384-185, with 75 of the Cardinals yards and three of their 10 first downs coming on their final drive.  Buffalo State also finished 5 of 7 on fourth-down conversions.
• After an early Fisher fumble, the Bengals capitalized on the short field and opened the scoring with a 16-yard strike from Ertel to Had Bryant (Bronx/Cardinal Hayes) for a 6-0 lead.
• Tiquan Simpkins (Syracuse/Henninger) intercepted a pass and returned it 55 yards on the ensuing possession, giving Buffalo State another favorable drive start, which it converted into a 30-yard field goal by Marc Montana (E. Amherst/St. Joe's).
• The Bengals pushed the advantage to 17-0 early in the second quarter with a 37-yard run by Stewart.
• After an interception by Mike Bryan (Staatsburg/FDR), Buffalo State struck again in the final minute of the first half, when Jones caught a slant and took it 33 yards to the end zone on a fourth-and-9.
• Buffalo State opened the second half with a 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 9-yard pass from Ertel to Stephen Johnson (Buffalo/McKinley) to push the lead to 30-0 and then slowed the pace the rest of the way. 
• The Bengals defense allowed just one first down on the Cardinals next three drives before finally conceding points on a 17-yard touchdown catch by Nathan Nigolian from Matt Naton on Fisher's final possession of the game.

FOR THE FOES

• Naton finished 11 of 23 for 120 yards with a touchdown and a pick after reliving injured starter Danny Caton, who was 2 for 3 for 33 yards with an interception.
• Nicolian was the leading receiver with seven grabs for 95 yards.
• The Cardinals were limited to just 32 yards rushing on 23 attempts.
• David Carroll led Fisher with 10 tackles, and Brandon Miller had nine stops and a sack.

NOTEWORTHY

• The power went out on campus just seconds before the opening kickoff and the entire first half was played without a scoreboard, play clocks or a public address system.  When power was restored just before the second-half kickoff, the scoreboard read Buffalo State 23, St. John Fisher 0.

UP NEXT
Buffalo State will host Cortland next Saturday for another home Empire 8 contest at noon.