Weekend Victory Would Secure Slot in Playoffs

After a long and testing season, it all comes down to just one game to finish up the regular season, as the Cardinals could clinch the Old Dominion Athletic Conference title with a win over Bridgewater on Saturday.

“I think we can’t grow complacent with what we have done so far this season,” said senior captain Nick Olivero midseason about what needed to be done to reach the playoffs. “We have to be even hungrier and more focused for the next game if we want to have the type of success that we desire.”

The Cardinals drowned Guilford College 49-34 last Saturday. Senior quarterback Keith Ricca passed for over 500 yards and threw five touchdown passes. Read more

Cardinals Soar to Victory

With upwards of 400 CUA alumni in attendance as part of last Saturday’s Homecoming and Reunions Weekend festivities, the Cardinal football team left the crowd on their feet by delivering an incredible performance. In the first home ODAC conference matchup of their season, the Cardinals celebrated a victory over the Washington and Lee Generals, which ended in a 48-29 win for the home team.

The team was led by senior quarterback Keith Ricca and senior defensive-back Nick Olivero. Both had tremendous afternoons, each earning ODAC Player of the Week honors for their efforts and improving the Cards overall record to an intimidating 5-1 (1-1).

Ricca passed for nearly 300 yards on the day, bringing his four-year total to 9,622 career yards, breaking CUA’s 9,469 career passer record that was previously held by his older brother, Kevin Ricca. The younger Ricca threw five touchdowns in Saturday’s win, including a pair of 39-yard connections to senior wide receiver Miles Sabrick — one of which was a perfectly tossed ball to the back of the end zone that hit a diving Sabrick in his outstretched hands.

Ricca ended the day throwing for 287 yards, going 17-26, and also connected with fellow seniors Ryan McManus, Andrew Buis and Pete Mercatanti for touchdowns. Ricca’s showing moved him to the top of the ODAC rankings both in touchdown passes on the season (16) and in passing efficiency (147.9).

The five touchdown passes tied CUA with several individuals for the 11th highest mark in ODAC single-game histories. These numbers helped Ricca receive the honors for ODAC Offensive Player of the Week. Helping Ricca on offense was his running back, senior Greg Brown, who ran for 211 yards, including two touchdowns on 28 carries.

The defense wasn’t too shabby themselves on Saturday afternoon either. Cornerback Nick Olivero had his best game of the season, nabbing two interceptions including one which came with just 3:48 left in the fourth quarter, dashing Washington & Lee’s hope for a comeback and cementing the Cardinals victory. The CUA senior collected nine tackles on the day including four solo takedowns, which helped him secure ODAC Defensive Player of the Week honors. Olivero now leads the ODAC with four interceptions, and he was named to D3Football.com’s Team of the Week for his work against Washington & Lee. Olivero was helped by senior linebacker David Woo, who had a team high of 11 tackles, including 3 ½ tackles for a loss of yardage.

CUA’s 48-29 victory over conference rivals Washington & Lee moved the Cardinals to the number two spot in the ODAC rankings, and marked the second week in a row that the Cardinals high-powered offense has managed to put up 40-plus points in a single game. The team also compiled 538 yards of total offense, the second-most in the ODAC this season. Ricca said this week what the mindset of the team has to be for the remainder of the year. “I think for us to be successful the rest of the year we just need to keep doing what we have been doing… it will be hard for anyone to beat us. At the same time we have four very tough games ahead of us, so we have to take it week by week.” The Cards will return to action at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, on the road against the conference-leading Hampden-Sydney Tigers. From there, the Cardinals will not return to Cardinal Stadium for over a month — facing Emory & Henry on Nov. 1 and Guilford College on Nov. 8 before returning home on Nov. 15 to welcome Bridgewater (Va.) to Washington, D.C. to end the regular season.

Cards Setup For Randolf Macon With Huge Win

 The Cardinals won their third consecutive game last Saturday as they went head-to-head with non-conference opponent McDaniel College. The entire game was dictated by an explosive offense that managed to rack up 31 points, and a solid defense that held McDaniel to just seven points of their own.

As they prepare for their first conference game against Randolph-Macon this weekend, the Cards are confident that they will measure up to their opponent. “We are off to a good start and Randolph-Macon is going to be another tough match-up,” said senior linebacker David Woo. “But we need to just keep playing hard and smart football, and we will be successful again.”

 

On Saturday’s game, the Cards scored first and immediately grasped control of the tempo in the game. Both the offensive and defensive coordinators must have been pleased with an all around team effort that their squad put together. The time possession was not a factor for the Cards because they scored early and often. On the opening kickoff, Senior wide receiver and punt returner Andrew Buis returned the kick 57 yards to give all the offense would need. The first drive of the game lasted a little over a minute with senior running back Greg Brown scoring on a three-yard touchdown run, to put the Cards up 7-0. The next touchdown would come on an even quicker drive lasting just one minute and eight seconds due to a remarkable 76-yard pass from senior quarterback Keith Ricca to senior wide receiver Miles Sabrick.

Although the second quarter did not have as much scoring for the Cards, they did capitalize on some great defense that shut down McDaniel and not allow them to put any points on the board for the first half. Freshman kicker Joseph Owens had the only points of the second quarter with a 37 yard field goal to put the Cards up 17-0 going into halftime.

The second half was much of the same for the home team. The Cards scored once in the third with another pass from Ricca this time to Buis on a 60-yard reception and once more in the forth with Brown reaching the endzone for his second TD of the game bringing the lead to 31-0. The Green Terror did manage to get on to the scoreboard before the game wrapped up with the final score of 31-7, giving the Cards another victory.

The Cardinal defense was led by Senior defensive back Nick Olivero who recorded a total of eight and a half tackles, three on his own. Helping him out on defense was Woo, who also chipped in with four tackles and a sack. Offensively, Ricca threw for 321 yards, completing 21 out of 30 passes, with two touchdowns and an interception and Brown had 46 yards rushing on twelve attempts.

 

 

CUA Hosts Arizona Cardinals: NFL Team Makes DuFour Their Nest to Avoid Flight Home

By John Meehan for The Tower

As it has done for each week of the fall football season since its opening in 1985, the Raymond A. Dufour Athletic Center played host to a gridiron cast of Cardinals for five days worth of practice this week. This week, however, the Cardinals taking the field weren’t from CUA — they were from Arizona.

After suffering a 24-17 loss to the Washington Redskins at nearby FedEx Field in Landover, Md. late on Sunday afternoon, the NFL‘s Arizona Cardinals spent the past week preparing for their next game by training at the DuFour Center. To ensure a closed practice, the fence along the perimeter of the DuFour fields were covered by a blue tarp, and the DuFour center facilities were closed to students during team practice hours for most of the week.

Though the Cardinals opened their season with an impressive 2-0 record after besting two teams while playing in their native western time zone (opening the season with a 23-13 win against the San Francisco 49ers in California, and then besting the Miami Dolphins 31-10 while at home in Arizona), last week’s jet-lagged loss to the Washington Redskins served as a painful reminder that cross country travel has proven disastrous for this Arizona-based franchise. Since 2003, the Cardinals have gone 2-15 while playing games in the Eastern Time zone.

This Sunday, the Arizona Cardinals will square off against the New York Jets at the Meadowlands, and so the decision was made to keep the team on the east coast. “It is really a unique circumstance where we have back-to-back road games on the east coast,” said Mark Dalton, Arizona Cardinals’ vice president of media relations. “Being one of the [NFL] teams that are from so far west, there are inherent challenges every time you travel east. There’s a certain amount of physical stress and recovery time that you have to do whenever you travel across the country, and a big part of our preparation as a team is maintaining a sense of routine and some normalcy. When you put it all together, this was really the best option for us.”

Dalton believes that his team’s stay on the east coast should result in huge dividends in Sunday’s game against the New York Jets. “We came in [to the east coast] last Friday before the Redskins game, and we didn’t have much time to acclimate to the change in time zone or to modify our practice schedule.” The Cardinals spent a full week in Washington before catching a short train ride on Saturday afternoon to New York. The Cardinals look to go into Sunday’s game against the New York Jets well-rested and settled comfortably into their east coast training regimen.

The veterans on the Cardinal football roster seem to share in Dalton’s optimism. “I was talking with [Arizona quarterback, former Super Bowl MVP award-winner, and two-time NFL Most Valuable Player] Kurt Warner yesterday,” Dalton said, “and [Warner] said that he believes the team will feel the benefits most on Thursday, Friday and Saturday — which puts us exactly where we need to be for Sunday’s game.” Dalton noted that their opponents, however, may not be so fortunate. The New York Jets, whose record fell to 1-2 after dropping a Monday night road game to the San Diego Chargers, come into this Sunday’s game both with a shortened week of practice time and with a 6000-mile flight to disrupt their usual schedule. “The Jets will have to battle the same logistics that we’re usually accustomed to facing,” said Dalton. “We’ve spent more time on the east coast this week than they have, which could be a major advantage.”

A second crucial advantage the Arizona Cardinals will have in Sunday’s game is that they have spent the week practicing on the University’s newly renovated football field, which is constructed using a state-of-the-art synthetic material known as “FieldTurf” — a playing surface that is virtually identical to the artificial field the Cardinals will encounter when they face the Jets at Giants Stadium this coming Sunday afternoon.

Dalton said that the Arizona Cardinals rented and made use of all of the DuFour Center’s amenities and were very impressed. “The field is phenomenal, and the facilities are great. Catholic University has been extremely gracious and [University Athletic Director] Mike Allen and his entire staff have absolutely bent over backwards to accommodate us,” said Dalton.

In Allen’s estimation, the Arizona Cardinal’s workout on University premises is a testament to the quality of the newly refurbished DuFour Center facilities — which he said have previously been used by NBA’s Seattle Supersonics basketball team, among others. “[These players] are clearly bigger guys, and I’m pretty sure they worked out using every single weight in our gym.” Allen was “very happy” with the Arizona Cardinals visit to the University, saying that team were “great guests” during their stay. Allen believes that the week’s practices will serve as a powerful recruiting tool in attracting new student athletes to CUA for years to come.

The University football field was resurfaced in 2006 as part of Phase I of the Competitive Edge Campaign for Cardinal Athletics — a comprehensive alumni giving campaign spearheaded by former Athletic Director Bob Talbot, the first phase of which raised more than $1.8 million for the renovation of the University’s athletic facilities. Phase II of the Competitive Edge fundraising campaign — which is currently ongoing — calls for building new men’s and women’s locker rooms, as well as a new reception area that will be used to host fundraising events, alumni gatherings, and information sessions for prospective student athletes.

This week’s practices at the DuFour Center are not the first time that the Arizona Cardinals and Catholic University have crossed paths. University alumnus Michael J. Bidwill, J.D. 1981, is general counsel and president for the Arizona Cardinals organization. He also serves on the NFL’s Business Ventures Committee.

As president of the Cardinals, Bidwill spearheaded the development of a new stadium for the franchise, the University of Phoenix stadium, which opened in 2006 and has been recognized by BuisnessWeek magazine as one of the top 10 athletic facilities in the world. In February of this year, this acclaimed new venue played host to Super Bowl XLII.

Bidwill is one of several University graduates who currently serves in such a high-ranking front office position with a professional sports franchise. Fellow CUA alumnus Martin R. Hurney, B.A. 1993, is the general manager of the Carolina Panthers, and Brian Cashman, B.A. 1989 is the vice president and general manager of the New York Yankees.

Football Picks up Win #2 Over Frank. and Marshall

Football improved to 2-0 on the young season in Saturday’s home opener. The win required a team effort, as the Franklin and Marshall Diplomats presented a strong defense.

Senior linebacker David Woo who had seven tackles, three for a loss and a big sack. He was named ODAC Defensive Player of the Week.

     

Junior punter Thomas Breslin had a terrific day with 2 of his 6 punts being inside the 20 yard line, averaging just over forty three yards per punt and a long one of 62.

Offense was led by Senior running back Greg Brown who had 125 yards rushing while Senior quaterback Keith Ricca threw for 154 yards and two td’s as the Cards defeated Franklin and Marshall 14-7 for the Diplomats first loss of the season.

The Cardinals scored first on a quick drive ending with a 20 yard pass from Ricca to Senior wide reciever Ryan McManus with 3:59 left in the first quarter, one of two receptions McManus had in the game. That play capped a six-play, 69 yard drive that consumed only two minutes. Franklin and Marshall responded with a touchdown of their own early in the second quarter on a seven yard pass from John Harrison to George Eager. However that would be the only time the Diplomats found the end zone.

There was no scoring in the third quarter but the Cards scored early in the fourth quarter with a four-play, 81 yard drive that ended with a 62 yard bomb to senior wide reciever Miles Sabrick who made an acrobatic catch after fighting off the Diplomats defensive back. Senior defensive back Achille Kola led the team in tackles with 7.5 and also had an interception that ended the Diplomats chances of tying the game with a couple of minutes to go.

The Cardinals have their second home game of the season tomorrow afternoon at Cardinal Stadium. They will be hosting McDaniel College and kickoff is at 1 p.m.