The St. John Fisher College football team placed 18 players on the Empire 8 All-Conference Teams, including senior
Andy Episcopo, who was named as the Empire 8’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Senior
Brad Carlton was named the College’s Sportsman of the Year representative as well as an Honorable Mention recipient for his role as an all-purpose player. Also cited as Honorable Mention recipients were wide receiver
Paul Deckard and linebacker
Brenden Moore.
Fisher finished the 2009 football season with a 7-3 overall record after winning the ECAC Division III Championship Northwest Bowl. The Cardinals, who were crowned as the Empire 8 Conference Co-Champions for the fourth time in the last six years, made their seventh straight appearance in the postseason and enjoyed their eighth consecutive season with a winning record.
Episcopo led Fisher on the year with 97 tackles (30 more than anyone else on the team) and finished his four-year career with 199 career stops. The linebacker was a leader in many Empire 8 categories including second in forced fumbles (3), second in tackles per game (9.7) and fourth in tackles for a loss (13). Episcopo also finished the year with two sacks.
Sheridan finished his career with 90 tackles, 50 of which came in the 2009 season. The defensive back had five career interceptions, four coming in 2009 which tied him for second in the Empire 8. Sheridan was also tied for second in the Empire 8 in passes defended (11).
Vickers finished his career with 64 tackles and 8.5 sacks. The defensive end had six of those sacks this year, tying him for third in the conference, while leading his team. He also led the Cardinals with 12 tackles for losses.
Soehner, Colombo, Lowney and Balcerzak led the offensive line all season long. As a team, Fisher averaged 413.8 yards of offense and 34.6 points per game. Soehner, Colombo and Balcerzak each started all 10 games, while Lowney started in seven games at center and appeared in eight contests.
Zemaitis, a freshman running back, played in seven games for Fisher and finished third-best in scoring for the conference, averaging 10.3 points per game on 12 touchdowns. He averaged a team-best 5.5 yards per carry and rushing for 502 yards on 92 carries.
Zemaitis also set the Fisher single-game record with five rushing touchdowns in Fisher’s win over Ithaca College.
Fisher’s quarterback Bailey started in all ten games for Fisher and led the conference in both passing yards per game (254.4) and total offense (268.9). The junior passed for 2,546 yards on 197-for-315 passing with 21 touchdowns. For his career, Bailey became just the second player in Fisher history to go over 5,000 career passing yards.
On the defensive line, Sawyer finished the year with five sacks which tied him for fifth in the Empire 8, while Macey, a junior tackle, registered 20 stops and helped hold the opponents to just 3.0 yards per rush.
Krajacic, a senior linebacker, ranked third on the team in tackles with 63 and also record one interception.
Bliss, a senior cornerback, finished the season with three interceptions which tied him for third-best in the conference. Vosburgh, a sophomore safety, finished the season with 66 tackles and two interceptions, including one at the goal-line in the ECAC Division III Northwest Championship Bowl game vs. Cortland to help preserve a lead and eventually seal the win. In that game, the defensive back also forced a fumble, placing him first in the conference with four.
Carlton, the starting running back, finished first on the team in all-purpose yards (937) which placed him in the top ten for the conference. He led Fisher in scoring with 14 touchdowns, while also leading the team with 536 rushing yards and 45 receptions for 421 yards.
Deckard finished his career with seven touchdowns, including five this season. The wide receiver led Fisher in receiving yards with 509, while ranking second on the team with 41 receptions.
Moore played in just six games due to injury but was able to record 49 tackles, an interception and a sack.