With an eye on making another trip to the NCAA Championship, St. John Fisher College has released the 2009 football schedule.
Fisher, who won the 2008 ECAC Northeast Championship Bowl last fall and finished 7-4 overall, marking the sixth straight year the Cardinals have advanced to the postseason. This season, the Cardinals will play a rigorous nine-game schedule (more than half of Fisher’s opponents went to the postseason in 2008), with their toughest opponent coming the season-opener.
Fisher will host Mount Union College, winners of six national championships this decade, in the season opener at 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 5th. The two programs have become increasingly familiar in recent history. This will be the fourth meeting between the Cardinals and Purple Raiders in a 26-game span, including the 2006 and 2007 season finales, but this year will mark the first time Mount Union and Fisher will meet at the College’s Growney Stadium.
The Cardinals, who are 26-5 at home since 2004, will continue its three-game home-stand in the following two weeks. Buffalo State College travels to Fisher on September 12th for one of three night games on the 2009 slate, before Fisher hosts Courage Bowl V against University of Rochester at 7 p.m. on September 19th.
Local-rivals Fisher and Rochester have squared off in the Courage Bowl each season since 2005 in a game dedicated to the children of Camp Good Days and Special Times.
Fisher will hit the road for the first time on September 26th and will look to avenge a heartbreaking 58-52 four-overtime loss to Salisbury University last season. After a week off, Fisher travels to Ithaca College to battle the Bombers in what has become a battle for Empire 8 Conference supremacy. The Fisher/Ithaca matchup has played a key role in deciding who receives the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Championship, and marks the beginning of a tough E8 schedule for the Cardinals.
Fisher will return home on October 17th to take on Utica College for a 7 p.m. start and will host Alfred University at 1 p.m. on October 24th in its final home game.
Back-to-back road games against Springfield College and Hartwick College will mark the end of the regular season. Fisher has won each of its last three meetings at Springfield’s Stagg Field since 2005, a streak the Pride will surely look to end in 2009.
Hartwick College, who has defeated Fisher 31-28 each of the last two years, will host the Cardinals on November 14th in the final game of the 2009 regular season.
Ticket information for each of Fisher’s five home games, as well as information regarding television, internet and radio broadcasts, will be announced at a later date.