ALFRED — Buffalo State surrendered just 169 yards of total offense and forced two turnovers in a 27-0 non-conference victory over Alfred State today at Pioneer Stadium.
Bart Mazzara (Lockport/Starpoint) paced the Bengals lock-down defense with nine tackles, while Ish Height (Brooklyn/Grand St. Campus) had three stops, a forced fumble and an interception.
On the other side of the ball, reigning Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Week Kyle Hoppy (Orchard Park/Orchard Park) was 20 of 35 passing for 224 yards with a touchdown, but was also intercepted twice. He added a rushing touchdown.
Senior running back Tre Jones (Rochester/Greece-Athena) went over 100 yards for the first time this season with 24 carries for 149 yards and a touchdown, and Had Bryant (Bronx/Cardinal Hayes) led the receiving corps with five catches for 71 yards. The Bengals piled up 463 total yards of offense, including 233 on the ground. The Pioneers had just 104 passing yards and 65 rushing.
After an Alfred State three-and-out to start the game, Buffalo State appeared poised to continue its trend of finding the end zone on its first possession, but Hoppy was picked off by Justin Bocchino on the 12th play of the drive inside the red zone. After a second Pioneer punt, the Bengals opened the scoring with a 30-yard field goal by Marc Montana (E. Amherst/St. Joe’s) in the final minute of the first quarter. Two more Alfred punts led to a pair of second-quarter touchdowns by the Bengals. Hoppy scored the first on a 3-yard run to cap and 11-play 81-yard drive, and then Hoppy found Stephen Johnson (Buffalo/McKinley) for a 10-yard scoring strike. That touchdown came at the end of a 10-play, 70-yard drive that put the Bengals ahead 17-0 at halftime.
Buffalo State put together another long drive to open the second half, but Hoppy was picked off again by Jhamel Cohen. Two possessions later, the Pioneers looked to be in position for its first points of the day when quarterback Dashon Turner connected with Luke Nourse for a 62-yard catch and run, but Height forced a fumble at the Bengals’ 2 yard-line and the ball went through the end zone resulting in a touchback. Buffalo State pushed the lead to 20-0 on the next possession early in the fourth quarter with a 25-yard field goal by Montana. Height produced an interception just four plays later on the Pioneers side of the field, and Jones scored on a 1-yard run to complete the scoring with 9:04 remaining. Alfred did not advance the ball past midfield on either of its final two possessions, and Buffalo State was able to run out the final 2:57 of the game.
Buffalo State will return home for the first of back-to-back games at Coyer Field next Saturday when the Bengals host Utica at noon.
from BuffaloStateAthletics.com via IFTTT
