GAME DAY CENTRAL: Stonehill Hosts #21/25 Bloomsburg to Open 2012 Season

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Stonehill Tailgating Information

Tickets (Available game day at ticket booth):
$7.00 Adults
$4.00 (students & senior citizens)
12 and under are free

Coach's Corner with Robert Talley: Week 1 Preview

The Game: Stonehill College opens its 2012 season by hosting Bloomsburg University, ranked 21st in the d2football.com preseason poll and 25th in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) preseason rankings. The Skyhawks are looking to bounce back from a 4-7 campaign in 2011, but capped the season with two-straight wins to bring some momentum into 2012. The Huskies just missed out on an NCAA Tournament bid after starting the season 8-0 and reaching as high as No. 2 in the country, but dropped two of its final three games.

Media Info: Live video of today's game is available on a pay-per-view basis ($6.99) via www.stonehillskyhawks.tv. Charlie Bergeron, the voice of the Skyhawks, begins his 15th season of broadcasting the action powered by Pack Network. WSHL 91.3 FM will also be broadcasting the game with Craig Riotto and Tim Culverhouse calling the action for the radio broadcast. WHLM-AM 930 is broadcasting the game back to Pennsylvania with Jonathon Schwab and Andy Ulicny calling the action.

Back-to-Back-to-Back: For the third-straight year, Stonehill will celebrate a Presidents' Cup trophy victory during halftime. Stonehill captured its third-straight Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup for the 2011-12 academic year, marking the eighth-straight year the Skyhawks have finished in the top three for the final standings. Stonehill captured its fourth Presidents' Cup overall by accumulating a program-best 189.5 points during the academic year to edge second place Southern Connecticut State University (177.0) by over 12 points. Tonight, NE-10 Commissioner Julie Ruppert will present Stonehill President Rev. Mark T. Cregan, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Brendan Sullivan and all the Skyhawk student-athletes with the Cup at halftime.

Extreme Makeover: "Ace": In conjuction with its release of a new primary athletics logo earlier this summer, Stonehill's mascot "Ace" will make his first appearance of the 2012-13 year after undergoing a complete makeover. "Ace" has been taking part in a diet and workout regimen that would make Jillian Michaels proud and will show off his new look just before kickoff tonight!

Against the Huskies: Tonight marks the first ever meeting between these two programs. The two teams will open the 2013 season in Pennsylvania for the second half of the two year scheduling agreement. Stonehill has never played an active member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) before tonight, but has played current member LIU-Post, a former NE-10 member, 11 times, going 1-10 after winning the last meeting, 12-7, here at W.B. Mason Stadium in 2007.
Skyhawks Going National: Stonehill College and the Northeast-10 announced this summer that its October 18 game against defending NE-10 champion and preseason No. 13 University of New Haven will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network. Kickoff for the contest here at W.B. Mason Stadium is just after 8 p.m. It marks the football team's first national broadcast.

Aye, Aye, Captains: Head Coach Robert Talley named seniors Chris Bolte (OL) and Jareed Gaines (DB) as team captains for the 2012 season after a vote of the returning players last spring. 

Preseason Predictions: Stonehill looks to prove the preseason prognosticators wrong this fall after the Skyhawks were picked seventh in the Northeast-10 Conference preseason coaches poll for the third-straight year. Stonehill received 24 points, five behind Assumption College who was picked sixth. Reigning NE-10 champions University of New Haven was picked first with seven first place votes and 63 points. Southern Connecticut State is picked second, while American International is third as they split the remaining two first place votes. 

For Starters: Stonehill returns 18 starters, nine each on offense and defense, from the 2011 season.  

I Know What You Did This Summer: Senior captain Jareed Gaines (Lumberton, N.J.) competed a summer internship with the Philadelphia Eagles ticket office. He kept a weekly blog, that can be read at www.stonehillskyhawks.com.  

Movin' On Up: Several Stonehill players are marching up Stonehill's career and single-season leader lists in program history: • Junior QB Logan Meyer (Ventura, Calif.) ranks fifth on the career  list with 2,446 passing yards over his two seasons.

• Senior Jermetrius Troy (Mattapan, Mass.) has 1,132 career rushing yards and is 107 yards shy of Anthony Palmer (1996-97) for tenth all-time.

• Troy ranks tenth in program history with 12 career rushing touchdowns, three shy of moving into the top five.

• Senior John Gomes (Hyannis, Mass.) ranks fourth on Stonehill's career receiving list with  1,596 career receiving yards - 178 shy of Kevin Adamson (1989-92) for third all-time.  

Young Line: Stonehill features three sophomores on its defensive line that saw significant time as freshmen. Classmates Brandon Weiss (Freehold, N.J.) and Eric Schneider (Camarillo, Calif.) were both NE-10 All-Rookie team selections, while Lucas Brum (Farmingville, N.Y.) is listed as a starter this week. Weiss led the Skyhawks with 4.0 sacks, followed while Schneider was tied for second with 3.0.

Block Party: Stonehill blocked four kicks last season and have now totaled 11 blocked kicks over the last 23 games.  Senior captain Jareed Gaines (Lumberton, N.J.) has blocked a program-record six kicks over his career with three blocked field goals and three extra points.  

It's a Fake: Stonehill has converted ten fake punts on 11 attempts over the last three seasons (four in 2010).

Leaders of the Pack: For the fourth-straight year, Stonehill College is partnering with Pack Networks to provide live "Packcasts" of all home football and men's and women's basketball games along with other select athletic events. Fans can access the webcasts via www.stonehillskyhawks.tv. Viewers can opt to purchase single-game passes for $6.99 or purchase an "All-Access" pass for $59.99, however Skyhawks Fans who sign up for an All-Access pass before October 1 will receive a $10 discount. All-Access pass members can view all Stonehill webcasts for the entire year, while also gaining access to the archives and be able to watch the webcasts at any time.

Coach's Corner: www.stonehillskyhawks.com, the official website of Stonehill athletics will have weekly interviews with head coach Rob Talley throughout the season. Coach Talley will recap the previous week's game every Tuesday and then there will be a preview of the coming week's game each Thursday or Friday. Each interview is approximately ten minutes long and will give fans an inside look at each game this season. There will also be regular interviews with Skyhawks student-athletes as well. 

Getting Social: Fans and media members of Stonehill athletics now have two social media outlets to get updates on all 20 varsity programs. The department's Facebook page is www.facebook.com/stonehillskyhawks, and you can also follow @SkyhawkTalk on Twitter! 

On Deck: Stonehill opens its Northeast-10 Conference schedule next Saturday when it hosts Southern Connecticut State University here at W.B. Mason Stadium at 1 p.m.