To sum up the football team’s season-opening win over Marist on Sept. 5, tight end Andrew Owers ’19 shared his opinion on the team’s offensive and defensive performance. Owers highlighted the impressive, if not dominant, performance from the defense, which stifled Marist throughout the game. He also acknowledged that there was room to improve for the offense, which despite being ultimately responsible for winning the game, still has greater potential it can reach.

The team sought to step up its offensive game and begin a winning streak in the 2015-2016 season when it faced Duquesne at home on Sept. 12, but the Bison lost 26-7.

The Dukes entered Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium with the intent to make our home their own.  They quickly got on the scoreboard with a touchdown pass from Duquesne quarterback Dillon Buechel, who finished with a respectable three scoring passes.

Bison quarterback R. J. Nitti ’17 threw an interception to Duquesne three times, and the Bison failed to reach the end zone through the air. Nitti did reach the end zone on the ground, rushing in for a score midway through the fourth quarter for his already-impressive third rushing touchdown of the season.

Disappointingly, it was the only touchdown the Orange and Blue scored.

Duquesne’s defense was consistently able to stop the home team’s advances, forcing four turnovers, including the aforementioned interceptions. To compound the Bison’s offensive struggles, they were called for eight penalties throughout the game, making it very difficult to establish momentum on either end of the ball.

That is not to say that the defensive unit did not hustle. Clayton Ewell ’16 recorded a career-high 14 tackles, while both Ben Richard ’18 and Doug Whitlock ’18 reached double-digit tackles as well, impressive figures for all three players.

In this case, hustle alone did not pay off.

The Bison will take this loss with them to Ithaca, where they will take on Cornell for their first away match of the season on Sept. 19.