The Pioneers earned a dominating win on Saturday night, winning the home opener against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by a score of 41-14. The Pioneers earned their second straight victory to begin the season, scoring a whopping 90 points over the last two games.
This has come on the back of the new addition at quarterback Tyler Szalkowski. Szalkowski, a former Division I player for UAlbany and Robert Morris, arrived at Utica last spring. He started to “wow” teammates and coaches in spring ball and training camp. From there he was named as the starting quarterback and as one of the four team captains.
Over the first two games of the season, Szalkowski has continued to impress, throwing for 528 yards and four touchdown passes against Washington and Jefferson College and 385 yards and six touchdown passes against RPI. These outstanding performances have allowed him to be named the Empire 8 Offensive Player of the Week in back to back weeks. Those 528 yards were the most ever in a game in program history.
The Pioneers most recent game was the 11th annual Believe Bowl. The Believe Bowl has been a yearly tradition since 2014. The Believe Bowl benefits the Believe 271 Foundation which provides financial support to firefighters and EMTs who suffer from life-threatening illnesses such as cancer.
Brian McQueen, President and Co-founder of the Believe 271 Foundation, has said that the foundation has assisted 109 volunteer firefighters with their fight with cancer.
For the game itself, it was one that saw Utica take control early. Utica scored a touchdown on their opening possession after the defense recovered a fumble. Bryce Palmer caught a 42 yard bomb from Szalkowski to capitalize a four play drive.
Szalkowski would capitalize on this momentum, throwing three more touchdown passes in the first half alone. Tight End Logan Frederick caught a 13 yard touchdown pass and Bryce Palmer caught a 16 yard touchdown pass for his second touchdown. The final touchdown of the half was the most impressive. On the final play of the half, Szalkowski evaded pressure and fired a dart from 16 yards out to find Frederick again as time expired in the half with Utica up 28-0 at the break.
From there, Szalkowski threw two more touchdown passes to Tyshawn Taylor and Lorenzo Velez. From there, Utica earned the hard fought victory.
Something to monitor going forward is that Taylor as well as Antonio Cianfarani both appeared to suffer shoulder injuries in the game which may cause Utica to be short at wide receiver going into their next contest.
Utica (2-0, 0-0 Empire 8) will look to remain undefeated with their toughest game of the season so far where they will travel to play Hobart College on Saturday Sept. 20 for a 1 p.m. game.
