Morgan Golliver, Sports Editor

After the lopsided 75-14 victory against Hartwick on Nov. 10, Malcolm Stowe surpassed Ryan Burnett, a 2016 alum, as Utica College’s all-time leading rusher in football program’s history. He finished the season with 1,011 rushing yards and 1,899 total career rushing yards to achieve this honor.

Stowe credited Burnett’s style of running from studying his game and “stole what he could” to help him in his own career.

Stowe also goes back to that game against Hartwick where at halftime he needed 33 more yards to surpass Burnett and which sealed the deal in a single run.

After the accomplishment, Stowe gave love to the fans.

“When I got the record, I blew a kiss to the fans that have been there for me and the rest of us for years,” Stowe said.

But the honor of being the all-time leading rusher isn’t Stowe’s biggest accomplishment as the team recently won their first-ever Bowl game in school history against Ithaca with a score of 44-42 on Nov. 17.

Stowe’s mindset going into this game was also no different than any other games as he just needed to go out there and do what he’s best at and let things happen and they did.

“Winning the bowl game was bigger than having all the personal stats I had,” Stowe said. “Everyone on the team had seen many great football players, but it was good for us to have something that had never happened before.”

Stowe also gives credit to running back Coach Matt Rodgers for making the running backs job much easier and for always having everyone prepared. Stowe was injured against Ithaca and Rodgers was able to have guys ready to step up and take his place.

Rodgers commented on what it was like to work with Stowe.

“It has been awesome working with Malcolm over the past few years. I have enjoyed watching him grow into the player that he has become today,” Rodgers said. “For him to come back as a two-year captain and do what he did this season is impressive. He’s a hard worker who brought positive energy every day. His energy is contagious. He’s a great kid who our football program will miss greatly.”

Junior running back Brad Dougherty worked alongside Stowe, where the two had a love/hate relationship.

“It was easy to like Malcolm because he was a good guy to work with. But, it was also easy to hate him, because as a running back myself, I want to take the starting job too,” Dougherty said.

Overall, Dougherty appreciated Stowe because he always motivated the team and he made the game of football exciting to watch.

“It was exciting to watch him run and he had great balance at running back. He also pushed us all to get better and helped us perfect our technique,” Dougherty said.

As Malcolm graduates, this May, Dougherty and the other running backs have big shoes to fill come next season.

“With Malcolm being gone, it’ll be our turn as seniors and it’ll be exciting to have something to strive for [Malcolm’s record],” Dougherty said.

As the team has begun offseason training, it is different for Stowe to not be a part of those workouts, but the time will come later on when school is over when he’ll really miss football.

Stowe also leaves some final words for UC and UC football.

“The future is bright for UC and there’s hope for an E8 real soon,” Stowe said.