CONTACT: Jeff Foley (518) 629-8085 or (518) 373-1262
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Sunday, October 28, 2001
http://www.hvcc.edu
Hudson Valley's Offense Racks Up 491
Yards In Victory Against RPI's JV
Troy, N.Y., October 28, 2001 - Quarterback Dylan Cooper (Saratoga H.S.) threw for two touchdowns and ran for another today to lead Hudson Valley Community College's football team to a 69-21 win against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's JV squad. Due to construction of a minor-league baseball stadium at Hudson Valley, the non-conference game, the last contest of the season for the Vikings, was played at Troy's La Salle Institute.
The Vikings finished the season with a 6-2 overall record and were 4-0 in Northeast Football Conference action. The loss drops RPI's JV to 1-3 overall.
Hudson Valley tallied 491 yards of total offense and nine different players - Cooper, tailback Maceo Clinton (William Floyd H.S.), All-American wide receiver Shawn Miller (Troy H.S.), tight end Anthony Martinez (Colonie H.S.), fullback Tennell Savage (Notre Dame H.S.), fullback Danny Yacoub (Roosevelt H.S.), tailback Cedric Bryant (Rahway H.S., N.J.), tailback Demetrious Starling (North Babylon H.S.) and linebacker Shadee Davis (New Brunswick H.S.) - scored for the Vikings. Miller scored twice, catching a 9-yard pass from Cooper and a 10-yard pass from Justin Kastner (Hudson H.S.). Davis's touchdown, a 43-yard ramble after a fumble recovery, was Hudson Valley's first defensive score of the season.
Audwin Davis (Tuckahoe H.S.) and Lou Funaro (Mechanicville H.S.) each had 12 tackles. Starling led all rushers with 90 yards on seven carries. Cooper completed six of nine passes for 121 yards and no interceptions. Martinez, Miller and Yacoub each had three receptions.
Additionally, placekicker John Butera (Greece Olympia H.S.) was accurate on all nine extra points he attempted. On the season, he connected on 30 of 31 extra-point attempts, easily breaking Hudson Valley's record for PATs in a season (John Taylor made 24 in 1997).
Miller, who is being recruited by several major Division I schools, finished the season with 1,041 all-purpose yards. He had 44 receptions for 632 yards and nine touchdowns this year, and he finished his Hudson Valley career with 77 catches for 1,281 yards and 16 touchdowns, all good for second in the college's history (Hudson Valley began fielding a varsity football team in 1969).
Cooper, who played for the Vikings in 1999 and this season, finished his Hudson Valley career with 20 touchdown passes, which ranks him third in the school's history. Kastner, who wore Hudson Valley's green and white in 2000 and this season, finished with 18 career touchdown tosses. Savage, a 5-foot-5 sophomore who played defense last season, averaged 6.9 yards per carry this season (54 carries for 373 yards), the third-best average in school history.
Hudson Valley's football program was established in 1969. At the time, Hudson Valley was one of only two junior colleges in New York to field a varsity football team. Since then, nearly 300 Hudson Valley football players have earned scholarships to four-year schools and 15 have gone on to play professionally. The Vikings competed in the Coca Cola Bowl in Iowa in 1980. In 1996, Hudson Valley posted an 8-0 record, part of a dominant stretch that included 15 straight victories.
