PITTSFORD, NY – The Alfred University football team lost its regular-season finale Saturday afternoon, falling at St. John Fisher, 23-9.
 
AU couldn't get its offense untracked, finishing the game with 218 yards, with more than half of that coming in the fourth quarter as the Saxons tried to come back from a two-touchdown deficit. With the loss, Alfred falls to 7-3 overall and finishes third in the final Empire 8 Conference standings with a 5-3 league mark.
 
Fisher improved to 7-3 overall and, with a 6-2 E8 mark, finished tied with Cortland for the conference title. Cortland, an 11-8 winner at Ithaca Saturday, gets the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs by virtue of a win over Fisher earlier in the year.
 
Fisher took an early 6-0 lead with a James Chambers 1-yard touchdown run and failed PAT with 6:15 left in the first quarter. Alfred answered, after an interception by AU sophomore cornerback Jared Watkins (Buffalo, NY/Cleveland Hill) 1:44 into the second quarter. Watkins picked a Matt Naton pass off nest the AU 20-yard line and returned the interception to the AU 47. The Saxons drove 53 yards in 11 plays, with junior quarterback Tyler Johnson (East Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa) tossing a 10-yard TD pass to junior wide receiver Brendan Buisch (Hornell, NY/Hornell) with 7:05 left in the half to give AU a 7-6 lead.
 
Fisher went back ahead on its next possession, starting its drive at the Alfred 36-yard line after a short kickoff. Seven plays later, the Cardinals scored on a seven-yard Chambers run to take the lead for good, at 13-7, with 3:08 left in the half.
 
The Cardinals increased their lead to 20-7 on a touchdown with a seven-play 51-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard Steven Strumolo TD run. A 27-yard Taylor Byrne field goal with 4:17 left in the fourth made it 23-7. The game's final scoring came on a safety with 1:10 left when the Fisher punter intentionally ran out of the endzone. On Alfred's previous drive, the Saxons drove to the Fisher 9-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
 
Johnson passed for 141 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions and also ran for a team-high 58 yards as the Saxons were held to 77 rushing yards. Buisch caught four passes for 75 yards and a score and junior wideout Maleke Fuentes (Olean, NY/Olean) caught three of 28.
 
Naton threw for 144 yards and was intercepted once. Chambers ran for 152 yards and a pair of TDs and Strumolo ran for 72 and a touchdown as the Cardinals rushed for 207 yards as a team. Bobby Campese caught seven passes for 58 yards and Nathan Nigolian three for 43 yards.
 
AU senior middle linebacker Corry Wallace (Mastic Beach, NY/Longwood), playing in his final Empire 8 contest, had a monster game for the Saxons, racking up 18 tackles (11 solo, three for loss) and forcing a fumble. Wallace came into the contest with 292 career tackles and now has 310.
 
Senior linebacker Holden Whitehead (Mill Hale, PA/Central Mountain) and senior free safety Mike Berardi (Wellsville, NY/Wellsville) (pass breakup) each had 11 tackles, while junior cornerback Shyheim Wingate (Jamaica, NY/Holy Cross) and sophomore linebacker A.J. Licata (Lake View, NY/Frontier) each had seven.
 
Brandon Miller had 10 tackles (two for loss) and Brandon Fuentes has two interceptions to lead the Fisher defensive effort.
 
The Saxons will now await word on whether they will play in an ECAC bowl game. The ECAC, which will host six ECAC games next weekend at Central Connecticut State University, will announce its bowl bids on Monday.