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for October 2011
 Tyler Ennis scored twice as the Buffalo Sabres closed the book on their preseason schedule with a 8-3 win over the Adler Mannheim Eagles before a raucous crowd of 13,600 at SAP Arena.
Ennis opened the scoring at 7:18 of the first when he slid the puck between the pads of Eagles netminder Fred Brathwaite after being sprung free at the blueline on a pass from Mike Weber. He put the Sabres up by a pair just over four minutes later when he banged home a Ville Leino rebound from the side of the crease into the yawning cage.
The newly formed trio of Ennis, Leino and Brad Boyes each got on the scoreboard tonight, and at times moved the puck around like it was a weekend pickup game. Ennis said that having that little bit of extra ice to play with contributed to their success.
“With the big ice you don’t want to be too aggressive on a guy because if you get it by him you have a lot of room towards the net, so sometimes you just have to collapse a little and give up the outside.”
Continue reading ‘Sabres Steamroll Mannheim To End Preseason’
 Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden has earned the top spot on Brand Affinity Technologies’ monthly ranking of Rising Sports Stars. This special NFL-only edition of the list identifies football players with the most significant leaps in popularity during the previous 30 days – a solid indicator of early-season buzz as standout players emerge. McFadden led the league with 393 rushing yards in September, and has turned heads with plays such as a 70-yard touchdown run in the Raiders’ victory against the Jets.
Buffalo Bills teammates Ryan Fitzpatrick and Fred Jackson round out the top three with strong performances as leaders in the AFC East with [3] wins, including a stunning victory over the New England Patriots during week 3 of the season. The full list and additional details are available at: www.brandaffinity.net/RisingStars/October2011.
“Darren McFadden’s popularity has jumped 46 percent over the past month, and we expect marketers as well as fans will take notice,” said Ryan Steelberg, CEO of Brand Affinity Technologies. “Our ranking helps identify hot talent at a point where they hold tremendous respect and influence among sports fans, but before they appear on cereal boxes. The return on investment for companies partnering with athletes at this stage is consistently high.”
Continue reading ‘Fitzpatrick, Jackson secure #2 and #3 on Rising Sports Stars list’
 Entering the 2011 season, the Buffalo Bills biggest question mark, of which there were many, surrounded the offensive line and perceived talent playing on it, especially the depth. Surely that will be put to the test as the pleasantly surprising 3-1 Bills play host to the equally (for the wrong reasons) surprising 1-3 Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday.
If the Bills are to earn their fourth victory in five tries they’ll have to do it without starting left tackle Demetrius Bell. After 20 straight starts, Bell injured his shoulder during Sunday’s loss at Cincinnati and head coach Chan Gailey has already ruled him out for this week.
Fourth-round rookie Chris Hairston will get his first start in Bell’s place. Sam Young will back up both tackle positions.
Continue reading ‘Bills OL Depth To Be Tested vs. Eagles’
 St. Bonaventure senior forward Andrew Nicholson is one of 50 players named to the John R. Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 List, as announced Monday by the Los Angeles Athletic Club.
The list is comprised of 50 student-athletes who, based on last year’s individual performance and team records, are the early frontrunners for college basketball’s most prestigious individual honor.
The 6-foot-9 250-pound Mississauga, Ont. native led the Atlantic 10 and ranked 15th nationally in scoring last season at 20.8 points per game. He scored in double figures in all but one contest and racked 11 double-doubles while leading the Bonnies to their first winning record (16-15) and postseason appearance (CBI) since 2001-02.
These players and others who excel throughout the season will be evaluated and considered for the Midseason list and the official voting ballot released in March. The National Ballot consists of approximately 20 players who have proven to their universities that they are also making progress toward graduation and maintaining at least a cumulative 2.0 GPA. The Wooden Award All-American Team will be announced the week of the “Elite Eight” round during the NCAA Tournament.
Continue reading ‘Bona’s Nicholson Named to Wooden Award Watch List’
 Over the past two weeks, in some parts the Buffalo Bills have become affectionately known as the Cardiac Kids. Yesterday in Cincinnati, they nearly gave their fans cardiac arrest.
The Bills seemingly toyed with the Bengals in the first half, taking a 17-3 lead into the locker room and looking like an elite squad in doing so. However, the Bills should know more than anyone that no lead is safe, not even against an inferior team, and found out the hard way to never take your foot off the gas in the NFL.
Maybe the Bills were simply cocky in the second half, thinking the Bengals were ready to roll over. Maybe they simply tired out. Without question Buffalo wasn’t helped with calls that at best we’ll leave as questionable. Hopefully it’s a combination of all the above, because it would be a real shame to get a steady dose of last year’s edition after such a promising month to begin the 2011 season.
Here is a list of completely random smatterings on my mind after seeing the Bills throw away a game fall to 3-1 on the season.
Continue reading ‘Bills Take Their First Loss – Random Smatterings’
 Over the past few weeks the Buffalo Bills have played with fire. At Cincinnati on Sunday, they got burned.
Mike Nugent kicked a 43-yard field goal as time expired to complete an improbable comeback as the Bengals erased a two touchdown halftime deficit to hand the Bills their first loss of the season, 23-20.
After coming back from 21 and 18 point deficits the previous two weeks, Buffalo played a strong first half and were seemingly in control against the Bengals, going into the locker room with a 17-3 lead. Bryan Scott returned an interception 43 yards for a touchdown and Fred Jackson scored on a run from a yard out.
The defense was dominant for Buffalo in the first half, but the last 30 minutes were a different story. After throwing two interceptions in the opening two quarters, rookie quarterback Andy Dalton was brilliant in the second half, throwing a 17-yard touchdown to Jermaine Gresham and running in another score from three yards out on a draw play.
Continue reading ‘Bills Fall Victim To Comeback; Lose To Bengals, 23-20′
 University of Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray is already drawing comparisons to all-time UT great Peyton Manning. You wouldn’t get an argument from the Buffalo Bulls after Saturday’s 41-10 loss to the Volunteers at Neyland Stadium before 87,758 fans
Bray was on target for 342 yards and four touchdowns while completing 21-of-30 passes on the day. The 6-6 sophomore looked very Manning-esque as UT used their superior speed to make too many big plays in the passing game for the Bulls to keep it close. It was the tenth straight game that the sophomore has thrown for at least two touchdowns.
Bray was particularly effective on third down as the Vols were a sterling 12-of-16 on third down conversions in the game, while the Bulls converted just 3-of-13 opportunities
Trailing 14-0 in the second quarter, the Bulls got a huge momentum change when UB senior quarterback Chazz Anderson faked a handoff and raced 68 yards untouched to the end zone to cut the lead to 14-7 after the PAT. It was the longest run of his career and the longest touchdown run by a quarterback in UB’s Division I-A history.
Continue reading ‘Bray and Volunteers Too Much For Bulls, 41-10′
 There’s no doubt about it: it’s good to be a Buffalo Bills fan right now. First place in the AFC East…an extremely likable roster of scrappy underdogs…an explosive, entertaining offense…finally beating those freaking Patriots. Who could ask for anything more?
I should be riding high right now, but I’m really not. The reason? I am terrified for today’sgame in Cincinnati against the Bengals.
That may seem silly. After all, there’s a mountain of reasons the Bills should win this game…but I’m scared about all of them:
1) The Bills haven’t lost to the Bengals since 1989. Really! Buffalo lost the AFC Championship game to Cincinnati 21-10 in January of 1989. Since then, the Bills have defeated the Bengals 10 straight times, including last season’s crazy 49-31 comeback win. Because the Bills finally ended their eight-year, 15-game skid against the Patriots last week, this is now the longest current winning streak of one team over another.
Continue reading ‘Opinion: Nothing Scarier Than Games Bills “Should” Win’
 After last Sunday’s enormous win over the mighty Patriots, the Bills have a different kind of challenge this week in Cincinnati. The young Bengals are going to desperate for a win after last week’s debacle against San Francisco, and you can bet they’ll come ready to play Sunday. Who needs to step up and make sure Buffalo gets out of Cincy 4-0?
CB Leodis McKelvin – I’ll go with McKelvin here even though I could have picked any of the Bills’ corners. With the injury to Aaron Williams and Terrence McGee still out, Buffalo is really thin at corner. The Bengals aren’t exactly the Patriots when it comes to passing the ball well, but rookie WR A.J. Green (15 catches, 194 yards, 2 TD so far) is going to be a star. McKelvin (or whoever is on Green) needs to shut him down and not let the Bengals hit-or-miss offense get on track. (McKelvin photo by Michael Thomas)
NT Kyle Williams – The 2010 breakout star has been a bit quiet thus far in 2011. If he could find some of his dominating 2011 form and break down the pocket on a consistent basis, it would make life very tough for Bengals rookie QB Andy Dalton. Lord knows the Bills need to find some quarterback pressure from somewhere.
Continue reading ‘Bills vs. Bengals: Five Big Keys’
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Buffalo State junior linebacker Pasquale Vacchio was recognized by 
