ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
MIKE SPIER

Coach Paul Vosburgh is just about ready to take his program up another level.

In the 2008 and 2009 seasons, the St. John Fisher Cardinals are slated to play the Mt. Union Purple Raiders, the defending national champions and current number one team in the nation, for the first games of the regular season.

At the end of the 2007 season, the Cardinals’ contract with King’s College is set to expire. After being consistently ranked among the top 25 teams nationally in the last few years, Fisher decided to feed off the program’s success and elevate to a whole new class of competition.

“Playing Mt. Union is a great way to measure where our program is at,” Vosburgh said. “We have consistently been in the national rankings, and we’ve been in the NCAA playoffs. This game will show where we rank against the best team in the country.”

Mt. Union has had their fair share of appearances in the NCAA playoffs as well, winning eight national championships. Their national championships came in 1993, 1996-1998, 2000-2002, and 2005. The game has a little added significance for Cardinals’ sophomore defensive tackle Nick Boone.

“This game will be an adrenaline rush for me because I considered going to Mt. Union,” said Boone, who will be a senior for Fisher’s first game against the Purple Raiders in 2008. “When we face them it will be a measure of what I could have done and where I would have been.”

To add to Mt. Union’s laundry list of accomplishments, they have won the Ohio Athletic Conference 15 consecutive times from 1992-2006, have 15 undefeated regular seasons, and hold the longest winning streak in college football of 55 games from the beginning of 2000 to the end of 2003. Despite all of the success, Mt. Union head coach Larry Kehres is willing to give the Cardinals a shot at his team.

“I honestly believe that good teams should play good teams, even if it is the first game of the season,” said Kehres. “I hope they use the opportunity to their advantage to make themselves better.”    Over the next few years, Fisher will take Kehres’ advice to heart as they will use this game as a recruiting tool to get prospective players to come play for the Cardinals.

“I would hope this game attracts the players that want to get into the best Division III scheduling they can,” Vosburgh said. “We want to recruit those kids who want to play the best. The kids that are looking to play the best are the best.”

Although this game is in the distant future and it will be hard to project what the results will be, the Cardinals still have a lot of confidence in their abilities.

“It’s going to be like a national championship game on the very first game of the season,” Boone said. “I honestly think we can contend with them and this game will prove that.”

Email address: mts07751@sjfc.edu