This Plymouth state running back (in white) is about to get crunched by the Norwich defense.The Cadet "D" looked strong and was on it's game against Plymouth State in Last Friday's scrimmage at Sabine field. The scrimmage was played as a regular game except for posting points on the scoreboard. The NCAA won't let scores be kept in scrimmages. Nevertheless, spies told The Northfield News that the Cadets found the Plymouth State end zone more times than the Panthers crossed the Norwich goal line. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News The Norwich University football team, the 2009 Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) champions, were picked to defend its crown in 2010 according to the league’s preseason coaches’ poll, which was released last Wednesday.

The Cadets, who picked up seven of the eight first-place votes in the poll, compiled an 8-3 overall record last season and completed their inaugural ECFC slate with a perfect 6-0 mark. NU excelled in all three phases of the game a year ago, outscoring its conference opponents by a whopping 167-64 margin.

Norwich, which enters the 2010 campaign riding an eightgame win streak, returns 17 starters and 42 letterwinners from last season’s championship squad. The Cadets, who averaged 277.7 rushing yards per game in league contests, return their entire offensive line and their top four rushers from a year ago.

NU’s defense, which yielded a mere 10.7 points per game against conference foes, brings back seven starters, including all four starting linebackers from last season’s unit. The Cadets figure to be strong in the kicking game once again with the return of all-conference punter Brian Segit and kicker Ryan Kelly.

Mount Ida, last season’s runner up to Norwich in the ECFC, was picked second in the preseason listing. The Mustangs, who picked up the last remaining first-place vote, were defeated twice by Norwich a season ago, including a 49-14 setback in the ECFC Championship Game.

New York Maritime, Husson and Gallaudet were picked third, fourth and fifth, respectively. Castleton State, Becker and Anna Maria rounded out the poll, listing sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.

Norwich kicks off its 2010 campaign on Saturday, Sept. 4, when the Cadets host Western New England College in a non-league contest at Sabine Field. The game, which will be a rematch of last season’s 28-27 WNEC victory, is slated to kick off at 1:30 p.m.

Last Friday afternoon, the Cadets took on the highly regarded Panthers of Plymouth State in a football scrimmage tat Sabine Field.

The srimmage was played as if were a game, with the exception that no score was kept. NCAA rules tell us we can not keep score of a scrimmage. So I can not tell you the final score, but I can tell you that the Cadets scored more points than Plymouth.

To give you a flavor for how the game went, the Cadets rushed for 337 yards compared to 164 for the Panthers. In the air the Cadets passed for 153 yards and two touchdowns. The Panthers managed just 65 yards in the air and no touchdowns.

The Norwich defensive corp was just outstanding stuffing the Panther ground game. Sophomore Brendan Carroll made two outstanding plays, one a quarterback sack on the 5 yard line.

Jean-Giles and Mitchell Przybocki each threw excellent touchdown passes. Freshman Long Ding kicked a 40 yard field goal into the wind.

The Cadets were sharp in every aspect of the game. Next week the Cadets will open the season at home against Western New England, game time 13:30 (1.30).

As most of you know we had technical problems beyond our control that made it impossible to stream the game. The problem was identified as a crashed computor that controls the steam. I have been promised that the tape of the game will be available to watch sometime tomorrow. I will send you all the link as soon as it is up.