CONTACT: Steve Mullen (518) 629-8063
FOR RELEASE: Immediate, Wednesday, September 3, 2003
The Hudson Valley Community College football team will open its 35th season on Saturday, September 6 against Navy Prep. The game kicks off at noon on Veterans Memorial Field in Troy.
The Vikings return 12 starters from last year's squad, which finished the season with a 4-5 record, including four All-Northeast Football Conference performers. Running back Emmanuel Marc (Spring Valley/Spring Valley High School) earned Honorable Mention All-American honors in 2002 after rushing for a league-high 1,235 yards. He averaged seven yards per carry. Marc needs only 490 yards on the ground to establish a new career rushing record at Hudson Valley. Dennis Greene rushed for 1,724 yards from 1971 to 1972.
The defensive line, which allowed only 89.3 rushing yards per game last season, returns three all-conference players. Frantzy Dorlean (Spring Valley/Ramapo High School) had 34 tackles and led the team with 10 sacks last season. Jermaine Price (Browns Mill, NJ/Pemberton High School) has 42 tackles and 2.5 sacks. Ernest Jones (Bronx/Lehman High School) contributed 45 tackles and five sacks.
This will be the fifth meeting between Navy Prep and Hudson Valley. Navy Prep has won the previous four meetings. Despite allowing only 55 yards of total offense in last year's game, Hudson Valley fell, 28-19, to the Rams. Navy Prep returned two blocked punts for touchdowns and returned a fumble recovery for a score.
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.