The second half of the regular season starts this week as St. Lawrence takes on Rochester in a Liberty League matchup at 1 p.m. Saturday from Edwin Fauver Stadium in Rochester. The Saints enter undefeated at 5-0 overall and 2-0 in Liberty League games. The Yellowjackets are 1-3 and 0-2 in league play.

The Saints come into the game ranked No. 21 in the latest D3footnball.com poll and No. 22 in this week's AFCA Division III poll.

The Series:

With the 75^th meeting this week, Rochester leads the overall series 44-27-3. St. Lawrence has won each of the last three meetings after Rochester put together a string of 14 consecutive wins in the series dating back to 1999. The Saints won seven straight games in the series from 1974-1980 and the last tie in the series was a 20-20 result in 1986.

Last Year:

After a slow start with just a 7-0 lead at halftime, Saints quarterback Mike Lefflbine connected with his two tight ends (Matt Gardiner and Mitch Gallagher) in the third quarter as St. Lawrence posted a 20-0 victory. After Gallagher's 28-yard touchdown catch, Andrew Carvalho missed the extra point attempt as the ball bounced off the left upright. He has gone on to hit every one since then for a streak of 46 straight.

The strong defensive effort by the Saints was led by Chyron Brown-Wallace who had nine tackles (six solo), 4 ½ for loss, 2 ½ sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries. Alec Dietsch had eight tackles and two interceptions while Skyler Williamson finished with nine tackles, three for loss, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection. The shutout was the last since St. Lawrence posted three to start the 2016 season.

Offensively, Lefflbine was 20-for-35 for 249 yards and three touchdowns, Maurice Irby ran for 102 yards on 20 carries and Vincenzo Ferraro had nine catches for 97 yards and a score.

Rochester was limited to 16-for-33 passing for 118 yards and just 88 yards rushing.

Last Week:

The St. Lawrence defense continued its strong play limiting Springfield to 107 yards rushing. The Pride had entered the game with an average of 261 yards per game on the ground. Defensive tackles Brown-Wallace and Ryan Byrne were dominant in the middle of the defense collecting a combined 19 tackles, four for loss, a sack and two forced fumbles. The defense scored a pair of touchdowns and have scored more points this season (30 on five touchdowns) than it has allowed (28).

Sean Richardson was the key to the offense throwing for 241 yards on 18-of-31 attempts with four touchdowns and also ran for another 73 yards. Rodrick Payne ran for 97 yards on 20 carries and Matt Gardiner led the receivers with five catches and 60 yards.

Rochester scored late in the first half to trim Rensselaer's lead to 20-6 at the break but the Engineers outscored the Yellowjackets 31-7 in the second half to post a convincing 51-13 win over Rochester.

U of R quarterback Daniel Bronson was 11-for-24 for 191 yards and was also the leading rusher with 63 yards – most of which coming on a long run of 46 yards. Seven different receivers recorded catches with Shawn Silleman leading the team with three catches and 61 yards. Defensively, Josh Churchin and Justin Warner had 10 tackles each.

Favorite Target

Sean Richardson is putting up similar numbers to Mike Lefflbine's record-breaking 2015 season as he is on pace to pass nearly all of the season totals from a year ago. The challenge for opposing defenses Is figuring out who Richardson is throwing to. The junior signal caller has completed passes to 11 different receivers in the first five games. Five players have double-digit catch totals led by Mitch Gallagher with 25 and Vincenzo Ferraro with 24 (in just three games). Matt Gardiner has 20 receptions while Rodrick Payne has 13 and Patrick Bryant has 11.

Perfect . . . Again

With six successful PAT kicks against Springfield, kicker Andrew Carvalho moved closer to the school record for career point after kicks set by Mitch Brown who hit 111 kicks in his career. Carvalho has 108 for his career. He is also on a current streak of 46 consecutive kicks for the Saints dating back to the third of three attempts against Rochester last year when he hit the upright on his final PAT.

Puckhaber Off to a Great Start

Head coach Dan Puckhaber became the first head coach at St. Lawrence since 1969 to win his first career game. With his win last weekend improving his record to 5-0, he has the second most wins by a first-year head coach in school history. Only Ted Stratford, who compiled a 7-1 record in his first season in 1969 has more first-year wins. Mark Raymond was 5-6 in his inaugural season and former University at Albany head coach Bob Ford was 4-4 with his first season in 1965.

Ranked Among the Best

The St. Lawrence defense has been dominant in the first five games of the season and the national statistical rankings show this very clearly. The Saints are ranked in the top five in the country in defensive touchdowns (1^st), scoring defense (2^nd), red zone defense (2^nd), passing efficiency defense (2^nd), total defense (2^nd), passing yards allowed (3^rd) and fumbles recovered (4^th). The team is ranked in the top 20 in 14 different categories.

Best Season Ever

With the undefeated start to the season, one of the most popular questions is how long has it been since the team started with this many wins. The answer for the past couple weeks (and for most of the rest of the season) will be 1982. The 1982 squad was a perfect 9-0 in the regular season and beat Wagner in the NCAA Tournament to move to a school-record 10-0 before falling in the NCAA semifinals to eventual national runner-up Augustana College. Ironically, several members of the 1982 squad are scheduled to be inducted into the St. Lawrence University Athletic Hall of Fame October 28.