PSAC Football Athletes of the Week - 8
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Slippery Rock's
Jeff Thompson (Defensive) alongside Clarion's
Ben Fiscus (Offensive) were selected as the West's PSAC Football Athletes of the Week for their performances in their team's victories.
In the east,
Kevin Morton (Offensive) of Kutztown and
Jake Metz (Defensive) of Shippensburg were named the East's PSAC Football Athletes of the Week for their performances on Saturday.
PSAC Athletes of the Week - Oct. 21
(Week 8)
PSAC West Defensive Athlete of the Week
Jeff Thompson, Slippery Rock
DE, Sr., Clairton, Pa./Clairton
Jeff Thompson led a Slippery Rock defensive effort that sacked Edinboro quarterback Cody Harris nine times, just one sack shy of the school record set in 1991 vs. California. Thompson registered 11 total tackles on the day, including five solo take downs. He chased Harris down on three occasions for a total loss of 23 yards, and also charted three quarterback hurries. One of Thompson's sacks came at first and goal for Edinboro on the Slippery Rock's nine yard line. His six-yard sack pushed Edinboro back so the Fighting Scots couldn't score at the end of the half to allow SRU to head into the locker room holding a 16-3 lead. Thompson's defense held the 2011 All-PSAC-West QB to a .470 completion rate in the 38-31 Rock victory after he entered the game with a .700 completion rate.
PSAC West Offensive Athlete of the Week
Ben Fiscus, Clarion
QB, Jr., Indiana, Pa./Indiana
Ben Fiscus completed 26-of-42 passes for 324 yards and three touchdowns to lead Clarion to a 30-28 come-from-behind win at Lock Haven. His three touchdowns passes were crucial - but none more important than the 3-yard game-winning touchdown to tight end Antony Becoate on the last play of the game. Fiscus led Clarion on a 90-yard, 12-play drive in the final 1:21 of the game. He completed a fourth-down pass to keep the drive alive, followed it with 24 and 32-yard passes in the last 30 seconds of the game to setup the game winning touchdown. His 32-yard pass to Aaron Barlow on the next to the last play was certainly a thriller, followed by the final play which saw Fiscus change directions four times before firing the game winner.
PSAC East Offensive Athlete of the Week
Kevin Morton, Kutztown University
QB, Sr., Abington, Pa./Abington
Kevin Morton set the Kutztown school record for passing yards for the second straight week with 490 passing yards to lead the Golden Bears to a 59-33 win over East Stroudsburg. Just seven days after his 479-yard performance that set the school record for passing yards in a game against Shippensburg, Morton threw for 490 yards and three touchdowns. He was nearly flawless going 35-of-42, an .860 completion rate, without tossing a single interception. Morton also found his way into the end zone for his own touchdown in the second quarter with 3:53 remaining in the half when he kept the ball for a 16-yard rushing touchdown.
PSAC East Defensive Athlete of the Week
Jake Metz, Shippensburg
DE, Jr., Harleysville/Souderton
Jake Metz had nine tackles in Shippensburg's 42-24 win over West Chester. He recorded two solo stops and seven assisted take downs while also registering two tackles for loss that added up to 12 yards. Metz recorded his ninth sack of the year, just one shy of the Shippensburg single season record set by Barry Johnson (1977), Ed Brown (1981) and Rob Davis (1991). Metz also broke-up a West Chester pass attempt. Metz played a vital role in the Raider's shutting out the Rams in the second half, as SU outscored West Chester 42-3 over the final 44:44 of the contest.
Team Notes
Bloomsburg
Quarterback
Tim Kelly connected on scoring passes of 42 and 28 yards to
Ryan Dickerson to help the fourth-ranked Bloomsburg University football team survive a scare and stay unbeaten with a 27-13 win over Cheyney. Dickerson has now caught a TD pass in four consecutive games for the Huskies (8-0, 5-0).
Franklyn Quiteh, the NCAA D-II leader in rushing yards per game, finished the day with 108 yards rushing for Bloomsburg. He can move into fifth on the PSAC all-time rushing list with 128 yards next week against undefeated Shippensburg. Kelly was 7-for-10 through the air for 110 yards with Dickerson catching six passes for 107 yards.
Justin Shirk led the defense with 10 tackles, while
Ryan Feldman had nine tackles. BU has not allowed a sack in three straight games and is 35-2 since 1999 when not allowing a sack.
Eddie Mateo ran for 96 yards and is Bloomsburg’s 12th player to run for 2,000 yards.
California (Pa.)
Cal U took sole possession of first place in the PSAC West standings with a 41-0 victory at Gannon on Saturday. The Vulcans have recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since the 2007 season. Cal U rushed for 200 yards for the second-straight game, finishing with a season-high 226 yards and four touchdowns. Three different players scored a rushing touchdown in the win, including two by sophomore
Jeff Knox, Jr. – his sixth career multiple-touchdown game. The Vulcans limited Gannon to just 164 yards of total offense, while registering six sacks and four turnovers. Sophomore kicker
Cody Nuzzo made a career-long 46-yard field goal at Gannon, becoming the first kicker with a 45-plus yard field goal since Marc Domonkos in 2010. Junior DE
B.J. Stevens led the team with a career-high nine tackles (two solo) and tied his career high with 3.5 TFL. Stevens has now recorded at least 1.0 sack in four-consecutive games.
Cheyney
The Cheyney University Wolves (1-7:0-5) gave the fourth ranked Bloomsburg Huskies (8-0:5-0) all they could handle in front of 3,386 faithful as homecoming and seniors were celebrated on the Cheyney campus, but ultimately fell to BU. The Cheyney defense was led by
Isaiah Fleming. Fleming registered 12 tackles. Coming into today’s game, Bloomsburg’s Quiteh led the nation in rushing at 177 yard per game. The Wolves held him to 108 yards. It was the first time this season that Bloomsburg scored less than 30 points. The Huskies came into today’s contest averaging 349 rushing yards per game, second in the country. The Cheyney defense held them to 228.
Marcus Jones led the Cheyney rushing attack with 78 yards including a rush on 35. The 35 yard rush was the longest Bloomsburg has given up this year.
Blaze Wasserleben was 8-11 for 72 and one interception.
Clarion
Clarion battled back and grabbed victory from the jaws of defeat with an unbelievable 90-yard drive in the final 1:21 to defeat Lock Haven 30-28. QB
Ben Fiscus completed a fourth down pass to keep the drive alive, followed by 24 and 32-yard passes in the last 30 seconds, to setup the game winning pass - a strike from Fiscus to tight end
Anthony Becoate from the three yard line with time expired on the clock. Fiscus changed directions four times on the next to last play - before hitting
Aaron Barlow at the three, then four more times before finding Becoate in the end zone. Fiscus passed for 324 yards and three touchdowns. He now has 1,906 passing yards and 13 td's, while rushing for 570 yards and 4 td's.
Julian Howsare led a strong effort on defense with six tackles, two tfl's, one sack, one fumble caused and two blocked punts.
East Stroudsburg
ESU ended up on the wrong side of a 59-33 score against Kutztown on Saturday, the fifth straight game that both ESU and its opponent scored at least 27 points (the longest stretch in school history). Junior WR
Dusty Reed set ESU’s record with 247 kick return yards on nine returns and had 320 all-purpose yards, second-most in school history. Reed had six catches for 64 yards and a TD and one rush for nine yards. He moved from 19th to 13th on ESU’s career all-purpose yards list (2,737) in one afternoon. Reed is seventh at ESU with 134 career catches and less than 100 yards away from the top 10 in that category. R-Fr. QB
Matt Soltes was 28-for-40 for 363 yards and ran for 33 yards on 12 carries. His 396 yards of total offense are third-most by a freshman in ESU history, trailing two games by Jimmy Terwilliger (the 2005 Harlon Hill winner) in 2003. Jr. kicker
Taylor Groff was 4-for-4 on field goals, improving to 11-for-18 on the year.
Edinboro
Edinboro played its second overtime game of the season, suffering a 38-31 loss at Slippery Rock. It was the Fighting Scots’ second straight loss and third in a row to SRU. Edinboro is now 2-4 in overtime after previously beating LIU Post 31-24 earlier this season.
Branden Williams blocked a punt in the third quarter to set up an Edinboro touchdown. It is the tenth blocked kick of his career. After completing almost 75 percent of his passes the first five games,
Cody Harris was just 22 of 40 last week vs. IUP and 21 of 45 this week against SRU. However, the junior fell just shy of a career-high with 379 yards, the sixth-highest single-game total, as he completed three passes of more than 50 yards. Harris also gained 64 yards rushing, but he was sacked nine times resulting in 79 yards in losses.
Marcus Johnson caught 4 passes for 102 yards, moving up to a tie for 11th in career receptions (91) and 13th in career yards receiving (1,349). Freshman DB
Denzel Jones had eight tackles, along with a pair of sacks and an interception.
Gannon
Gannon dropped its seventh consecutive game after opening the season with a 36-33 victory against Lake Erie, falling to No. 14 California (Pa.) 41-0. Sophomore
Justin Caliste broke Gannon’s single-season record for all-purpose yards with 100 against Cal, giving him 1,196 yards through eight games. Caliste fell 10 yards shy of the record last year and sits in eighth place all-time at Gannon with 2,356 career all-purpose yards. Sophomore
Abraham Ocasio broke Gannon’s single-season reception record, securing his 50th catch of the season against Cal. Ocasio broke the previous record of 49 set by Sam Culberth in 2003. Senior
Will Giles reached double-digits in tackles for the fourth consecutive game with 14. Freshman
Trenton Donald made a career-high 11 tackles, shattering his previous career-high by five stops. Senior
Ashton Jones recorded his first career interception off a deflected ball in the third quarter. Senior
Matt Jones produced his 12th career sack during the second quarter, moving into 14th place all-time at Gannon.
IUP
The 20th-ranked Crimson Hawks ran their win streak to four with a 31-13 win over Mercyhurst on Saturday. Down 13-7 at the half, IUP scored 24-0 unanswered points in the second half en route to the victory. Senior RB
Harvie Tuck ran for 231 yards and two touchdowns, adding a 49-yard reception to total a career-high 280 yards. It was Tuck’s fourth 200-yard rushing performance of the season as he went for over 4,000 yards for his career. He’s now at 4,085 career rushing yards, 720 shy of the IUP all-time record of 4,805 held by Michael Mann. The IUP defense allowed just 268 yards to the hot Mercyhurst offense while the Crimson Hawks totaled 416 yards on the day. Jr. QB
Mike Box completed 7-of-14 passes for 126 yards and a score. Jr. LB
Alexander Berdahl had 12 tackles defensively.
Kutztown
Kutztown's
Kevin Morton set the school record for passing yards for the second straight week and the Golden Bears had three receivers top 100 yards for the first time since 1997 as KU picked up a 59-33 win over East Stroudsburg. Morton threw for 490 yards and three scores. He was nearly flawless going 35-of-42 (86 percent) without any interceptions.
Colby Tuell, Brett Fox and
Zack Snyder all eclipsed the century mark for receiving yards in the contest. It was the first time since Terry Robertson, Anthony Browder and Chris Fraley did it against West Chester during the 1997 season that the Golden Bears had three receivers with 100+ yards. Tuell hauled in nine catches for 103 yards and a touchdown. Fox and Snyder had seven catches apiece, with Fox covering 118 yards, while Snyder accumulated 109. KU also had five rushing touchdowns in the game.
Curtis Wortham rushed for 92 yards on 12 carries and scored three times. Morton ended the game with 111 touchdown passes, 10,675 passing yards and 11,354 yards of total offense. He passed Bob McLaughlin for third all-time in the PSAC in passing yardage. His total offense is now third all-time in the PSAC. Tuell is six yards short of 2,000 receiving yards in his career. He will be just the sixth player in school history to reach the milestone.
LIU Post
LIU Post ended a four-game skid with a 20-15 win over Millersville on Homecoming Saturday. Sophomore quarterback
Tyler Heuer, in his second career start, passed for 113 yards and rushed for 137 to lead the Pioneers. Junior running back
Jeff Mack added 61 yards of rushing. Sophomore wide receiver
Kamron Palmer caught an 82 yard pass from Heuer to score the game's first touchdown at the end of the first quarter. Senior linebacker
Anton Rukaj led the defense with 10 tackles while junior
Tommy Williams and senior
D.J. Young recorded interceptions for 22 and 21 yards, respectively.
Lock Haven
Despite its best all-around effort of the year, the Lock Haven University football fell to Clarion, 30-28 as the Golden Eagles scored on the final play of the game. The loss also marks the 50th straight for LHU, which is the longest active losing skid in college football and the all-time DII record. Clarion was the last team LHU beat. The Haven beat Clarion 17-14 (OT) in the 2007 season-finale. LHU jumped on Clarion early, taking the opening kickoff 88 yards for a TD. It marked the first time since 2003 that LHU returned a kickoff for a TD. LHU QB
Jarrett Kratzer made his 21st career start and passed for 267 yards and three TDs. His 267 yards were his most since he passed for 280 vs. IUP in 2010. It was his second career three-TD game. Kratzer hooked up with
Jesse Hoover twice. Hoover scored on 22 and 66-yard passes and finished with 100 receiving yards. The 100 yards receiving marked the first 100-yard receiving game since Jay Hartman in 2010 vs. IUP (150 yards). It was the first 200-yard plus passing game for Lock Haven since last year's season-opener vs. Millersville. The Clarion loss also marked the second straight game where a Bald Eagle recorded 13 tackles, which is the individual game-high this season.
Ryan Good did it vs. Clarion, while
Derrick Watkins did it last week at Cal.
Mercyhurst
Mercyhurst saw its six-game winning streak come to an end on Saturday, as IUP knocked off the Lakers 31-13 in Indiana, Pa. Mercyhurst led 13-7 at halftime, but the Crimson Hawks scored 24 unanswered points in the second half, including 17 in the final ten minutes of regulation. Redshirt freshman
Brandon Brown-Dukes was the story on offense for the Lakers, finishing the afternoon with 134 yards rushing and a touchdown against a Crimson Hawk defense that was third in the country against the run, allowing just 52.6 yards per game entering Saturday. With his 134 yards, Brown-Dukes became the fourth player in program history to eclipse 1,000 yards rushing in a season, joining Craig Woodard (1,166 in 1992), Richard Stokes (1,177 yards in 2007), and Gerald Anderson (1,313 in 2010). Redshirt junior quarterback
Anthony Vendemia had a four-yard rushing touchdown in the second quarter, the third rushing touchdown of his career with all three coming in the last two games. Junior placekicker
Steven Wakefield connected on an extra point attempt in the second quarter to tie Phil Scanlon's (2002-06) school record of 165 career points as a kicker.
Millersville
Millersville picked-off three passes and held LIU Post to 20 points in Saturday's loss. The Marauders have now held back-to-back opponents to fewer than 21 points for the first time since 2007. Freshman
Quinn West intercepted his second pass in as many weeks, giving him the most INT's by a freshman since Brandon Shelton's four in 2004.
Lou Brown's 47-yard return on his fourth quarter INT was the eighth longest in the PSAC this season. His three this year ranks him sixth in the PSAC and he also ranks sixth in INT return yards.
Ian Sadon recorded a career-high 138 yards. It was his first career 100-yard game, and his 75-yard TD run was the longest by any Marauder this season. It was the second TD of his career. His previous long run was just 14 yards. He is also the first Marauder running back to go over 100 yards this season. Millersville now has four runs of at least 40 yards this season.
Nate Hinkle's interception was the first of his career.
Austin Warfel and
Shane Doughty both caught a career-high four passes. Freshman
Garrett Mayhart converted his first career field goal, making one from 22 yards.
Shippensburg
The No. 13 Red Raider football team overcame a 21-point deficit in the first half on Saturday afternoon and pitched a second-half shutout to come away with a hard-fought 42-24 victory over West Chester in front of a capacity Homecoming crowd of more than 6,000 spectators from Farrell Stadium. Shippensburg (8-0, 5-0 PSAC East) improved its DII-best winning streak to 12 games, its longest since 1981.
Zach Zulli threw for 342 yards and five touchdowns and completed 29-of-49 passes, allowing him to break three more school records on Saturday. He surpassed Chris Gicking’s school record for passing yards in a season (2,832 in 1999), bringing his season total to 3,065, and broke his own school record for season touchdown passes – improving his season total to 38 through eight games. Zulli also broke the school record for career total offense by an individual (the old record was 6,135 – previously held by Mike Carver ‘97), bringing his career total to 6,277 yards. Sophomore
Trevor Harman added four more touchdown receptions to his ledger, bringing in five total receptions for 81 yards. Senior
Jacob Baskerville led all players with nine receptions for 139 yards and one touchdown. His final catch of the day, a 16-yard reception in the fourth quarter, made him the 10th player in school history to record 100 receptions in a career. Senior
Cody Fleming led all Red Raiders with 13 tackles, including 1.5 for loss; he is now 1.5 tackles for loss short of tying head coach Mark ‘Mac’ Maciejewski '92/’96M’s career record (51.0). SU outscored West Chester 42-3 over the final 44:44 of Saturday’s game.
Slippery Rock
Slipper Rock's defense sacked 2011 All-PSAC-West QB Cody Harris nine times for -65 yards and held him to 47% completion rate after he entered the game with a 70% success rate. Jr. QB
Nigel Barksdale passed for 239 yards and three TDs and rushed for 96 yards and one TD vs. Edinboro and has now passed for 757 yards and eight TDs and rushed for 276 yards and four TDs in three starts this fall. Senior kicker
Kurt Brackman moved into tie for fifth place on SRU's career FG chart with a 22-yarder Saturday. Rock is now 21-4 in SRU Homecoming Games under head coach George Mihalik.
West Chester
West Chester dropped a disappointing 42-24 decision to No. 13 Shippensburg. Jr., RB
Rondell White rushed for 119 yards and a TD. He went over 100 yards rushing for the fifth time this year and now has exactly 1,000 yards rushing on the season. He becomes the first WCU running back to rush for 1,000 yards in a single season since Brent Steinmetz in 2002. Senior QB
Mike Mattei threw for 275 yards in the loss. He went over 2,000 yards passing for the first time in his college career. Sophomore MLB
Ronell Williams recorded a career-high 18 tackles. Junior ILB
Mike Culbreath set a career high with 14 tackles. Senior DB
Bob Sabol blocked a kick in the 3rd quarter. PK
Shawn Leo booted his 29th career FG, and stands one shy of the school's all-time record of 30.