If what happened in week 11's 48-14 loss to California is the future of Millersville football, get excited. In another example of "the score does not dictate the game," the Marauders put on an entertaining show for their loyal fans on Saturday, putting a serious scare into the Vulcans, who were picked as a West favorite.
Congratulations to a marvelous bookend to senior RB Ian Sadon's Millersville career. Sadon rushed for 187 yards, a career high, as well as eclipsed 1,000 yards in a season early in the third quarter. Sadon scored one of two Millersville touchdowns in his final game.
Senior LB Jordan Rigby also had a rather nice performance, totaling 12 tackles, including 1.5 tackles for a loss for seven total yards. Rigby will also end his Millersville career on a high note.
Now, to the game.
California scored on their first possession. Responding to that score took 10 plays and 75 yards, culminating in an entertaining moment. Saturday's referees used a very strange arm position to call for second down, and touchdown. The crowd, as well as the marching band (and yours truly) were swayed by this strange arm signal that looked eerily similar to touchdown.
One play later, Sadon rushed it into the end zone in a way we've all seen so many times this year.
The Vulcans scored twice more and added a field goal from Cody Nuzzo to take a 24-7 lead at the half. More of the same? Not so.
Corey Unger's one yard run cut the deficit to 10 early in the second half. Fans remained raucous as head coach Greg Breitbach's adage came to life—give yourself a chance to win in the fourth quarter. It seemed so tangible at that time. Millersville came alive. Chryst Field rocked.
Evan Stahl could have cut the lead to 7 points after a 32 yard fumble recovery by Rasheed Johnson, but failed to stick the 24 yard field goal due to excellent pressure and an ill-timed wind gust. Millersville also had the ball deep in California territory after a California punt.
However, California's Jordan Bowman, who ended up with PSAC West Defensive Player of the Week honors, recovered an ill-fated handoff and returned a fumble 80 yards for a touchdown. Unger also threw an interception to Dewey McDonald just a minute later whose 20 yard return extended California's once-tense lead to 41-14.
Nick Grissom added one more score late to make it 48-14, and thus, the game.
Turnovers kill. All three interceptions and the one fumble on Saturday resulted in points. In fact, 24 of California's 48 points came from turnovers. Those get cleaned up, and the game looks so much different. Every Millersville turnover in this game, against East Stroudsburg, Kutztown and Lock Haven except for one, resulted in points.
You erase those points, and again, each game looks different. Turnovers are inevitable, that's just football, but multiple interceptions and fumbles taken for points every time will destroy chances to win. They kill momentum. No doubt over the final games this season was this more evident. Opponents scored 83 total points off of turnovers in the last four weeks.
Millersville ended the season with 17 interceptions and 32 fumbles, of which 15 were lost to the opposition. The next post will take a look at the numbers and the season recap. They may not be pretty numbers, but improvement takes time. To say no strides were taken this year would be foolhardy. Many strides occurred on Saturday.
On a more positive note, Millersville's offensive line played exceptionally well on Saturday. 224 of Millersville's 289 total yards of offense came on the ground. 43 of the rest of those yards came on a spectacular pitch and catch to David Coates for a huge gain. If that offensive line can continue to develop under Jeff Richter, life will be much easier for the offense as a whole.
California gained 369 total yards with 233 coming through the air. Cal totaled 106 yards off of two turnover returns which may not count against the total yards gained, but they sure help in the long run. Again, clean them up, the score comes down considerably. It just goes to show that Breitbach's insistence on clean football will make a gargantuan difference in these tightly contested games in the PSAC.
My thanks and gratitude go out to the entire football coaching staff. It was a whirlwind of change for many of them, and for them to handle this situation with so much grace and professionalism meant a ton towards presenting a quality broadcast on MSBN.
The Marauder Touchdown Club has raised over $16,000 for operational costs. The Marauder Scholar Program put forth over 500 hours of community service. The amount of change in just seven short months has been remarkable. Here's to the future.
The season recap post will be coming likely next week. Until then.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
From the Booth: Week Ten Edition
Calling it now: East Stroudsburg will win the PSAC East next year. This team is scary. The Warriors used a methodical offense and timely defense to unrelentingly defeat Millersville 66-7.
19 seconds is all it took for East Stroudsburg to score on their first possession. Robert Healy put on a Marshawn Lynch type show, pushing away several defenders to scamper in for the 58 yard score. That touchdown was East Stroudsburg's fastest since 1994.
ESU racked up 20 points in just six minutes on consecutive possessions. Robert Bleiler, ESU's top wideout, caught two for touchdowns, and Gerald Van De Cruz finished things off for the first quarter scoring.
The Warriors equaled their first quarter output by doing it again. 27 more points, 54 total points at the half. East Stroudsburg essentially dominated every single statistical category. Unfortunately, this was no contest.
It begins and ends with the play of Matt Soltes. The redshirt sophomore QB threw for 197 yards, which is awfully low for him, but he economically threw for six touchdowns on Saturday. His runners tallied three more.
To be fair, Millersville's defense fared a ton better against East Stroudsburg last week than Lock Haven did. The Bald Eagles allowed 696 total yards of offense to Millersville's 462, and Soltes threw for 462 yards by himself last week, and rushed for another 74 yards. So, in terms of a percentage, Soltes accounted for 77% of East Stroudsburg's offense against Lock Haven.
Soltes has already accounted for several PSAC and national records so far. He will be spectacular for two years to come.
In terms of positives for the Marauders, unfortunately there are not many to draw from this contest. Ian Sadon found a lot more openings in the second half. He finished his day with another solid 96 yard performance. Brent Collins returned five kickoffs for 147 yards, including a spectacular 65 yard return in the second half as well.
Of all players to throw a touchdown, who else than running back David Coates? Coates became the fourth player to throw for a touchdown this season. He found a wide open Kevin Porter on a trick play to put Millersville on the scoreboard.
As of the time of this blog, the team has already forgotten about this game and will have to look forward to next week's season conclusion.
In a sort of deja vu scheduling quirk, Millersville will play California on Saturday to end the 2013 campaign. Head Coach Greg Breitbach and the rest of the staff have continued to keep this season positive. Many aspects of Millersville's game have been radically changed. New plays, new players, new techniques, new mindset, and a lot more attention to certain details have all been instituted.
California lost to Mercyhurst last week 23-20. Anyone who isn't Bloomsburg or Slippery Rock will have to play out the final game and look forward to next season. It's a rather cutthroat playoff system, but you must be the best in an insanely competitive PSAC.
Cal has had a baffling season. They played so well against the East, including almost upsetting West Chester 38-31, but have played inconsistently against West opponents. Losses to IUP, Mercyhurst and Slippery Rock all show that they aren't a top team yet.
Last time Millersville played California, they scored 28 points, including 21 fourth quarter points. Laying it all on the line for one final game on senior day would mean a ton to the departing seniors. Those seniors include LB Jordan Rigby, WR Dominic Sanders, S David Rene, S Dan Miller, RV Dean May, DE Gilbert Ramos, C Alex Schwendeman, WR David Barnes and DT Doug Henninger.
They, along with the 1993 PSAC East champion football team, will be honored at home for a 4 p.m. start. Hope you can join us on MSBN then. www.millersvilleathletics.com/msbn
The PSAC Title Game has been decided after all this time. Bloomsburg upended West Chester in one final matchup to win the division by virtue of a tiebreak. All three top teams ended with a 7-1 record in conference. Seems complicated because Bloom beat West Chester, but West Chester beat Shippensburg, and Shippensburg beat Bloomsburg, but somehow, Bloomsburg won the conference.
Slippery Rock turned it up late in the season to pick up wins with regularity. Slight edge goes to Slippery Rock. They are hot, hot, hot!
19 seconds is all it took for East Stroudsburg to score on their first possession. Robert Healy put on a Marshawn Lynch type show, pushing away several defenders to scamper in for the 58 yard score. That touchdown was East Stroudsburg's fastest since 1994.
ESU racked up 20 points in just six minutes on consecutive possessions. Robert Bleiler, ESU's top wideout, caught two for touchdowns, and Gerald Van De Cruz finished things off for the first quarter scoring.
The Warriors equaled their first quarter output by doing it again. 27 more points, 54 total points at the half. East Stroudsburg essentially dominated every single statistical category. Unfortunately, this was no contest.
It begins and ends with the play of Matt Soltes. The redshirt sophomore QB threw for 197 yards, which is awfully low for him, but he economically threw for six touchdowns on Saturday. His runners tallied three more.
To be fair, Millersville's defense fared a ton better against East Stroudsburg last week than Lock Haven did. The Bald Eagles allowed 696 total yards of offense to Millersville's 462, and Soltes threw for 462 yards by himself last week, and rushed for another 74 yards. So, in terms of a percentage, Soltes accounted for 77% of East Stroudsburg's offense against Lock Haven.
Soltes has already accounted for several PSAC and national records so far. He will be spectacular for two years to come.
In terms of positives for the Marauders, unfortunately there are not many to draw from this contest. Ian Sadon found a lot more openings in the second half. He finished his day with another solid 96 yard performance. Brent Collins returned five kickoffs for 147 yards, including a spectacular 65 yard return in the second half as well.
Of all players to throw a touchdown, who else than running back David Coates? Coates became the fourth player to throw for a touchdown this season. He found a wide open Kevin Porter on a trick play to put Millersville on the scoreboard.
As of the time of this blog, the team has already forgotten about this game and will have to look forward to next week's season conclusion.
In a sort of deja vu scheduling quirk, Millersville will play California on Saturday to end the 2013 campaign. Head Coach Greg Breitbach and the rest of the staff have continued to keep this season positive. Many aspects of Millersville's game have been radically changed. New plays, new players, new techniques, new mindset, and a lot more attention to certain details have all been instituted.
California lost to Mercyhurst last week 23-20. Anyone who isn't Bloomsburg or Slippery Rock will have to play out the final game and look forward to next season. It's a rather cutthroat playoff system, but you must be the best in an insanely competitive PSAC.
Cal has had a baffling season. They played so well against the East, including almost upsetting West Chester 38-31, but have played inconsistently against West opponents. Losses to IUP, Mercyhurst and Slippery Rock all show that they aren't a top team yet.
Last time Millersville played California, they scored 28 points, including 21 fourth quarter points. Laying it all on the line for one final game on senior day would mean a ton to the departing seniors. Those seniors include LB Jordan Rigby, WR Dominic Sanders, S David Rene, S Dan Miller, RV Dean May, DE Gilbert Ramos, C Alex Schwendeman, WR David Barnes and DT Doug Henninger.
They, along with the 1993 PSAC East champion football team, will be honored at home for a 4 p.m. start. Hope you can join us on MSBN then. www.millersvilleathletics.com/msbn
The PSAC Title Game has been decided after all this time. Bloomsburg upended West Chester in one final matchup to win the division by virtue of a tiebreak. All three top teams ended with a 7-1 record in conference. Seems complicated because Bloom beat West Chester, but West Chester beat Shippensburg, and Shippensburg beat Bloomsburg, but somehow, Bloomsburg won the conference.
Slippery Rock turned it up late in the season to pick up wins with regularity. Slight edge goes to Slippery Rock. They are hot, hot, hot!
Monday, November 4, 2013
From the Booth: Week Nine Edition
It was a homecoming of sorts for Kutztown Golden Bear coaches Drew Folmar, Ross Pennypacker, Jim Ketner and Dan Csencsitz, all former Millersville Marauder football players. Them, along with their players, showcased a fantastic game plan resulting in a 45-9 victory over Millersville on Saturday.
Coming into the game, it was a battle of two 1-7 teams searching for that next win. Kutztown did not wait offensively, scoring early and often. On Kutztown's first drive, QB Josh Luckenbaugh and company trucked down the field, ending in a Darrell Scott goal line run that resulted in a touchdown. They scored points on their next two drives as well.
Curtis Wortham finished his day nicely with three rushing touchdowns. He had torched Millersville in the past as well.
Worse, Millersville turned the ball over with two interceptions and a fumble. Kutztown paid them back in kind by scoring 21 points in total off of those three turnovers. Turnovers kill. It's that simple.
It could be said that Kutztown was opportunistic on this day. They only gained 338 offensive yards on Saturday. That's a far cry from the 624 given up against West Chester, or 521 against IUP, or 515 against LIU Post. Defense on head coach Greg Breitbach's and defensive coordinator Ron Rankin's has been cleaned up significantly as the weeks go by.
I asked Breitbach about third downs on Saturday's pregame show after noticing a trend. They had been a significant point of contention in the early part of the season. Millersville's 3rd down conversion rate has increased from 25% to 34.35%, and the opposition has dropped from 75% to 48.25%. Breitbach put ones on ones in meaningful drills, and they are paying off tremendously.
The next step is 4th down conversion, which teams don't appear afraid to go for it (50%).
RB Ian Sadon wrecked the field unlike he has at any point this season. Sure, it happened to be his fourth 100+ yard rushing game this season (Millersville outgained Kutztown 184-97 on the ground), but Sadon rushed for 168 of those yards, a touchdown (his team-leading 5th), averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Kutztown did not have an answer for Sadon.
That being the case, freshman QB Corey Unger struggled against a significant pass rush in his first start. Unger (10-21-2) threw for just 82 yards, and was sacked five times. Time did not present itself to find anyone open, and it showed. Unger had to use his legs to avoid situations, and his most popular play was a play action rollout that failed to find anyone open more often than not.
I would imagine that now that Unger has burned his what-would-be redshirt, he will likely get the start next Saturday against East Stroudsburg (6-3, 3-3) as well as in the season finale against California (6-3, 4-2). Last week was likely his first set of practices as a starter, so next week should hold a better result for him.
East Stroudsburg has been stuck in the PSAC East's middle ground for what seems like a few years now. They are led by one heck of a young quarterback named Matt Soltes. Soltes has completed almost 61% of his passes, and has thrown for an insane 28 touchdowns. Runners have rushed for 10 fewer.
As a result of this insane offense, opposing offenses are being outgained by 1,400 yards throughout the year. Perhaps one of ESU's problems happened to be a problem of IUP's—discipline. Warriors have taken a staggering 86 penalties for 687 total yards against.
Let's take a look around.
It looks pretty set in stone now that now-nationally ranked Slippery Rock will be the West's representative in the PSAC title game. The East isn't so set just yet. West Chester (6-0) has the division lead, but they must win an absolutely crucial game against Bloomsburg (5-1) this Saturday at home.
Unfortunately for the Golden Rams, they may have swept their home schedule so far, but they battled in some close games to Kutztown (22-21), California (38-31) and East Stroudsburg (34-20). Anything can happen in this game. If Franklin Quiteh is healthy, he will match up against his largest competition, Rondell White.
That will be fun to look out for.
Next week's broadcast will be from Eller-Martin Stadium in East Stroudsburg. The Marauder Pride Pregame Show presented by Homewood Suites by Hilton Lancaster will start at 12:30 p.m. for a 1:05 p.m. kickoff. You can listen here: www.millersvilleathletics.com/msbn
Coming into the game, it was a battle of two 1-7 teams searching for that next win. Kutztown did not wait offensively, scoring early and often. On Kutztown's first drive, QB Josh Luckenbaugh and company trucked down the field, ending in a Darrell Scott goal line run that resulted in a touchdown. They scored points on their next two drives as well.
Curtis Wortham finished his day nicely with three rushing touchdowns. He had torched Millersville in the past as well.
Worse, Millersville turned the ball over with two interceptions and a fumble. Kutztown paid them back in kind by scoring 21 points in total off of those three turnovers. Turnovers kill. It's that simple.
It could be said that Kutztown was opportunistic on this day. They only gained 338 offensive yards on Saturday. That's a far cry from the 624 given up against West Chester, or 521 against IUP, or 515 against LIU Post. Defense on head coach Greg Breitbach's and defensive coordinator Ron Rankin's has been cleaned up significantly as the weeks go by.
I asked Breitbach about third downs on Saturday's pregame show after noticing a trend. They had been a significant point of contention in the early part of the season. Millersville's 3rd down conversion rate has increased from 25% to 34.35%, and the opposition has dropped from 75% to 48.25%. Breitbach put ones on ones in meaningful drills, and they are paying off tremendously.
The next step is 4th down conversion, which teams don't appear afraid to go for it (50%).
RB Ian Sadon wrecked the field unlike he has at any point this season. Sure, it happened to be his fourth 100+ yard rushing game this season (Millersville outgained Kutztown 184-97 on the ground), but Sadon rushed for 168 of those yards, a touchdown (his team-leading 5th), averaging 5.7 yards per carry. Kutztown did not have an answer for Sadon.
That being the case, freshman QB Corey Unger struggled against a significant pass rush in his first start. Unger (10-21-2) threw for just 82 yards, and was sacked five times. Time did not present itself to find anyone open, and it showed. Unger had to use his legs to avoid situations, and his most popular play was a play action rollout that failed to find anyone open more often than not.
I would imagine that now that Unger has burned his what-would-be redshirt, he will likely get the start next Saturday against East Stroudsburg (6-3, 3-3) as well as in the season finale against California (6-3, 4-2). Last week was likely his first set of practices as a starter, so next week should hold a better result for him.
East Stroudsburg has been stuck in the PSAC East's middle ground for what seems like a few years now. They are led by one heck of a young quarterback named Matt Soltes. Soltes has completed almost 61% of his passes, and has thrown for an insane 28 touchdowns. Runners have rushed for 10 fewer.
As a result of this insane offense, opposing offenses are being outgained by 1,400 yards throughout the year. Perhaps one of ESU's problems happened to be a problem of IUP's—discipline. Warriors have taken a staggering 86 penalties for 687 total yards against.
Let's take a look around.
It looks pretty set in stone now that now-nationally ranked Slippery Rock will be the West's representative in the PSAC title game. The East isn't so set just yet. West Chester (6-0) has the division lead, but they must win an absolutely crucial game against Bloomsburg (5-1) this Saturday at home.
Unfortunately for the Golden Rams, they may have swept their home schedule so far, but they battled in some close games to Kutztown (22-21), California (38-31) and East Stroudsburg (34-20). Anything can happen in this game. If Franklin Quiteh is healthy, he will match up against his largest competition, Rondell White.
That will be fun to look out for.
Next week's broadcast will be from Eller-Martin Stadium in East Stroudsburg. The Marauder Pride Pregame Show presented by Homewood Suites by Hilton Lancaster will start at 12:30 p.m. for a 1:05 p.m. kickoff. You can listen here: www.millersvilleathletics.com/msbn
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