Box Score
ERIE, Pa. – The Shippensburg University football team racked up 475 yards of total offense on Saturday afternoon, scored 31 points before halftime and forced five turnovers in a convincing 41-13 road victory over Gannon from University Field – the first win for SU head coach Mark 'Mac' Maciejewski '92/'96M.

Shippensburg (1-1) ran 91 plays in Saturday's game, the third-most in SU single-game history and the most since Nov. 12, 1983 against James Madison. The Red Raiders scored three touchdowns and totaled 153 yards in the first quarter with two different quarterbacks, five different running backs and seven different wide receivers.

A 13-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Zach Zulli to senior tight end Brian Heitz culminated a 15-play, 86-yard touchdown drive that put the Red Raiders up 21-0 with 1:55 remaining in the first quarter. At that point in the contest, SU held a 70-4 advantage in rushing yards and a 12-3 advantage in first downs without having committed a penalty.

“The offense came right out and scored like last week, and that really helped to put the opponent on their heels,” said Maciejewski, who got doused with Gatorade after the game and was presented by the team with the game ball. “The kids played hard for 60 minutes, but there are still a lot of things that we need to fix and improve.”

Zulli entered the game on Shippensburg's fourth series in relief of junior quarterback Steven Adams, who started the game and led the Red Raiders to a touchdown on the first drive of the game. A methodical 10-play, 56-yard drive ended with an Adams touchdown pass to redshirt freshman Trevor Harman – his third trip into the end zone in two games.

Gannon (0-2) tied the score at 7-7 after pinning the Red Raiders deep in their own territory and intercepting a pass that put the ball on the SU 26-yard line. Golden Knight quarterback Daniel Tapscott throw a touchdown pass on the next play to even the score.

Big plays and turnovers were the theme of the first half and Shippensburg soon recorded its first to set up a touchdown. On a third-down play, sophomore defensive end Dainen Green recorded a sack-fumble that was recovered by junior linebacker Cody Fleming at the Gannon 23-yard line. One play later, Zulli entered the game as the signal caller and threw a touchdown strike to junior Bryan Barley.

Green had a monster game, recording three sacks for a loss of 23 yards. After struggling to reach the quarterback last week at Shepherd, the Red Raider defense totaled four sacks and intercepted three passes while recording 12 tackles for loss.

Late in the second quarter, Zulli orchestrated a 9-play, 62-yard touchdown drive in just 2 minutes 9 seconds that put the Red Raiders up 28-7. The drive was capped off with a 40-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Zack Kinney.

Still before halftime, SU went 66 yards in 44 seconds to set up a 36-yard field goal by sophomore Drew Newcomer – the longest of his young career. A 32-yard strike to Barley preceded 17 and 11-yard throws to Harman that put SU on the Gannon 25-yard line in just three plays. Newcomer's kick came with 25 seconds left in the half after the drive stalled in the red zone.

With less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter, Shippensburg forced a turnover on downs and then scored a touchdown after three plays. A 13-yard catch and run by junior Kevin Herod and an 8-yard scamper by junior Mike Frenette set up a 52-yard touchdown throw from Zulli to Barley.

Fleming intercepted a pass on the next drive and returned it to the Gannon 38-yard line. The drive carried over into the fourth quarter and Newcomer kicked a 33-yard field goal to make the score 41-13 with 13:38 remaining. Fleming finished the game with eight tackles – two for loss – along with his interception, fumble recovery and two pass breakups.

Defensively, sophomore Mike Goode led Shippensburg with nine tackles and also picked off a pass in the third quarter. Goode had made tackles on the previous two pass plays before making the interception with Gannon nearing the red zone.

Fellow sophomore Tyriq Kershaw made eight tackles and forced a fumble on the fourth-quarter kickoff after Newcomer's field goal that was recovered by junior safety Corey Hunt. Late in the fourth quarter, Hunt intercepted a pass by Golden Knight backup quarterback Gabe Hernandez that thwarted another drive close to the red zone.

Zulli finished the day 20-of-34 for 298 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran for 28 yards. In two games, he has thrown for 575 yards and eight touchdowns.

Barley caught four balls for 113 yards and two touchdowns – his first triple-digit receiving yard total since he achieved a career-high 138 yards in a road win last season at East Stroudsburg.

Harman had seven catches for 82 yards and his touchdown. In two games, Harman leads the Red Raiders with nine receptions, 134 receiving yards and three touchdowns.

Shippensburg has its first home game of the season at 1 p.m. Saturday from SU Student Association Field at Seth Grove Stadium. The Red Raiders will host Clarion while donning its new home uniforms and with a new video scoreboard in place at the stadium.

Notes: SU's 68 points in the first two games of the season are its most in two games to open a season since 2004 (70 points)…Shippensburg scored on all four of its trips into the red zone and converted 8-of-20 third-down plays…Frenette had 112 all-purpose yards, including a team-high 52 rushing yards…eight different players had at least one carry…Gannon won the only previous meeting between the two teams, 22-19 in 2010…the Red Raiders are 7-3 against the PSAC Western Division since shifting to the PSAC Eastern Division at the start of the 2008 season.