SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. — Shippensburg will kick off its 107th season of competitive football at 1 p.m. Saturday from SU Student Association Field at Seth Grove Stadium with a matchup against No. 19 Shepherd in the 15th annual Great Valley Classic.
Live video coverage of the game will be provided by Shippensburg University's student television station (SUTV) and can be accessed online at
www.ship.edu/goraiders. The game will also be shown on terrestrial television on Comcast community channel 21 and campus channel 82.
A student radio broadcast of the game will be available on 88.7 FM in Shippensburg and can be accessed online at
www.wsyc.org.
This is the second consecutive season that Shippensburg has begun with a four-game winning streak that dates back to the previous year. The Raiders have not won five consecutive games since weeks 7-11 of the 2009 campaign.
The Red Raiders returns 39 letterwinners and 23 starters from last season – including 10 on both offense and defense. The team's captains are senior running back
Mike Frenette, senior safety
Corey Hunt, senior defensive tackle
Mark Kahlil Smith and senior quarterback
Jeff Tomasetti. The team boasts 13 seniors on its roster.
Shippensburg was picked to finish fifth in the PSAC Eastern Division preseason coaches poll released in early August. The Raiders went 7-4 last season, scored 411 points and were ranked among the Top 5 PSAC teams in 18 major statistical categories.
Shepherd, meanwhile, was voted to finish in the top spot in the WVIAC Football Coaches Preseason Poll released in late July. The Rams received six first-place nods and 76 poll points and after going 9-2 last season, look to claim the WVIAC title for the sixth time since 2004.
Great Valley Classic
• The Great Valley Classic was first instituted in 1998 and is named in recognition of the two schools and their locations in the Great Appalachian Valley. Shippensburg, nestled in the Cumberland Valley, and Shepherd, tucked into the Shenandoah Valley, are approximately one hour apart from one another.
• Shepherd is 10-4 in the Great Valley Classic and has won 10 of the last 12 meetings over the Red Raiders dating back to 2000. Shippensburg is 2-5 in Great Valley Classic games held at Seth Grove Stadium.
• Overall, Shippensburg has opened its season against Shepherd 22 times in history — totaling an 11-11 record which includes a 33-10 victory in the first opener between the teams back in the 1965 season.
• SU is 57-46-4 all-time in season-opening games. Shippensburg has lost its last six season openers, however, all to Shepherd in the Great Valley Classic. SU's last season-opening win came in 2005 at Kutztown, 10-7.
Much more information is available in the game notes, which can be accessed above.
