Gallery: (9-11-2026) 2026 Football at West Virginia Wesleyan
BUCKHANNON, W. Va. – The Shippensburg University football team scored points in all four quarters Thursday night while forcing three turnovers and four failed fourth-down conversions by host West Virginia Wesleyan as the Raiders wrapped up a long day in the Mountain State by defeating the Bobcats, 24-14, at Cebe Ross Field.
Shippensburg (1-1) outgained West Virginia Wesleyan (1-2) by a 381-222 margin but also turned the ball over twice and committed 10 penalties – three of which nullified touchdowns and a fourth that negated an interception on defense.
In fact, the contest saw the two teams combine for three interceptions, two lost fumbles, two additional fumbles, a blocked field goal, 17 penalties, 188 penalty yards, five failed fourth-down conversions and a third-down conversion rate of 23.3 percent (7-for-30).
Offensively, Shippensburg found its rhythm on several occasions. Quarterback
Roman Jensen was 19-of-30 for 257 yards and a touchdown in his second collegiate start. Jensen connected with eight different receivers and also scrambled for 17 yards on the ground.
Wide receiver
Chris Adegunle had a breakthrough game – hauling in six catches for 124 yards. His 61-yard touchdown reception in the first half gave Shippensburg a 14-7 lead that it took into the halftime intermission.
Adegunle appeared to have a second score, as he caught a perfect fade from Jensen in the corner of the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown, but a penalty assessed to the Raiders for five men in the backfield wiped out the score.
Andre Weidman and
BJ Jones each scored a touchdown on the ground. Weidman finished with 31 rushing yards; he scored from nine yards out to cap a 5-play, 55-yard drive that opened the game.
Jones also scored from nine yards out – his touchdown came with 21 seconds left in the third quarter and was the go-ahead score. It concluded the aforementioned drive in which Adegunle's potential second touchdown was nullified by penalty.
Like Adegunle, Jones had a second score taken off the board, as a 15-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run was nullified by a holding penalty. In the first half,
Christopher Cromartie caught a wheel route for a touchdown; that score also came off the board due to a holding penalty.
SU only ran 60 plays, but averaged 6.4 yards per play. WVW, meanwhile, ran 78 plays but averaged just 2.8 yards per play.
Alex Sauve was the defensive standout for the Raiders, finishing with a game-high 15 tackles that included 3.5 tackles-for-loss (TFLs). Of that total was an eight-yard sack. He also recovered a fumble in the first quarter that was forced by safety
Dave Hines Jr. – dislodging the ball one yard short of the Raider end zone. Sauve scooped up the loose ball and returned it 42 yards.
Peyton Stadler and
Tyler Opong were each credited with a sack. Linebackers
Debo Bumbrey and
Nasir Blount combined for 14 tackles. Bumbrey's standout performance included 2.0 TFLs, a forced fumble and a pass breakup.
Kaden Shope intercepted a pass for the second straight game.
Nate Myers had eight tackles and an interception but was ejected for targeting in the third quarter – pending a successful appeal – the assessment will force him to miss the first half of SU's next game.
The Raider defense limited West Virginia Wesleyan to 4-of-18 (22.2 percent) on third down and 2-of-6 on fourth down.
Wilson Ingerski had an active day kicking – he capped the game with a 27-yard field goal, sent four of his five kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, and also had two of his punts downed by Sauve inside the 5-yard line – including one on the Bobcat 1-yard line.
Another fascinating aspect of Ingerski's performance is that the host Bobcats did not have any special teams return yards. All but one of his kickoffs resulted in touchbacks (one ended up out-of-bounds just before the end zone). Of his six punts, there were the two downed inside the five-yard line, two resulted in a fair catch, and the other two were either downed or ended up out-of-bounds.
Fittingly, in a game that had featured just about everything else prior, the skies opened up with less than three minutes remaining and dumped rain through the final whistle that soaked the players and inhabitants alike.
The victory was the first for
Drew Gallardy '10 as the head coach of his alma mater.
Shippensburg returns to action in eight days when it hosts nationally-ranked IUP for a 1 p.m. conference crossover on Family Day at Seth Grove Stadium.
