Shippensburg University´s football team celebrated its first win of the season in a rainy and windy contest against Bloomsburg to open the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division play with a 7-0 win on Saturday. 

A next-man-up mentality was prominent on Shippensburg´s team, as the fourth-string running back Tanner Hess was the starting running back and convinced with a career-high of 100 rushing yards. Hess later said getting the first win of the season felt “phenomenal.”

The Raiders also battled injuries on the quarterback position. Joey McCracken returned from injury and started the game but had to be substituted out in the second quarter due to a new injury. Freshman Sam Stoner took over at the quarterback position.

Bloomsburg won the coin toss and decided to kick the ball, so SU received the ball first.

The first drive was promising but ended in an interception in Bloomsburg´s territory, as passing proved to be difficult in the weather conditions.

Bloomsburg then put up a solid drive to get to Shippensburg´s 16-yard line but had trouble to hold onto the ball there. Quarterback KJ Riley fumbled the ball for the Huskies, but they were able to recover. In the next play, however, their running back Matt Buchmann rushed for seven yards when Shippensburg´s graduate Mike Brewer forced a fumble. The fumble was recovered by Shippensburg´s Ebrahim Cham, which marked the Raiders’ first fumble recovery of the year.

Starting at Shippensburg´s 13-yard line, SU´s offense covered good ground with its running game for the rest of the first quarter and remained in possession in the second quarter. Hess and fellow running back Onasis Neely took turns rushing throughout the drive, notching first downs along the way.

The Raiders continued their strong and patient running early in the second quarter. Then, in a third-down situation, McCracken found freshman Karim Brice with a pass for a 14-yard gain, putting the Raiders outside the endzone with three yards to go. Hess then ran for two yards at first-and-goal to put Shippensburg right outside the end zone.

In the next play, Hess rushed the final yard into the endzone for his first collegiate touchdown with 11 minutes to go in the first half. The following kick by Jaxson Montross was good, and the Raiders were up 7-0. The scoring drive comprised 17 plays, 87 yards and took 9 minutes and 16 seconds off the clock.

The following drives until halftime all ended in punts. Stoner replaced McCracken as quarterback in Shippensburg´s first drive after the touchdown.

The kickoff after halftime was returned for 12 yards by Bloomsburg, the only kickoff or punt return of the day.

The Huskies then had to punt again as the result from their first drive, and Shippensburg´s rushing offense ran hot again. The drive was aided by another key pass. This time, Stoner converted a fourth-and-seven  situation into a new first down. The pass was caught by Jaimen Bryant for a 24-yard gain that moved SU to Bloomsburg´s 4-yard line, right outside the endzone.

The next rushes were not good enough to put a second touchdown on the scoreboard, and a holding penalty on the offense line sent the Raiders 10 yards back. The drive ended with a narrowly missed kick by Montross at fourth-and-goal at Bloomsburg´s 14-yard line. This drive was 13 plays, 44 yards and 7 minutes and 52 seconds.

The following drives all resulted in punts. Among the punts was one from Montross for 53 yards.

In the penultimate drive of the game, Bloomsburg started at Shippensburg’s 43-yard line with 2:55 to go. They only had one timeout left, after using the other two to stop the clock from running between SU´s rushed earlier. 

The Huskies put together a solid drive but ran into a fourth-and-six situation at the Raiders´ 23-yard line with 1:45 to go, where they used their last timeout. In an all-or-nothing attempt ,they took a shot at the end zone, but the pass fell incomplete. .

The Raiders benefitted from a strong rushing offense that totaled 134 of the total 179 yards and a strong defense that earned their first shutout since 2019.

The defense was led by redshirt junior Isaiah Gilmore with a career-high 10 tackles. Graduate Evan Townsend-Henry contributed five tackles, two of which were tackles for loss.

Head coach Mark “Mac” Maciejewski said the team focused on basics in preparation for the game, as they could not prepare for the weather. “We just went back to basics and fundamentals and really focused on that this week,” Maciejewski said.

Going into next week, the confidence is back on the team after their 0-3 start to the season.

“The confidence is there. We needed one (win),” Hess said. “I think today we really just showed that we can win, we will win and we are going to continue to win.”

The team will travel to West Virgina next Saturday to take on the Shepherd University Rams in another PSAC East matchup at noon. 

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