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CHEYNEY - Junior tailback
Kendrick Williams ran 25 times for 105 yards and the Warriors' only touchdown as East Stroudsburg University ground out a 10-6 win over Cheyney on a snowy, rainy, muddy Saturday afternoon at O'Shields-Stevenson Stadium.
The Warriors' passing offense, ranked No. 1 in Division II with 387.8 yards per game, was shut down by the field conditions and redshirt senior quarterback
Ray Wagner, the DII leader in total offense, left the game due to injury in the first quarter but ESU prevailed with a stout defensive effort and the legs of Williams.
ESU held Cheyney to 0-for-2 in the red zone, including a stop at the goal line with six minutes left, and just 118 yards on 61 offensive plays - 62 yards on its final 53 plays - to earn its second win of the season and end a seven-game losing streak. The Wolves were 3-for-16 on third down and 1-for-5 on fourth down with the conversion coming by penalty.
Williams gave the Warriors an 8-6 lead with a five-yard, third-down run with 8:40 left in the third quarter after Cheyney turned the ball over at the nine when punter Tyler Wilkinson fielded a low snap with his knee on the ground.
Williams punched in the two-point conversion from the one-yard line for a 10-6 lead after the Warriors' initial extra point attempt was blocked. Cheyney players kicked the ball forward twice to advance it on their defensive two-point conversion attempt, drawing penalty flags and giving ESU another shot at the conversion.
The Warriors' first points came on a defensive two-point conversion, when redshirt senior linebacker
Taylor Cave returned a blocked PAT down the sideline to make the score 6-2. Cheyney struck first on a 36-yard pass from Chris Anderson to Prince Stewart on its second possession, just over five minutes into the game, but was stopped at the two-yard line in both of its red zone trips.
Freshman punter
Jordan Bair made another game-saving play, snaring a high, wide snap and getting off a punt from deep in the Warriors' territory with less than three minutes remaining. The defense forced a long fourth down after a sack by redshirt freshman defensive end
Brandon Gattelli, and redshirt sophomore outside linebacker
Thomas Chesko had an interception on the fourth down play with two minutes to play.
Williams ripped off a 49-yard run for ESU's longest offensive play in the second quarter but the Warriors were stalled in the red zone and a 30-yard field goal attempt by sophomore
Taylor Groff - 9-for-10 on the season - was short of the crossbar in the far less than ideal field conditions.
Wagner was 0-for-2 passing and ran three times for 20 yards but left the game in the first quarter. Redshirt sophomore quarterback
Nate Daniels came on to go 5-for-16 for 66 yards and an interception, sophomore wide receiver
Dusty Reed had three catches for 37 yards and redshirt sophomore fullback
Thomas Tippett had a 29-yard catch in the first half.
ESU had 190 yards on 53 plays and 124 yards on 35 rushes. Reed had a 43-yard return on the opening kickoff of the second half after Cheyney was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct after arriving late on the field, and ESU took advantage on the field position on its second possession of the half for its only TD.
ESU forced seven punts and another punting situation, when Cheyney's turnover resulted in the Warriors' TD, and had interceptions by redshirt senior outside linebacker
Bryan Billger and Chesko and its stand inside the 5-yard line in the second half.
Senior linebacker
Mike Bergey led the Warriors defense with nine tackles, 2.0 for a loss of yardage. Cave had eight tackles, Chesko had seven and sophomore safety
Derek Brown, a converted linebacker, had six. Three redshirt seniors - tackles
Cody Berry and
Rudy Cerami and end
Jon Weber - were credited with five stops each.
GAME NOTES
* Head coach
Denny Douds won his 231st career game one week after setting the Division II record with his 394th game on the sidelines. Douds is 231-161-3 in 395 games over 38 seasons at ESU.
* ESU extended its Division II-record streak of consecutive wins in an uninterrupted series against Cheyney to 32 games. The Warriors are 55-1 in the series with Cheyney's win coming by a 7-3 score in 1979.
* ESU won when trailing at halftime for the first time since beating Shippensburg, 44-41 (OT), for Douds' PSAC record-setting 213th win in 2008. The Warriors had lost 15 straight when trailing at the half.
* The Warriors won when scoring 10 points or less for the first time since a 10-0 shutout at Glenville State in the third game of the 2000 season.
* Williams had his fourth career 100-yard game and second of the season. His 25 carries are a career-high and mark his fourth career game with 20+ carries.
* ESU's offensive line has combined for 150 career starts after Saturday's game. R-Sr. C
Dan Caffrey has started all 43 games of his career, followed by R-Sr. LT
Zach Sarginger (31), R-Jr. RT
Wrenton Wright II (31), R-Jr. RG
Seve Rivers (29) and R-So. LG
Greg Blue (16).
* Cerami made his 30th career start, third most on the defense. Cave has 33 starts and R-Sr. CB
Shawnte Carroll has 32 starts.
* Wagner, who has gained 205 yards of total offense in less than three quarters of action over the last two games, still leads the PSAC in total offense (330.2) and passing (315.4) by more than 40 yards per game.
* Groff had his streak of six consecutive made field goals end in the 2nd quarter. He had also made a 40+ yard field goal in three straight games (and made 5 of the 11 40+ yard FG's in the PSAC this season), but was limited due to field conditions on Saturday.
* The defensive two-point conversion return is the Warriors' first since Michael Glover returned an interception 95 yards for two points at Cheyney in 2000. ESU's only other defensive two point play under Coach Douds was a return by Mike Rhine (on a lateral from Ian Geffers) in the Warriors' 23-12 upset of No. 1 IUP in 1996.
* ESU allowed only one tackle for a loss after entering the game ranked 2nd in DII with just 3.25 TFL allowed per game.
* Cheyney's longest gain on its 43 rushing plays was 6 yards.
* ESU had one first down in the second half - coming one play before Daniels threw his interception in the third quarter - and six for the game. It marks just the third time since 2000 that the Warriors have had less than 10 first downs in a game, and the fewest first downs in a victory since gaining six in a 36-13 win at Mansfield in 1995.
* Cheyney gained just eight first downs, the fewest by an ESU opponent since Lenoir-Rhyne had seven in the Warriors' 58-0 win in the 2003 season opener. That game was also the debut for then-redshirt freshman quarterback Jimmy Terwilliger.
* The 14 combined first downs are the third-fewest in 395 games under Coach Douds. ESU (9) and Cheyney (2) combined for 11 in ESU's 3-0 win in 1988, and Millersville (11) and ESU (1) combined for 12 in Millersville's 14-3 win in 1980.
* The 308 combined yards of total offense (ESU 190, Cheyney 118) are the fourth-fewest under Douds. ESU had 180 and Cheyney had 14 for 194 total yards in the 1988 game.
* The last time the Warriors held an opponent under 150 yards was the 2003 game vs. Lenoir-Rhyne (100).