Box Score

MILLERSVILLE – Redshirt senior quarterback Matt Marshall threw four touchdown passes, sophomore tailback Kendrick Williams tied a school record with four rushing touchdowns and East Stroudsburg University held Millersville to 93 yards passing in a 65-14 win on Saturday afternoon at Biemesderfer Stadium.

The Warriors (2-6) led 51-7 at halftime as they broke a six-game losing streak, their longest skid since 1987. Marshall was 18-for-22 for 257 yards and all four TD passes in the first half and finished 20-for-26 for 268 yards, and redshirt senior wide receiver Ed Kiser hauled in six catches for 148 yards and two TDs.

Williams had his first career 100-yard rushing game with 127 yards on 18 carries and scored on runs of 6, 2, 8 and 63 yards. He is the fifth ESU running back to score four rushing TDs in a game and the first since Joe Partridge in 2007.

Redshirt senior outside linebacker Matt Freed led the defense with 11 tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble and an interception and hit two career milestones along the way. The two-time All-America selection passed Dan Murray (1984-87) for third in school history with 364 career tackles and has 21 career sacks.

Junior safety Herschel Thornton and senior cornerback David Castillo also had interceptions and Castillo and junior linebacker Mike Bergey recovered fumbles for the ESU defense, which forced five total turnovers.

Millersville (2-6) was fourth in the PSAC averaging 251 yards passing, but ESU harassed senior quarterback Bill Shirk into a 9-for-26 afternoon that included a season-high three interceptions for the Warriors' defense. Jamal Smith had one catch for 21 yards after entering the day ranked seventh in Division II with 121.4 yards per game.

ESU outgained the Marauders 524-204, with Marshall and redshirt junior Ray Wagner (2-for-4, 66 yards) combining for 334 yards passing and Williams leading a rushing attack that produced a season-high 208 yards.

The Warriors scored 48 points in a 16-minute stretch from 2:54 in the first quarter until 1:43 in the second quarter. Freshman Taylor Groff made a 42-yard field goal, his 11th of the season, on ESU's first drive and the offense put the ball in the end zone on seven of its final eight possessions of the first half.

Williams scored the first of his three first-half touchdowns late in the first quarter, capping a 13 play, 80-yard drive with a six-yard run. Freed forced a fumble which Castillo recovered at the 19-yard line on Millersville's next offensive play, and Marshall hit freshman fullback Darius Jackson for a seven-yard touchdown on the third play of the drive to make it 17-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Millersville cut the lead to 17-7 with 10:15 left in the second quarter as Fateen Brown scored on a two-yard run to help the Marauders capitalize on a blocked punt, but the momentum was short-lived.

The Warriors put 34 points on the board in a 7:05 stretch in the second quarter, rolling up 198 yards with Marshall going 10-for-12 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. Williams scored on runs of two and eight yards, the first set up by a 42-yard pass from Marshall to Kiser, and the defense forced turnovers on three plays in a four-play stretch.

Marshall hit freshman tailback Dusty Reed for a 14-yard TD one play after Bergey recovered a fumble, Thornton picked off Shirk's next pass leading to Williams' eight-yard run on the Warriors' second offensive play, and Marshall hooked up with Kiser for a 15-yard scoring play on the second snap after Freed's interception. Marshall and Kiser connected again on a 19-yard TD to finish the half after a seven play, 61-yard drive.

After a scoreless third quarter, Shirk engineered a 14 play, 95-yard drive that culminated in an eight-yard touchdown pass to Greg Frantz on the first play of the fourth quarter. The scoring march accounted for nearly half of Millersville's 204 yards in the game.

Williams answered right back for the Warriors on the first play of their ensuing possession, breaking a tackle at the line of scrimmage and sprinting 63 yards past the Marauders' secondary for his fourth touchdown of the day. The run was the longest of Williams' career and put him over the 100-yard mark for the first time in his 14th career start.

ESU finished the scoring midway through the fourth quarter on a six-yard run by redshirt freshman tailback Joe Klebon, his first career rushing touchdown after catching two TD passes earlier in the season. Wagner hit redshirt sophomore wide receiver Jordan Hallman for 45 yards and Kiser for 21 yards in his first action since the season-opening 57-0 win at Pace.

The Warriors are back at home next Saturday with a 1 p.m. game against Cheyney on an afternoon that will include two special dedications. The President's box will be named the Dr. Jake Piatt '61 President's Box during a halftime ceremony, and the playing surface will be named Gregory-Douds Field at Eiler-Martin Stadium in a ceremony immediately following the game.


Game Notes
* ESU's strength of schedule through its first seven games was the 10th-toughest in Division II, and the Warriors' last six opponents had a combined record of 32-10 entering this weekend
* The Warriors have won nine of their last 10 meetings with Millersville to improve to 37-24-1 in the all-time series
* The 65 points and 51-point margin of victory are both the highest totals for ESU vs. Millersville in 62 meetings (previous records – scored 54 points in 2004, won 44-3 last season)
* The 65 points are also the most scored by an ESU team since hitting the mark twice in the first three games in 2005 (72-17 at Bentley in season opener, 66-49 at C.W. Post in week 3)
* ESU last scored 50 points in a half in the game at Bentley, leading 58-3 at intermission

* Marshall's completion percentage of 76.9 (20-for-26) is the fourth-best single-game effort by an ESU quarterback and the second-best of his career, following a 79.3-percent performance (23-for-29) vs. Clarion last season
* His mark of 18-for-22 (81.8) in the first half would have set the school record (81.0, 17-21 – Tom Taylor vs. Southern Conn., 1989)
* Marshall has 5,950 career passing yards and can become the fifth QB in school history to hit the 6,000-yard mark next Saturday – he is 441 yards behind Jeremy Palm for fourth all-time
* He passed Palm and Andy Baranek for fourth in career completions with 442 and is 43 behind Bret Comp for the third spot
* He had his fifth career game with at least four TD passes and has 57 in his career, five behind Palm for the third spot at ESU

* Kiser had the fourth 100-yard receiving game of his career and has 107 catches for 1,734 yards and 12 TDs in his career
* He caught a pass for the 31st consecutive game, tying Anthony Carfagno for ESU's second-longest streak since 2002
* He had his first two 30+ yard receptions of the season and has 12 pass plays over 30 yards in his career, including a 96-yarder from Tim Roken at Millersville two years ago
* Kiser leads the Warriors with 40 catches for 485 yards and had his second and third TD catches of the year, and has 19 catches for 280 yards over the past three weeks

* Marshall and Wagner completed passes to nine different receivers
* Darius Jackson's seven-yard TD catch was his first career score and gives the Warriors nine players with TD receptions this season, he also caught a 31-yard pass in the second quarter
* Dusty Reed leads ESU with six TD catches in his first eight career games (26 catches, 328 yards)

* Williams' 4 rushing TDs tie the school record originally set by Danny Roskos in 1946 that has since been tied by Johnny Lee Davis (1990), Stewart Ford (1999) and Joe Partridge (2007)
* He is the 13th Warrior to record a 100-yard rushing game since 2000 and the first of the 2010 season
* Williams ran for 96 yards on 19 carries in last year's 44-3 win vs. Millersville
* He entered the game with 3 career rushing TDs, including his first of the season last week at C.W. Post

* Freed has 10+ tackles in 22 of his 31 career starts and 343 of his 364 career tackles as a starter since the start of the 2008 season
* He has 42.5 career tackles for a loss, 21 sacks, five interceptions, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries
* Castillo's interception was his second of the season and the eighth of his career
* Thornton had his second interception of the year and is second on the team behind Freed (85) with 61 tackles
* So. CB D'Jon Tillman made his second career start in the secondary

* Groff is 11-for-15 on field goals this season – 7-7 under 40 yards, 4-7 from 40-49 yards and 0-1 over 50
* He has made at least one field goal in the first eight games of his college career
* He is 28-for-30 on extra points, going 8-for-9 on Saturday (one blocked)
* He is the fifth ESU kicker to make 8+ extra points in a game