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EAST STROUDSBURG - Zach Zulli threw for 496 yards and five touchdowns, leading a Shippensburg offense that gained 719 yards, in a 63-21 win at East Stroudsburg University in both school's PSAC East football opener on Saturday night at Eiler-Martin Stadium.

Junior wide receiver Dusty Reed had career-highs of 11 catches and 198 yards and went over 100 catches and 1,500 yards for the Warriors, who were coming off a 31-0 win over Lock Haven in their season opener last week. (Reed's 65-yard TD from Nate Daniels)

Zulli was 27-for-38 and set Shippensburg records for passing yards (496) and total offense (491). He was 21-for-28 for 422 yards and four touchdowns in the first half, helping the Red Raiders score 33 points in the second quarter to take a 40-14 halftime lead.

Zulli and Chris Lawshe (6-for-6, 110 yards, TD) accounted for 606 passing yards, third-most in PSAC history. Jacob Baskerville caught six passes for 134 yards and a TD, Trevor Harman had seven catches for 118 yards and a TD, Bryan Barley had three catches for 75 yards and two TD, and Sheldon Mayer had six catches for 69 yards and a TD.

Redshirt junior quarterback Nate Daniels was 9-for-20 for 131 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions for ESU. Redshirt freshman Matt Soltes came on to go 8-for-20 for 114 yards and led a fourth-quarter TD drive.

Daniels took the Warriors 93 yards on 14 plays on their opening possession, capped by a one-yard TD run by redshirt junior fullback Thomas Tippett. After Ship answered with a 43-yard pass from Zulli to Baskerville, ESU came right back as Daniels hit Reed for a 65-yard TD and a 14-7 lead at the 14:02 mark of the second quarter.

Ship began its second quarter scoring run with a 29-yard interception return by Corey Hunt to make it 14-13 after the extra point was blocked by redshirt sophomore cornerback Andrew Coyle. Zulli threw TD passes of 52 and 20 yards to Barley on Ship's next two possessions, tailback Mike Frenette scored on a one-yard run and fullback Kevin Herod pulled in a one-yard TD pass with 23 seconds remaining in the half.

Zulli threw a 16-yard TD pass to Mayer, Lawshe tossed a five-yard TD to Harman and ran for a four-yard TD to account for the second half scoring drives.

Soltes took ESU 71 yards on nine plays to finish the scoring as senior tailback Eric Deery had his sixth career TD with a two-yard run.

ESU hosts Cheyney next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Eiler-Martin Stadium as head coach Denny Douds coaches his 400th career game, extending the NCAA Division II record he set last season.

GAME NOTES
* Douds will become the 15th coach in NCAA history to coach 400 games, and 5th to coach his entire career at one school. He will tie Jess Neely (1924-66) for 14th on Oct. 6 vs. West Chester.
* Next week vs. Cheyney, ESU can become the 4th PSAC school to reach 450 all-time wins. Douds has been part of 278 of those wins, including a PSAC-record 233 as head coach.

* Reed's previous career-highs were 8 catches (three times) and 136 yards (2011 vs. Pace). He had 86+ yards in 8 games last year to set ESU sophomore records for catches (62) and yards (929).
* Reed has 107 catches for 1,532 yards in his career at ESU. R-Sr. WR Jordan Hallman went over 1,500 career yards last week vs. Lock Haven (7 catches, 179 yards, 3 TD) and has 1,557 in his career.
* Reed's 11 catches are the most since Ed Kiser had 11 in a 27-20 (OT) win at Kutztown in 2009.
* Reed also had a 25-yard kick return for 223 all-purpose yards on the night, surpassing the 2,000-yard mark for his career (2,006) -- 1,532 receiving, 124 rushing and 350 on kick returns.

* Fr. WR Brandon Mercer had 6 kick returns for 163 yards, 6th-most in school history. Mercer also had his first 2 career catches, for 16 yards.

* Two Warriors made their first career starts, sophomore linebackers Don Kinney, Jr. and Cody Simcox.
* Two Warriors saw their first career action, Fr. DB Teron Dobbs and Fr. TB Joe Welk.

* Saturday's game marked the 2nd time in school history that two QB's attempted at least 20 passes - Daniels was 9-for-20 for 131 yards and Soltes was 8-for-20 for 114 yards. In 1983 at Lehigh, Charlie Diskin was 11-for-20 for 112 yards and Andy Baranek was 3-for-22 for 51 yards.
* It was also just the 5th time that two QB's threw for 100 yards in a game. It also happened last year vs. Millersville, when Daniels threw for 182 yards and Ray Wagner threw for 172. Other occasions were 2008 at Millersville (Matt Marshall 258, Tim Roken 150), 2004 vs. Cheyney (Jimmy Terwilliger 195, Joe DeLuise 104) and 1989 at Kutztown (Tom Taylor 150, Bret Comp 113).

* Shippensburg's 606 yards passing and 719 yards total offense are both the most by an ESU opponent in school history. The 63 points are second-most behind a 70-10 loss at Division I-AA New Hampshire in 1998. Ship's 40 points in the first half are the third-most allowed in a half, and 33 points in the second quarter are tied for second. Ship led 31-0 at halftime in a 44-14 win last season.
* Ship's passing and total offense figures rank 3rd and 6th, respectively, in PSAC history.
* Zulli's 496 yards passing are the most by an opposing quarterback, surpassing Mike Mitros (West Chester), who had 481 yards in 1998. The 400-yard game is just the 4th allowed by an ESU defense.
* The last time ESU allowed a quarterback to pass for 400 yards was 1998 (Ameer Hayes, Cheyney). That was also the last time a team threw for 400 yards.
* The previous record for most yards allowed was 661 (582 rushing, 79 passing) at New Hampshire in 1998.