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EDINBORO - Redshirt junior quarterback Matt Soltes threw for 502 yards and six touchdowns, four to senior wide receiver Dusty Reed, and found Reed for a 30-yard touchdown with 46 seconds left to seal a 47-34 win at Edinboro in PSAC football on Saturday afternoon.
 
ESU (2-1, 1-1) trailed just once in a back and forth game, but got a key defensive fourth-down stop while clinging to a 40-34 lead with seven minutes left. Soltes drove the offense 92 yards, erasing more than six minutes, and found Reed on a fourth-and-five to extend the lead to 13 points with less than a minute to go.
 
Soltes had 532 yards of total offense - 502 passing and 30 rushing - and tied a PSAC record with his fourth career 500-yard game. Reed had nine catches for 170 yards and four TD, R-Jr. WR Jon Schnaars had seven catches for 107 yards and a TD and R-So. TB Robert Healy had 22 total touches for 158 yards and two TD - eight catches for 98 yards and a score, and 14 carries for 60 yards and a TD.
 
Soltes threw three TD passes in the first quarter as the Warriors jumped out to a 20-7 lead, but Edinboro came back to go ahead 21-20 late in the first half. Soltes found Healy for a 57-yard TD with 15 seconds left in the half to put the Warriors ahead 27-21 going into the locker room.
 
Soltes hit Reed for a 39-yard TD - his third of the game - for a 34-21 lead just over 10 minutes into the third quarter. Edinboro came back with the next two scores and tied the game at 34-34 with 13:58 left in the fourth quarter.

ESU responded immediately, going 69 yards on six plays, capped by a three-yard TD run by Healy with 12:16 left. The extra point was blocked, giving ESU a 40-34 advantage.

Edinboro sixth-year redshirt quarterback Cody Harris (26-for-37, 268 yards, 4 TD) drove the Fighting Scots deep into ESU territory, but the Warriors held after second-and-five from the 10-yard line and Harris' fourth-down pass to Darren Massey (10 catches, 103 yards, 3 TD) in the flat was incomplete to give the ball back to the Warriors.

Soltes ripped off consecutive first downs on passes to R-Jr. FB Sam Benson, Jr. WR Gerard Wendowski and Reed, then hit Reed for a key first down on third-and-nine as ESU continued to take time off the clock.

The Warriors battled back after a 15-yard penalty to set up fourth-and-five from the 30 with 51 seconds left, and Soltes found Reed down the right sideline for their fourth TD of the game to seal the victory.

Soltes threw TD passes to Schnaars (31 yards) and Reed (7 and 3 yards) in the first quarter, followed by his 57-yarder to Healy at the end of the first half.

Harris opened Edinboro's scoring with a four-yard TD to Massey in the first quarter, and hit Massey for TD's of 28 yards in the third quarter and two yards early in the fourth. He also threw a one-yard TD to Nick Helwick in the second quarter and scored on a six-yard run before halftime.

ESU R-Sr. DL Bryan Thomson had his 12th career blocked kick, turning aside the extra point after Edinboro pulled with 34-27 with 6:44 left in the third quarter.

R-Sr. S Anthony Singlar had 15 tackles and Sr. LB Cody Simcox had 12 to lead the ESU defense. The Warriors had four sacks, including two by R-Sr. DL Josh Przywara. R-Sr. DE Brandon Gattelli had his 18th career sack.

Edinboro sacked Soltes twice. Neither team forced a turnover, just the fourth time in 421 games under ESU head coach Denny Douds that there were no turnovers in a game.

The Warriors host Lock Haven (0-3, 0-2) next Saturday at 3:05 p.m. LHU is coming off a 21-16 loss to IUP on Saturday.
 
 
GAME NOTES
* ESU head coach Denny Douds improves to 246-172-3 in his 41st season at ESU.
* Douds coached his 421st career game at ESU. He will tie Tubby Raymond for 10th in games coached in NCAA history next week against Lock Haven.
* Douds is tied for 21st on the NCAA all-time win list with former Dayton head coach Mike Kelly. He is 3rd among active NCAA coaches, 2nd among active DII coaches, 3rd in DII history and 1st in PSAC history in career wins (246).

* ESU improves to 12-6 in the all-time series. Douds is 10-6 against Edinboro since becoming head coach in 1974.
* This was the 12th meeting since 2000. ESU is 8-4 against Edinboro in that stretch.
 
* Soltes had his 4th career game with 500+ yards total offense, tied with ESU's Damian Poalucci for the most in PSAC history.
* ESU quarterbacks have 12 of the 18 500+ total offense games in PSAC history.
* Soltes has 4 of the top 14 games in total offense in PSAC history. He holds the single-game record with 666 yards (2012 at LIU Post) and had 542 yards vs. Bloomsburg and 536 vs. Lock Haven in 2013.
* Soltes had his 2nd career game with 500+ passing yards, tied with ESU's Damian Poalucci and Ray Wagner for the most in PSAC history.
* ESU quarterbacks have 7 of the 14 500+ passing games in PSAC history.

* Soltes is the only NCAA QB with at least 1 500+ yard total offense game in each of the last 3 years.  He has 4 total, tied for the most among active NCAA QB's (all divisions) with Washington State's Connor Halliday and Old Dominion's Taylor Heinicke.

* Soltes tied his career-high with 6 TD passes. He had 6 TD's (5 in the 1st half) in a 66-7 win over Millersville in 2013.
* Soltes had his 8th career game with 400+ yards of total offense, and 5th game with 400+ passing yards.
* Soltes leads the PSAC in passing (394.7 ypg) and total offense (437.0 ypg) through 3 weeks.

* Soltes continues to move up ESU career lists. He is now 3rd in career total offense (8,185 yards) and passing yards (7,049 yards), passing TD (66) and TD responsible for (rushing + passing) (71).
* He moved up 6 spots to 17th in PSAC history in career total offense (8,185).

* ESU had its 100th game with 300 yards passing in 421 games under Douds. The Warriors had 500+ yards (502) for the 8th time.
 
* Reed is the first ESU receiver with 4 TD in a game since Evan Prall had 5 against Lock Haven in his final career game in 2006.
* Reed had his 9th career 100-yard receiving game. His 170 yards are the 2nd-most in his career. His 9 catches are the 3rd-most in his career.
* Reed moved into 5th at ESU in career receptions (156), 7th in receiving yards (2,389) and 5th in TD (23).
 
* Schnaars had his 4th career 100-yard receiving game.
 
* Healy had 50+ rushing and receiving yards for the 3rd straight game. He is the first ESU player to do that in 3 straight games in 41 seasons under head coach Denny Douds.
* Healy has 39 carries for 197 yard and 2 TD, and 18 catches for 255 yards and 3 TD, through 3 games. He has already surpassed his 2013 totals of 13 catches, 204 yards and 2 TD.
* Healy set an ESU freshman record with 1,129 rushing yards in 2013, and had 1,333 yards from scrimmage - an ESU record for a back.
* Healy has 454 yards from scrimmage and 5 TD on 57 touches this season.
* He ranks 3rd in the PSAC in yards from scrimmage per game (150.7).

* Thomson's blocked PAT extended his school record for career blocked kicks to 12. He has blocked 8 PAT's and 4 field goals - including a FG last week that was returned for a 95-yard TD by Jr. CB Teron Dobbs.
 
* Two Warriors made their first career starts - Sr. TB Derrick Dyer and R-So. DE Ahmad McFarland.