EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The ESU football team returned to Eiler-Martin Stadium off its bye week Saturday night, blowing out the Lackawanna Falcons, 51-0, in the first meeting between the two programs.
It was an all-around effort on both sides of the ball for the Warriors, outgaining the Falcons, 476-147. On the offensive side of the ball, ESU rushed for 280 yards and averaged 8.5 YPC. Leading the way was senior QB
Harrison Susi, who ran the ball seven times for 67 yards. With an equal number of carries, junior RB
Cade Sawyer added 53 yards, finding the end zone twice. While Susi threw for 65 yards and completed just over half of his passes, junior QB
Matt Machalik had his most productive day as a Warrior, going 4-for-7 for 103 yards through the air and 43 yards on the ground, accounting for two total touchdowns. Fifth-year WR
Elijah Ford was the go-to target for both quarterbacks, totaling 56 yards and a touchdown.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Warriors had their best outing in every facet of the operation. ESU recorded a staggering 15 tackles for loss while getting to the quarterback for four sacks. Senior DL
Terrell Reynolds and fifth-year DL
Jake Williamson had 3.0 TFL each, while Reynolds recorded 1.5 sacks and Williamson had 1.0. Junior DL
Leo Bluestein and junior LB
Camerin Gross each had 2.0 TFL as well, with Bluestein recording one sack and forcing a fumble that the Falcons recovered. Gross applied pressure to the Falcons all night up at the line of scrimmage, picking off a short pass and breaking up another. Junior DB
Tristan McLeer had the other turnover for the ESU defense, picking off a pass in the second half for his second career interception. McLeer's nine tackles led the Warriors in that category on the night, while senior LB
Mason Smith was a close second, racking up eight tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
For the first time in 2026, ESU kicked off to start the game. The defense did its job, forcing a turnover on the fifth play of the game. QB David Naniewicz dropped back to pass and targeted WR Khi-Lee Patterson on a short route near the line of scrimmage. Naniewicz didn't see Gross, who stepped right in front of Patterson for the early interception, giving ESU possession on the Lackawanna 33-yard line. Susi moved the chains on a 4
th and 3, connecting with junior WR
Danny Dyches for an 11-yard gain to keep the drive alive as ESU entered the red zone. A holding penalty wiped out a designed run for Susi that would have given the Warriors a 7-0 lead, but senior K
Ty Quintois got ESU on the board with a 32-yard chip shot halfway through the first quarter.
Lackawanna appeared to go three-and-out on the ensuing drive, but the special teams unit for the Falcons drew ESU offsides for an automatic first down. Naniewicz completed a 14-yard pass to WR Jamal Jefferson Jr. to cross midfield, but ESU kept the Falcons out of field-goal range. Lackawanna's punter, Samuel Magnotta, pinned the Warriors on their own one-yard line, with ESU unable to get a first down. Senior P
Adam Noll flipped the field back in the Warriors' favor, booting one all the way from his own end zone to the Lackawanna 26-yard line.
ESU pushed Lackawanna 14 yards backwards on the next drive, as Gross and Williamson dropped RB Jalen Fletcher for a six-yard loss to start the drive, and Reynolds and senior DL
Ashton Blose teamed up for an eight-yard sack. Magnotta's follow-up punt was less successful than his last one, only going 23 yards and setting ESU up on the Falcons' 35-yard line. With 35 seconds remaining in the quarter, the Warriors used a defensive pass interference penalty and two rushes by
Cade Sawyer to score in three plays as time expired in the period, giving ESU a 10-0 advantage after the first 15 minutes.
The Warriors got the ball back quickly after another punt, with Machalik taking over mid-drive at quarterback. Facing a 2
nd and 20, he scrambled left and picked up 15 yards to set up a 3
rd and manageable. Instead, he took a shot down the left sideline, throwing it up for Ford, who won the jump ball just outside the Lackawanna red zone on the 21-yard line. Machalik got ESU all the way down to the one-yard line on another scramble, as Sawyer finished the job with the touchdown run on the goal line.
The Warriors' defense forced three straight three-and-outs, allowing zero yards combined on those drives. The Falcons went for it on 4
th and 1 from their own 34, but Reynolds and Gross stopped RB Daniel McConomy behind the line of scrimmage for a one-yard loss to cause the turnover on downs. ESU faced a fourth down of its own, calling a timeout to think over a 4
th and 3 on the Lackawanna 26-yard line. Going to play action with a fake run to the right, Susi rolled to his left on a bootleg and hit fifth-year FB
Matt Frame at the 17- yard line, breaking tackles all the way to the endzone, making it 24-0 with 3:18 left in the second quarter.
The Falcons got their first first down in nearly a full quarter of play, albeit by a roughing the passer penalty on the Warriors, but their drive would stall out from there. ESU got the ball back with 1:37 before halftime, putting in Machalik for the two-minute drill. He started the drive with a strike to junior WR
Joey Wilkinson, picking up 24 yards to get down to the Lackawanna 30-yard line. After giving Ford a chance in the endzone that fell incomplete, he checked it down to fifth-year RB
Deante Crawford on a screen pass, following a convoy of blockers all the way to the seven-yard line. On the next play, Machalik made several Falcons miss, hurdling a defender and shedding a late tackle to put ESU ahead 31-0.
Coming out of the break, Quintois cleaned up a drive that fizzled out with a 44-yard field goal, completing his night with a 2-for-2 stat line on field goal attempts. The Falcons' offense failed to generate anything after regrouping in the locker room, with Williamson putting them behind the chains to set up a third-and-long. Junior DB
Harold Hill IV broke up the pass on third down, one of his two PBUs on the night, as Magnotta's punt only went 15 yards. Machalik handled the second drive of the half for the Warriors, ending it in four plays with an 18-yard touchdown to Ford on a corner route in the back right of the endzone.
Lackawanna's next drive saw the Falcons make it the furthest into ESU territory they'd get Saturday night, knocking on the door of the red zone at the 26-yard line. That drive came to a halt as McLeer jumped in front of a pass to the sideline at the ESU 20-yard line, forcing the second and final turnover of the game for ESU. However, Lackawanna came right back with an interception of its own, as DB Robert Nelson read a pass over the middle thrown by Susi, setting up the Falcons at their own 40-yard line. The Warriors' defense kept the Falcons on their own side of the field, forcing a punt on three plays.
Carrying over into the fourth quarter, sophomore RB
Jackson Jankowicz got the first carry of the frame, taking it 43 yards for the score on his only touch of the game. WR
Jareel Calhoun came into the game as the Warriors' punt returner, totaling 43 yards on his first two chances. His second return set up a drive that ended in another field goal for ESU, this time with sophomore K
Parker Johnson making the attempt for his first career points. Johnson, who's taken over as ESU's kickoff specialist, had seven touchbacks on 10 kicks. Quintois, meanwhile, accounted for 12 points between his two field goals and six PATs. Johnson's field goal stood as the final score for ESU, keeping the Falcons off the scoreboard in the 51-0 victory.
GAME NOTES
- As the score would suggest, ESU dominated the game in every facet of its operation. The Warriors held the Falcons to just 2.5 yards per play, outgaining them on the ground 280 to 31. Lackawanna averaged a hair less than one yard per rushing attempt. Looking at total offense, ESU had a +329 advantage in that department, its largest since outgaining Shippensburg on the road by 402 yards in a 45-0 win on Nov. 2, 2024.
- Entering the game with 14 combined tackles for loss through its first three games, the ESU defense's explosion for 15 on Saturday night was a historic performance for the Warriors. Dating back to 2002, ESU has only recorded 15 tackles for loss one other time: last season against Pace in similar conditions on a rainy night at Eiler-Martin Stadium.
- The Warriors haven't had many first meetings against a team go as dominatingly their way as their game against Lackawanna went tonight, winning in a 51-0 shutout. It was their largest point differential in the opening game of a series since beating Seton Hill by 63 points, 70-7, on Sept. 14, 2013, as well as their largest and most recent shutout in a first game since Sept. 4, 2010, when they defeated Pace 57-0.
UP NEXT
Now 3-1 and entering PSAC East play, ESU hosts West Chester next weekend to conclude its three-game homestand. Taking on the Golden Rams for Homecoming Weekend, kickoff is slated for 1:05 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, at Eiler-Martin Stadium.
