GANNON Golden Knights (4-2, 3-2 PSAC West) at EDINBORO Fighting Scots (1-5, 1-4 PSAC West)

Date:  Thursday, October 16, 2014
Site:  Edinboro, Pa.
Stadium:  Sox Harrison Stadium (6,000)
Kickoff: 7:00 p.m.
Next:  Thurs., Oct. 23 at Mercyhurst 7:00 p.m.
Radio/TV
Radio     WFSE FM 88.9 -- Ron Raymond (play-by-play) and Mike Fenner (color commentary)
                                http://www.boroonline.com.
TV                           SPORTSfever Network – Dan Watson and Scott Bacon
Live Stats:   http://www.sidearmstats.com/edinboro/football/

Edinboro Game Notes
Gannon Game Notes
PSAC Weekly Notes

The Game Story

Edinboro picked up its first win of the season on Saturday with a 56-28 triumph at Clarion. It snapped the worst start to a season for the Fighting Scots since 1955, when Edinboro also lost its first five contests. The Fighting Scots have little time to celebrate while facing a short turnaround with Thursday's game against Gannon. It marks the second of three straight night games and the first of back-to-back Thursday night games. Edinboro has not hosted a Thursday night game at Sox Harrison Stadium since dropping a 24-21 decision to Mercyhurst in 2008.

Head coach Scott Browning knew that the first half of the 2014 schedule was going to be difficult, but it may have been even more arduous than he imagined. Along the way Edinboro faced the top two preseason favorites in the PSAC West, two of the top four in the Eastern Division, plus a nationally-ranked team in Carson-Newman. The combined record of the first five opponents is 22-7, with four of the five teams checking in with one loss (East Stroudsburg, California(Pa.), and IUP at 5-1 and Carson-Newman at 4-1). The combined record of the five remaining teams on the schedule is 12-18, and that includes a Slippery Rock team that is 5-1 and a Gannon team that is 4-2.
Gannon jumped out to a 4-0 start but the Golden Knights have suffered back-to-back losses by a total of ten points. The Golden Knights suffered a 31-28 loss at Slippery Rock two weeks ago before droppoing a 45-38 shootout with Mercyhurst last Saturday. The 4-0 start was Gannon's best start since 1949.

A young Edinboro defense that is playing five freshmen or redshirt freshmen has been growing up a lately. The Fighting Scots had a bend-but-don't-break showing against Indiana(Pa.), holding the Crimson Hawks to a sole touchdown and three field goals. The defense held IUP to 351 total yards and sacked IUP quarterback Chase Haslett four times after he had been sacked just three times in the previous four games. Last week the Scots limited Clarion to 245 yards in total offense, including just 36 yards rushing. One of Clarion's touchdowns came on a blocked punt and another followed a turnover in Edinboro territory. The unit had the misfortune of facing four high-powered yet distinct offenses in the first four games. First came the bruising veer option attack run by a Carson-Newman team that finished fourth in the country in rushing last year and finished with 342 yards rushing.  The next week Edinboro had to try to slow down a multi-faceted Shippensburg offense that ended up rushing for 246 yards and passing for 233 more.  That was followed by East Stroudsburg's high-flying passing game.  ESU?quarterback Matt Soltes would throw for 502 yards as the Warriors finished with 590 total yards. A balanced California(Pa.) team finished with 382 yards. The defense struggled in the first half but limited the Vulcans to just a pair of field goals in the second half.

The Edinboro offense had made strides over the first three weeks before struggling against two of the PSAC's better defenses in California(Pa.) and IUP defenses. At the heart of the problem was an inability to generate a running game or protect the quarterback. The Fighting Scots were held to 325 total yards, and finished with minus 12 yards rushing at Cal. That is the third-lowest single game total in school history. Two weeks ago the Scots were held to 129 total yards and had minus 6 yards rushing, the fourth-lowest total ever. Edinboro quarterbacks have been sacked a league-high 36 times in six games, including nine times by IUP. Edinboro ranks 165th out of 167 teams in Division II in sacks allowed.  

Granted a sixth season of eligibility, Cody Harris is off to a strong start. He has thrown for 1,392 yards and has 14 TDs compared to just one interception. He has added four touchdowns rushing as he has accounted for 18 of Edinboro's 20 offensive touchdowns. Harris played in just the first two games a year ago before suffering a season-ending injury. Edinboro averaged 35 points and 454.5 total yards in the first two games but just 19.6 points and 283.1 total yards over the final nine contests.  Harris was a second team All-PSAC West selection in 2011 and '12.   

Edinboro was picked to finish sixth in the PSAC West in the coaches' preseason poll for the second straight year. Gannon was right ahead of the Fighting Scots in fifth place after a 6-5 finish year ago.

The Carson-Newman contest was the first of three Thursday games the Fighting Scots will play in 2014. Edinboro will also face local rivals Gannon and Mercyhurst on Thursday evenings. The Scots hosts Gannon on Thursday, October 16 in the first Thursday night contest at Sox Harrison Stadium since 2008. Next week Edinboro plays for the first time at Erie Veterans Stadium since 1982 as Mercyhurst hosts the Scots on Thursday, October 23.

Edinboro Celebrates Fighting Scots Fighting Cancer vs. Gannon
 
Thursday's game against Gannon is the annual Fighting Scots Fighting Cancer Game. Players will wear pink items and donations will be collected with the assistance of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority. All proceeds will benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Edinboro will also host events later this month for women's soccer and volleyball.  

On TV/Radio
The Edinboro-Gannon will be televised live on ESPN3 and ESPN?Game Plan courtesy of the SPORTSfever Television Network. In addition, it will be shown on a replay basis on Fox Sports Ohio and Root Sports.  Scott Bacon and Dan Watson will provide the commentary.  The complete schedule is below. The game can be heard live on WFSE FM 88.9, with Ron Raymond providing the play-by-play and Mike Fenner the commentary
.
LIVE
ESPN 3 and ESPN Game Plan
Blue Ridge Cable Network
Tribune Broadcasting
WPMT
WPHL (Philadelphia, Lancaster, South Jersey, Delaware, Lehigh Valley)
WETM (Elmira, Northern PA: 18.2, Blue Ridge 8, Time Warner 11)
 
SAME DAY DELAY
Fox Sports Ohio -- Midnight
 
REPLAY
Fox Sports Ohio -- Friday, Oct. 17 -- 12 noon
Root Sports -- Wednesday, Oct. 22 -- 7 p.m
  
The All-Time Series
Edinboro leads 7-1
The Fighting Scots had won the first seven meetings with Gannon before the Golden Knights posted a 55-14 win a year ago. Edinboro has won all four previous meetings at Sox Harrison Stadium.
 
The Last Meeting
2013 -- Gannon 55, Edinboro 14
Tied at 14-14 early in the second quarter, Gannon would run off the final 41 points of the game to record its first-ever win in the series.  Edinboro needed less than two minutes to take a 7-0 lead following the opening kickoff as Jon Girvin scored from a yard out.  After Gannon took a 14-7 lead, the Fighting Scots knotted the score on Jeremy Donaldson's four-yard TD run.  It was all Gannon after that, as the Golden Knights led 24-14 at the half and 41-14 after three quarters.  The Edinboro offense struggled over the final thirty minutes, managing just two first downs and 48 total yards.  The defense, meanwhile, allowed 353 yards as it spent most of the second half on the field.  Gannon had the ball for over 23 minutes in the second half.  All told, Gannon outgained Edinboro 611 to 258 total yards. Liam Nadler threw for 350 yards and the Knights added 261 yards rushing, with Jansen Jones contributing 209 yards and 4 TDs on 35 carries. Jon Girvin struggled for the Scots, although he was hampered by numerous dropped passes. He completed 9 of 32 passes for 192 yards, with Marcus Johnson catching two balls for 101 yards.    
 
Last Week
Edinboro 56, Clarion 28
Edinboro scored 35 consecutive points to snap a 14-14 tie, capped by Veuntrae Robinson's 75-yard interception return for a touchdown. The Edinboro defense had not intercepted a pass in the first five games, but Austin Mietz came up with Edinboro's first, followed by Robinson's, which included a weaving run for six points. The Fighting Scots also recovered three fumbles. All told Edinboro turned four of the five miscues into touchdowns. Cody Harris paced the offensive effort as he completed 23 of 29 passes for 200 yards with 4 TDs. Three of those were short scoring passes to Darren Massey, covering 2, 3, and 2 yards. Massey would catch 9 passes for 51 yards, while freshman Kolbe Hughes hauled in a 40-yard touchdown pass, capping a career-best 8-catch, 112-yard night. Freshman Anfreenee Williams ran for the first two touchdowns of his career on one and four yard runs while totaling 65 yards on 21 carries. The defense held Clarion to 245 total yards, including just 36 yards rushing, and recorded 5 sacks.     

Mercyhurst 45, Gannon 38
Mercyhurst spoiled Gannon's Homecoming with an upset of the Golden Knights. Mercyhurst never trailed, but snapped a 31-31 tie early in the fourth quarter with back-to-back touchdowns. After a scoreless first quarter the game became a shootout. Mercyhurst finished with 608 yards while Gannon totaled 462 yards. Liam Nadler completed 18 of 36 passes for 280 yards and two touchdowns. In the process he broke Gannon's career record for passing yards with 7,236 yards. Nadler added a pair of short touchdown runs. Brock Jones added 121 yards rushing on 19 carries, while Justin Caliste caught 7 passes for 59 yards and Jesstin Hamm had 5 receptions for 149 yards and 2 TDs.
         
The Coaches
Scott Browning (Ohio State '81) took over as Edinboro's 13th head coach on January 5, 2006, and in his first six seasons he tied the record for most wins by a coach during that period.  Browning is in his ninth season with a 55-40 record, and is in his 29th season as a member of the Edinboro staff.  With last year's season-opening 35-34 win over Walsh, he became the third coach at Edinboro to reach 50 wins, joining Tom Hollman and Bill McDonald.   The win over Clarion was his 55th, moving him into sole possession of second place in career victories.  Browning was certainly no stranger to Fighting Scot football when he was hired as head coach, serving as an assistant coach for the previous twenty years. While at Edinboro he has coached the offensive linemen, defensive backs and running backs, along with serving as the offensive coordinator.  Browning became the first head coach at Edinboro to debut with a win since McDonald in 1969 when the Fighting Scots opened the 2006 season with a 28-14 win at West Chester.  He went on to lead Edinboro to a 6-5 finish, the most wins ever by a first-year coach.  That was followed by a 7-4 finish in 2007.  His next two Fighting Scot editions recorded a school-record tying nine wins.  In 2008 Edinboro ended the year at 9-2 and was ranked 20th in the final AFCA?Top 25.  The Fighting Scots had a 9-4 record in 2009, making the NCAA?playoffs for the first time in his tenure.  Edinboro would end the year 24th in the AFCA?poll.  The Boro posted back-to-back 7-4 finishes in 2010 and 2011.  The 4-6 finish in 2012 represented Browning's first losing season as head coach. 

Brad Ryzczycki (Mercyhurst '95) was hired as Gannon's head coach on May 3, 2012.   However, he is no stranger to area football, as he was a four-year starter at cornerback for Mercyhurst and most recently served as Gannon's assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for five seasons.  He led Gannon to a 3-8 finish in his first season, followed by a 6-5 ledger in 2013 He has a 13-15 career mark.  Rzyczycki began his coaching career at his alma mater, Mercyhurst, working there for seven seasons as a defensive assistant.  Prior to arriving at Gannon he served in the same role at Kentucky Wesleyan for four years.  He also served as the wide receivers and special teams coordinator at Saginaw Valley State for a season.   
    
Browning Comments ... on the Fighting Scots
"I thought we played hard. We went down there and had a plan and were on a mission. The last couple of games we had played well in areas at times. Our goal was to go down there and play well in all three phases. I thought we did that."
 
Browning Comments ... on the Golden Knights
"Gannon is a good football team. They are solid all throughout. They're quarterback has really developed. He throws well and is dangerous as a thrower and runner. their tailback is explosive, and they have explosive receivers. Defensively we will have our hands full. They've changed their philosophy a little bit to take advantage of the strengths of their kids. They also have an outstanding kicker. It's hard to find a weakness."