Box Score
BLOOMSBURG – Franklyn Quiteh (Tobyhanna/Pocono Mountain West) rushed 43 times for 282 yards and three touchdowns to lead the sixth-ranked Bloomsburg University Huskies to a 48-27 win over East Stroudsburg University on Saturday afternoon in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division play at Danny Hale Field at Robert B. Redman Stadium.
Quiteh's carries and total yards were a career-high for the junior. He scored on runs of 1, 40, and 20 yards to help the Huskies (7-0 overall, 4-0 PSAC East) remain unbeaten. BU has now defeated the Warriors (3-3, 2-2) seven straight years.
The Huskies have scored 30 or more points in each of their seven victories this season, setting the school record for consecutive 30-point games in a single season. The previous record was set the final six games of 2000.
The 282 yards on the ground for Quiteh are the second most in school history, only to Jerry Marks' 300 in 1991. Quiteh's 43 carries marked the first time that a Husky had 40 or more since Irv Sigler ran 41 times against Millersville in 1997. It was the fourth time in Quiteh's career that he ran for three or more touchdowns.
Quiteh has now run for 4,449 yards in his career in his third season in the maroon and gold. Along with being BU's third-leading career rusher, Quiteh moved into sixth place on the PSAC career rushing list, moving up four spots with Saturday's performance.
Bloomsburg totaled 603 yards Saturday, the most since it put up 685 against Kutztown in 2010. Redshirt freshman quarterback
Tim Kelly (Camp Hill/Cedar Cliff) threw for a career-high 267 yards and four touchdowns in the victory. Kelly had touchdown passes of 5, 37, 68 and 72 yards on the day.
The last time a BU quarterback threw four touchdown passes was Dan Latorre's four against West Chester in 2007.
Kelly also used his legs to propel the Huskies to victory with a pair of big third-down runs including converting on a 3rd-and-23 in the second quarter that led to a Bloomsburg touchdown.
Junior
Glenn Hutton Jr. (Sicklerville, NJ/Paul VI) and senior
Ryan Dickerson (Harleysville/Souderton) each brought in more than 100 receiving yards against the Warriors. Hutton Jr. led the game with four catches and a career-high 120 yards and two touchdowns. Both of his scores were in the third quarter and went for 37 and 68 yards.
Dickerson also had four catches with a career-high 117 yards and a score. Dickerson has now had a touchdown catch in three consecutive games.
The last time Bloomsburg had two receivers with more than 100 yards was in 2000 against Saginaw Valley. Mike Lelko had seven catches for 120 yards, and Tierell Johnson had six catches for 148 yards.
Senior
Larry Webster (Hagerstown, MD/Elkton) caught his second touchdown in as many games for Bloomsburg. Webster brought in a five-yard pass midway through the second quarter for BU's second score of the day. He has now been targeted three times on offense this season with two touchdowns and a two-point conversion attempt. Primarily a defensive end, Webster entered the game with a PSAC-leading eight sacks and added a half sack to his total Saturday.
Defensively, senior
Jarrett Pidgeon (Barnegat, NJ/Southern Regional) notched his third double-digit tackle game of the season. His 12 tackles led Bloomsburg as he also recorded a half sack. Fellow senior
Dan Haverstock (York/West York) had eight tackles including five solo stops, as sophomore
Justin Shirk (Harrisburg/Central Dauphin) rounded out the BU trio with seven tackles.
Bloomsburg was able to control the ball Saturday and held a time of possession of 32:21. Five of Bloomsburg's six touchdowns came from drives of 75 yards or more to help push it to its seventh win of the season. The Huskies are now 7-0 this season when they hold the ball for over 30 minutes, lead at halftime, rush for over 200 yards, and total over 400 yards.
The offensive line kept Kelly's jersey clean for the second straight week by not allowing a sack. Since 1999, BU is 34-2 when not allowing a sack.
Bloomsburg's and East Stroudsburg's opening possessions accounted for 13:30 of the opening quarter. ESU drove to the BU 24-yard line, but was unsuccessful on a 41-yard field goal attempt. BU answered with a 14-play, 76-yard drive capped with Quiteh's first score of the day from one-yard out.
Quiteh ran for 55 yards on nine carries in the first quarter. It is the third consecutive game Quiteh has run for 50 or more yards in the opening quarter.
ESU kicker Taylor Groff booted a 52-yarder on ESU's ensuing drive to put the Warriors on the board. Groff is the first PSAC kicker with three career field goals over 51 yards.
Bloomsburg extended its lead to 14-3 with Webster's TD catch later in the second quarter. A significant play leading to the Webster score followed a Bloomsburg timeout. On 3rd-and-23, Kelly scrambled and ran for exactly 23 yards to move the chains and keep the drive alive.
A poor BU punt gave the Warriors great field position, leading to their first touchdown of the day. ESU quarterback Matt Soltes, this week's PSAC East Offensive Athlete of the Week, completed three straight 11-yard passes to set up an Eric Deery six-yard touchdown run up the middle to cut the BU lead to 14-10 heading into halftime.
Kelly's running ability helped BU open the second half on a positive note. Kelly rushed for ten yards on 3rd-and-9 to keep an eventual 12-play, 75-yard drive alive that ended with a 37-yard TD pass to Hutton Jr.
Bloomsburg found the endzone on all but two second-half possessions (fumble, end of game). Hutton Jr. ended the third quarter scoring for BU with a 68-yard catch-and-run to give the Huskies an 11-point, 28-17 lead entering the final quarter.
Groff hit his second field goal of the day to open the fourth quarter, but it was as close as the Warriors would get. BU rattled off two long touchdowns the following two possessions off a 40-yard Quiteh dash up the sideline and a 72-yard catch-and-run by Dickerson.
Soltes threw for 167 yards on 13-for-25 passing after setting the ESU single-game record for completion percentage last week (81.1). He also led the team with 54 rushing yards on 14 carries.
Cody Simcox was one of three Warriors with double-digit tackles and led the game with 17. Anthony Singlar had 12 and Greg Jones chipped in 10.
Saturday's matchup was believed to be the fourth time in Division II history that two 200-win coaches went against each other. Bloomsburg head coach Danny Hale is now 17-4 against ESU head coach Denny Douds.
Bloomsburg hits the road for two straight weeks. It travels to Cheyney University (1-6, 0-4) on Saturday, Oct. 20 for a PSAC East matchup beginning at 1 p.m.