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BLOOMSBURG – There was no shortage of reasons for the eighth-ranked Bloomsburg University football team to be excited for Saturday's matchup with No. 7 West Chester - it marked the first Huskies game between a pair of top 10 teams in eight years, was a re-match of last year's NCAA Playoff game and represented a battle for first place in the PSAC East.
 
The Huskies (8-0, 7-0 PSAC) roared to a dominating start and never looked back in a convincing 41-10 win in front of a raucous crowd of 7,328 at Redman Stadium.
 
Bloomsburg's running attack plowed through the West Chester defense, racking up 454 rushing yards on the way to 553 total yards of offense. Senior running back Eddie Mateo (Bethlehem/Freedom) had one of the best statistical days in school history with 269 yards and four touchdowns on the ground with Dai'Shon Munger (Westampton, NJ/Holy Cross) adding 143 rushing yards.
 
But it was again the defense that was perhaps most impressive as the Huskies stifled one of the top offenses in the nation. Sophomore safety Jerrin Toomey (York/West York) intercepted West Chester quarterback Sean McCartney three times – equaling the total the sixth-year signal caller had thrown all season in 230 attempts entering the day. In all, the Bloomsburg defense came away with six takeaways to add to the nation's best turnover margin.
 
West Chester began the afternoon averaging 43.6 points and over 330 yards through the air per game but Saturday brought a very different story - McCartney could muster just 170 yards and was picked off four times.
 
Offensively, the numbers were astounding as well. The Golden Rams defense is also a celebrated unit, allowing just an average of 131.7 yards per game on the ground through the first seven weeks of the year before Saturday's contest.
 
Bloomsburg roared out of the gates, fueled by its defense. Tomas Cabrera (Hanover/Hanover Area), making his first start of the year, forced Rams running back Brandon Monk to fumble on the third play of the game – DJ Robinson (Sinking Spring/Conrad Weiser) picked up the miscue at the visitors' 34-yard line to set Bloomsburg up in prime field position.
 
The Huskies then marched 34 yards, 24 coming on carries by Mateo, and broke into the scoring column on a four-yard plunge by the senior tailback for the early lead.
 
Bloomsburg had to work a bit harder for its next score. The Huskies took over midway through the first quarter at their own 12, but Mateo quickly gave Bloomsburg breathing room by sprinting 56 yards on the first play to surpass 3,000 yards for his career. Four plays later, the 88-yard drive was capped on a 12-yard run by Mateo for a 14-0 lead.
 
After limiting West Chester to 37 first quarter yards, Bloomsburg forced a three-and-out from the visitors on the initial drive of the second period. On the ensuing possession, a 30-yard run by Mateo set up a 25-yard field goal Braden Drexler (Bethlehem/Nazareth) to stretch the lead to 17.
 
West Chester finally cracked into the scoring on a 23-yard field goal from Rich Bruno with 8:29 left in the half, and would threaten to close to within one score, but with the Rams driving deep in Huskies territory, Toomey came up with his first career interception in the red zone to end the the threat. The Huskies took advantage for another scoring drive to take complete control.
 
Mateo again used tremendous blocking up front for a 21-yard sprint untouched into the end zone for a 24-3 lead at halftime.
 
The Golden Rams couldn't have asked for much better of a start to the second half – they forced a three-and-out and took over at the Bloomsburg 22. The Huskies defense again stood tall, though, forcing a 38-yard field goal try from Bruno that missed wide left and swung all of the momentum back to Bloomsburg.
 
The Huskies responded by immediately with a 29-yard run by Mateo and ultimately went 79 yards in seven plays with Tim Kelly (Camp Hill/Cedar Cliff) finding Connor Gades (West Chester/Unionville) on a 21-yard touchdown strike to break open the score at 31-3 early in the third.
 
Bloomsburg's defense forced three more West Chester turnovers from there – Jeremiah Lowery (Sharon Hill/Academy Park) and Shawn Mitchell (Nazareth/Nazareth) combined on a sack and Lowery stripped the ball from McCartney with Andrew Harris (Bethlehem/Whitehall) recovering, setting up another Drexler field goal. Later in the fourth, Toomey had interceptions on back-to-back Rams possessions to put away any doubt.

Mateo put an exclamation mark on the day by finishing a 97-yard drive with a 59-yard touchdown run for the final score of the afternoon.
 
Justin Shirk (Harrisburg/Central Dauphin) led all players with 11 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss and a tip on Toomey's final interception while Cabrera made eight stops with an interception and a forced fumble. In all, the Huskies tallied five sacks.
 
Kelly completed 11 of 19 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown with Trent Daniels (Harrisburg/Susquehanna Township) leading the Huskies receivers with 31 yards on three catches.
 
For West Chester, McCartney finished 22 of 42 for 170 yards with a touchdown and four interceptions. Eddie Elliott led the way on the ground with 64 yards on 12 carries.
 
Bloomsburg remains at home with another tough PSAC East challenge next weekend in the regular season home finale as the Huskies welcome East Stroudsburg into Redman Stadium for Senior Day. Kickoff next Saturday is slated for 2 p.m.
 
GAME NOTES: Mateo's 269 yards rushing were the fifth-most in Huskies single game history … Mateo also became the eighth player in Huskies history to rush for 3,000 yards, now standing with 3,210 to move into sixth place all-time … Toomey's three interceptions mark the first time that a Huskies player has had three interceptions in a single game since Deric Lynch did so on Nov. 13, 1993 vs. Mansfield … West Chester had not had a deficit of more than three points all season, last trailing 10-7 in the second quarter of the season-opener vs. New Haven … Saturday was the 74th meeting between Bloomsburg and West Chester and is the largest margin of victory for the Huskies during the course of the rivalry, with the previous biggest win for Bloomsburg being a 35-7 triumph in 2000 … The Huskies defeated then-No. 8 West Chester on the road Week 10 last year, 31-28, before falling by a 40-38 score at home in the second round of the NCAA Playoffs … Bloomsburg suffered five turnovers in last year's NCAA Playoff game, but turned the tables on Saturday by forcing six takeaways … It is the first time a Huskies player has surpassed 200 yards rushing in a game since Franklyn Quiteh (Tobyhanna/Pocono Mountain West) had 208 yards vs. West Chester's NCAA playoff win last November … Bloomsburg had not played in a game between two top-10 ranked teams since defeating then-No. 6 Shepherd, 24-21, as the fifth-ranked team in the nation on Dec. 2, 2006 in the NCAA regional final … Saturday was West Chester's lowest offensive output since a 34-7 loss to IUP on Nov. 12, 2011 … both Mateo and Munger had career-high rushing outputs.