Last year, when the Shippensburg University football team traveled to East Stroudsburg University to face the Warriors, madness ensued. The game turned into a five-overtime thriller, with the Raiders emerging victorious, 69–67.

This time, coach Mark “Mac” Maciejewski and the Red Raiders made sure it would not have to come to that. The Red Raiders fell behind early, but found their stride, scoring 28 unanswered points on the way to a 31–14 victory in their first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East Division game of the season.

Coming into the game, East Stroudsburg running back Robert Healy was the nation’s leading rusher, averaging 184 yards per game on the ground, and 240 yards from scrimmage. Saturday, the Red Raiders shut down the star running back. Healy was held to just 76 yards on 15 carries, with 46 of those yards coming on one play.

“We focused on this all week,” senior safety D.J. Burkey said. “We knew he was a good player, we knew we needed to focus on shutting him down. It was a team effort.”

Burkey led the Red Raider defense with 10 tackles on the day.

After falling behind 14–3, the Raiders gained some momentum offensively. SU quarterback Ryan Zapoticky found senior wide receiver Erik Kerns for a 41-yard touchdown, before hooking up with Kerns again for a 34-yard touchdown, giving SU a 17–14 lead. Both plays took time to develop with Zapoticky finding a way to extend plays, and find Kerns for both scores.

“Scoring touchdowns feels great,” Kerns said. “It’s an awesome feeling, but when [Zapoticky] starts running, I gotta do my part and get open.”

In the third quarter, Zapoticky was able to extend the lead, after finding senior Jordan Harro in the back of the end zone for a 40-yard touchdown. Harro made an impressive sliding grab to score the touchdown, the first points for the Red Raiders in the third quarter all season.

In the fourth quarter, the Red Raiders added a final touchdown on a 1-yard rush by junior running back Cole Chiappialle. East Stroudsburg tried to answer, but the SU defense kept the Warriors from finding any rhythm offensively in the second half. The Warriors had one drive that looked like it might be productive, but SU linebacker Allen Holman intercepted a pass, ending East Stroudsburg’s final scoring opportunity.

For Zapoticky, it was his best performance of the season. Zapoticky finished 19-of-27 for 279 yards and three touchdowns.

“I thought it was a great team performance today,” Zapoticky said. “We talked before the game on some objectives we had today and we wanted to get our playmakers the ball in space and we did a good job doing that.”

In limiting the Warriors offense Saturday, the Red Raiders have allowed just 64 points through their first four games, the lowest amount since 2004 when the Red Raiders allowed just 44 points during a 4–0 start.

SU also had a special guest at the game, 14-year-old Ethan Pyles. Pyles is battling Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Saturday, coaches came together nationally in the annual Coaches to Cure MD campaign.

Pyles flipped the coin during the pre-game coin-toss and was on the sidelines for the game. Pyles was there to break down the team after the game and players embraced him in the huddle.

“That was great,” Maciejewski said. “And at the end, every player came up to him and gave him a high-five and he was in our huddle at the end of the game and he broke us down at the end. Us as players, and coaches, probably got as much out of it as Ethan did, and it really shows how strong we are, as a family here at Ship and what we’re about.”

It was also a milestone win for coach Maciejewski. With the win, Maciejewski moved into sole-possession of fourth-place on SU’s all-time wins list with 42 victories.

The Red Raiders, (3–1, 1–0 PSAC East) will travel to Lock Haven University to take on the Eagles Oct. 1. Kickoff is scheduled for 12 p.m.

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