Box Score

In the Press: Sentinel Recap

In the Press: Slate Recap

In the Press: Daily Local Recap

In the Press: Jacob Baskerville Feature

In the Press: Norristown Herald Feature

The No. 13 Red Raider football team overcame a 21-point deficit in the first half on Saturday afternoon and pitched a second-half shutout to come away with a hard-fought 42-24 victory over West Chester in front of a capacity Homecoming crowd of more than 6,000 spectators from Farrell Stadium.

Shippensburg (8-0, 5-0 PSAC East) improved its current winning streak to 12 games, its longest since 1981, to set up a 1 p.m. showdown next weekend with No. 4 Bloomsburg from SU Student Association Field at Seth Grove Stadium to determine the divisional champion.

The Red Raiders did not achieve their first lead of the day until 12:37 remained on the clock, as redshirt-freshman quarterback Chris Lawshe capped off a 4-play, 69-yard drive with a plunge into the end zone from three yards out. It was the first of three fourth-quarter touchdowns for the Red Raiders.

After a West Chester punt, junior quarterback Zach Zulli needed just four more plays to pad SU's lead. Sophomore Trevor Harman caught a 24-yard pass from Zulli to give SU a 35-24 lead, three plays after a 57-yard touchdown play to Harman was negated because of a holding penalty.

Another Golden Ram punt gave SU the ball with 6:02. The Red Raiders clinched the win by using the rush to run over five minutes off the clock, and with 51 seconds remaining, Zulli threw a 14-yard strike to Harman for the game's final score.

Zulli threw for 342 yards and five touchdowns and completed 29-of-49 passes, allowing him to break three more school records on Saturday.

He surpassed Chris Gicking's school record for passing yards in a season (2,832 in 1999), bringing his season total to 3,065, and broke his own school record for season touchdown passes – improving his season total to 38 through eight games.

Zulli also broke the school record for career total offense by an individual (the old record was 6,135 – previously held by Mike Carver '97), bringing his career total to 6,277 yards, and also passed Carver on SU's career passing list by moving into third place (5,806).

Harman added four more touchdown receptions to his ledger, bringing in five total receptions for 81 yards. Harman has 14 touchdown receptions through eight games this season and is one short of Jamie Ware's single-season record set in 1998.

Senior Jacob Baskerville led all players with nine receptions for 139 yards and one touchdown. His final catch of the day, a 16-yard reception in the fourth quarter, made him the 10th player in school history to record 100 receptions in a career.

Arguably the most impressive aspect of the second half was the SU defense keeping West Chester off the scoreboard after the Golden Rams had put up 24 points in the opening 30 minutes of play.

One of the game's most critical plays came midway through the third quarter, when junior safety Tyriq Kershaw picked off a pass on the SU 8-yard line and returned the interception 77 yards into the WCU red zone.

Senior Cody Fleming led all Red Raiders with 13 tackles, including 1.5 for loss. He is now 1.5 tackles for loss short of tying head coach Mark 'Mac' Maciejewski '92/'96M's career record (51.0). Senior Mark Kahlil Smith, senior Saeed Khateeb and junior Jake Metz each had a sack on Saturday while SU recorded eight tackles for loss as a team.

Kershaw also forced a fumble on the game's final kickoff while junior Mike Goode took advantage of a starting opportunity by recording six tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery.

Shippensburg did not commit a turnover in Saturday's game while forcing four. SU also scored on four of its five trips into the red zone, with the only blemish being a blocked field goal late in the third quarter.

West Chester (5-3, 3-2 PSAC East) scored touchdowns on its first three drives Saturday but did not get into the end zone over the game's final 44:44. Its only other points came on a 40-yard field goal by Shawn Leo with one second left before halftime.

Rondell White ran 24 times for 124 yards and a touchdown, while quarterback Mike Mattei was 19-of-28 for 275 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

More details about next Saturday's game will be announced early on in the week. Shippensburg is planning a “RED OUT” and encouraging all who attend to wear red in support of the football team.

Notes: SU came back from a 21+ point deficit for the first time since a 35-28 victory over Lock Haven on Oct. 31, 1998, a span of 136 games…in that game, Shippensburg trailed 21-0 with four minutes remaining in the first half and 28-6 less than a minute before halftime…the Red Raiders trailed by 11 points at halftime against Shepherd in the season opener before shutting out the Rams en route to a 10-point victory, which is still the closest scoring margin in Maciejewski's 19-game coaching tenure…SU set a new school record for passing yards in a season (3,304), surpassing the previous mark of 3,071 in 1999…Shippensburg has outscored its opponents 177-48 in the second half this season, including a 101-34 margin in the fourth quarter…SU outscored West Chester 42-3 over the final 44:44 of Saturday's game…Zulli has attempted a school-record 172 passes since throwing his last interception despite dodging two close calls on Saturday…Zulli has thrown a touchdown pass in a school-record 16 consecutive games…Harman has nine receiving touchdowns in his last two games…Sophomore Blair Brooks broke a 43-yard run Saturday, the third-longest rush by an SU back this season…SU did not allow a sack on Saturday and has yielded just six sacks through eight games…Metz has nine sacks through eight games…the single-season school record for sacks is 10, set by Barry Johnson (1977), Ed Brown (1981) and Rob Davis (1991)…Senior Mike Frenette added 118 all-purpose yards to his career total (4,622), leaving him 678 yards behind school-record holder John Kuhn (5,300).