Shippensburg will make its road debut of 2012 on Saturday when it travels to East Stroudsburg – a team it has not lost to since 2008 – for a 6:05 p.m. kickoff from Eiler-Martin Stadium.
Shippensburg is currently receiving nine votes in the AFCA Division II poll.
A student radio broadcast of the game will be available on 88.7 FM in Shippensburg and can be accessed online at
www.wsyc.org.
Shippensburg enters the contest on a six-game winning streak that dates back to last season. It has not won seven consecutive games since stringing together seven straight wins from Nov. 8, 2003 – Oct. 2, 2004.
Shippensburg returns 39 letterwinners and 23 starters from last season – including 10 on both offense and defense. The team's captains are senior running back
Mike Frenette, senior safety
Corey Hunt, senior defensive tackle
Mark Kahlil Smith and senior quarterback
Jeff Tomasetti. The team boasts 13 seniors on its roster, which in addition to the aforementioned captains, include former All-PSAC honorees
Kevin Herod,
Bobby Mullen and
Chris Restino.
The Red Raiders were picked to finish fifth in the PSAC Eastern Division preseason coaches poll. SU went 7-4 last season in which it scored 411 points and were ranked among the Top 5 PSAC teams in 18 major statistical categories.
East Stroudsburg, meanwhile, was voted to finish sixth in the same poll. The Warriors return 11 starters, including eight from an offense that ranked fifth in Division II in passing yards per game last season.
Last weekend, Shippensburg scored 41 first-half points – including three touchdowns in the final 4:24 before halftime – en route to a 55-35 home victory over The Rock. The Raiders achieved their first 2-0 start since 2004 by putting up 566 yards of total offense against a Rock squad that led the PSAC a year ago in total defense (261.2 ypg). It was the first time the two crossover schools played since 2007.
Junior quarterback
Zach Zulli threw for 320 yards and four touchdowns in the first half of Saturday's game and also caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from senior fullback
Kevin Herod. Zulli finished the game 22-of-41 for 348 yards. Through two games this season, he has thrown for 740 yards and eight touchdowns. As a result, for the second consecutive week, he was named the PSAC East Offensive Player of the Week.
ESU junior quarterback Nate Daniels threw for 355 yards and senior wide receiver Jordan Hallman caught seven passes for 179 yards and three touchdowns as the Warriors posted their sixth shutout in 39 season openers under head coach Denny Douds with a 31-0 victory over Lock Haven last Saturday night.
The Raiders will be playing at night for the first time since dropping a 44-43 double-overtime thriller at West Chester on Oct. 7, 2010 in front of a national television audience on CBS College Sports Network. Shippensburg is 15-7 all-time under the lights.
The Red Raiders are 28-34 all-time in divisional openers — with all but three of those meetings being against a PSAC Western Division opponent.
Shippensburg is beginning its divisional schedule on the road for the second straight year. Before last season, the last time SU opened divisional play on the road was 2008, when the Red Raiders dropped a 44-41 overtime decision at East Stroudsburg.
The last time Shippensburg played at East Stroudsburg was the last time Shippensburg played a football game in which the final margin of victory was less than 10 points. The Raiders won, 20-17, after a fourth-down, 15-yard touchdown pass with 24 seconds remaining gave SU the lead.
The 93 points that Shippensburg has scored through two games this season are the second-most points in the first two games of a season in school history. The 1931 team put up 105 points in its first two games.
Series History: Shippensburg vs. East Stroudsburg
Shippensburg leads the overall series 28-17-2. The Raiders have won 10 of the last 12 meetings between the two teams, including five of the last six games at ESU dating back to 1991. In that 1991 victory, SU beat ESU in overtime, 34-33, in the NCAA playoffs. In fact, three out of the five series games held at Eiler-Martin Stadium between 1991 and 2008 were decided in overtime.
The two teams first met in 1926 with Shippensburg earning a 7-0 home victory. Perhaps the most historic meeting between the two teams came in 1976, when Shippensburg hosted East Stroudsburg in the State Game. The Red Raiders, under head coach Joe Mark, battled Douds and the Warriors to a 14-14 tie.
Much more information will be available in the game notes posted above.
