#16/18 Bloomsburg Rushes Past Stonehill, 41-13


Senior Jamal Johnson rushed the ball 73 yards on 15 carries this afternoon. (PHOTO BY Andrew Katsampes)

Huskies run for 457 yards on way to 642 total yards and season-opening win

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (September 7, 2013) – Bloomsburg University, ranked 16th in the D2football.com preseason poll and 18th in the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II preseason coaches' poll, racked up 642 yards of total offense, including 457 on the ground, to claim a 41-13 season-opening triumph over Stonehill College in non-conference football action at Danny Hale Field at Redman Stadium this afternoon.

Senior All-American running back Franklyn Quiteh (Tobyhanna, Pa./Pocono Mountain West) spearheaded Bloomsburg's pounding running attack with 21 carries for 182 yards and three touchdowns as he averaged 8.7 yards per carry and scored on runs of 27, six and eight yards. Sophomore Dai'Shon Munger (Westampton, N.J./Holy Cross) added 135 yards on 21 carries, while freshman Joe Parsnik (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Coughlin) chipped in with 81 yards on 12 touches.

Sophomore quarterback Tim Kelly (Camp Hill, Pa./Cedar Cliff) completed 10-of-17 passes for 166 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions. Senior Glenn Hutton, Jr. (Sicklerville, N.J./Paul VI) caught five of those passes for 124 yards and a touchdown. Senior Dan Fisher (Liverpool, Pa./Central Dauphin) chipped in with a pair of field goals for the Huskies.

Freshman Andrew Harris (Bethlehem, Pa./Whitehall) led the Bloomsburg defense with eight tackles (three solo), including 1.0 for a loss of 15 yards, and a pass breakup. Junior Justin Shirk (Harrisburg, Pa./Central Dauphin) added six stops (two solo) and a pair of breakups, while post grad Larry Webster (Hagerstown, Md./Elkton) chipped in with two solo tackles, including a sack for a loss of nine yards.


Junior Brian Harrington led the defense with a career-high 17 tackles and a forced fumble.

Senior Jamal Johnson (Brockton, Mass./Brockton) rushed the ball 15 times for 73 yards, averaging 4.9 yards per carry, for Stonehill. Classmate Logan Meyer (Ventura, Calif./Saint Bonaventure) had two touchdown passes and finished with 145 yards as he completed 12-of-34 passes with two interceptions. He enters next week just 89 yards shy of Stonehill Hall of Fame quarterback Tony Dello Iacono's career record of 4,895 passing yards. Meyer's two touchdown passes give him 38 for his career, moving into a tie for third all-time with Mark Drake, '91, and eight shy of Dello Iacono's career mark.

Sophomore Gordon McLeod (Weymouth, Mass./BC High) had three receptions for 56 yards and a touchdown, while freshman Billy Pierce (Caldwell, N.J./James Caldwell) added a scoring catch. Stonehill finished with 198 total yards of offense, with 53 coming on the ground an 145 through the air.

Junior Brian Harrington (Rockland, Mass./Rockland) led the Stonehill defense with a career-high 17 tackles (nine solo) and a forced fumble. Sophomore Anthony Masucci (East Haven, Conn./Notre Dame) also posted a career-best with 13 stops (seven solo), while senior Tim Bennett (Fillmore, Calif./Saint Bonaventure) chipped in with nine tackles (four solo), including 1.0 for a loss of a yard.


Senior Logan Meyer threw two touchdown passes and moved closer to becoming the program's all-time leading passer. (PHOTO BY Richard Orr)

Both defenses held strong through the first two possessions by either team with Bloomsburg opening the scoring with a 25-yard Fisher field goal with 5:40 remaining in the opening quarter after Munger had a touchdown taken off the board for a holding penalty. Quiteh had a big 44-yard rush to set up Munger's run, but the Stonehill defense held the Huskies to the field goal after the costly penalty.

Bloomsburg struck again just before the end of the first quarter following Meyer's first interception of the afternoon, when Kelly hit Hutton, Jr., for a 56-yard touchdown pass with 37-seconds on the clock. The score came just four plays after the interception. The Huskies carried a 17-0 lead into halftime as Quiteh got on the board with a 27-yard scoring scamper 3:43 into the second quarter to cap a five play, 55-yard possession.

Bloomsburg scored on the opening drive of the second half with Quiteh capping an 11 play, 66-yard drive with a six yard touchdown run. Stonehill got on the scoreboard on its opening drive of the half as Meyer found McLeod with a 35-yard touchdown pass with 7:33 left in the third quarter. Junior Nate Robitaille (Attleboro, Mass./Attleboro), who led the Skyhawks with 146 all-purpose yards (44 receiving/102 returns), set up the drive with a 37-yard kickoff return to the Bloomsburg 46 yard line.

Bloomsburg answered with an eight play, 70-yard drive, 3:40 later when Quiteh scored his third touchdown of the afternoon from eight yards out. The Huskies added a 47-yard Fisher field goal and a five-yard scoring plunge from senior Matt Wenrich (Selinsgrove, Pa./Selinsgrove) in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

Stonehill capped its scoring when Meyer connected with Pierce for a three yard scoring toss for his first touchdown in his collegiate debut with 4:43 to play. The touchdown capped a ten play, 63-yard drive for the Skyhawks, which saw Meyer complete 5-of-7 passes for 57 yards.

Stonehill (0-1, 0-0 NE-10) opens its 2013 Northeast-10 Conference schedule next Saturday when it hosts Saint Anselm College for the Battle for the Ol' Bronze Hawk as the College kicks off its Inauguration Week activities Rev. John Denning, CSC, who took over as president of the College on July 1. Bloomsburg (1-0, 0-0 PSAC) travels to Edinboro University for a non-conference clash next Saturday at noon.

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