On a windy afternoon, Millersville lost their last home game of the season to Shippensburg on Saturday. The Red Raiders defeated the Marauders, 43-9 at Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium.
Saturday marked Millersville’s Senior Day and Homecoming Game. Millersville head coach, Greg Breitbach, thanked the seniors for their efforts even though they’ve been through some tough times.
He also stated that the seniors worked very hard to be good leaders and football players on and off the field.
“Certainly as a head coach, I like to see them be rewarded with more wins,” Breitbach said.
“They're winners in my book because they’re very competitive, tough kids. I couldn’t have been more proud of those guys.”
Coming off a 76-0 victory over Cheyney the week before, Shippensburg continued its scoring ways.
Ninety seconds into the game, Cole Chiappialle danced around the Millersville defenders left and right as he ran into the end zone. His 47 yard reception capped a quick three play first drive for the Red Raiders.
Shippensburg kicker, Billy Deane, missed his first two extra field goal attempts. The first kick after Chiappialle’s touchdown was blocked. His second attempt was taken away by the wind.
“You have to use it to your advantage when you can,” Breitbach commented on the wind.
Shippensburg would jump to a 12-0 lead after their running back, Justin Pyle, spun his way into the end-zone to finish another quick three-play drive.
Breitbach stated that Shippensburg has a physical offense. He also mentioned that they were a lot harder to tackle due to their bigger size.
Millersville would quickly respond to cut Shippensburg’s lead to 12-6. Their lone touchdown came from a screen pass from JJ Paige to Tyrone Gibson who ran 59 yards to the end zone.
However, Millersville kicker Evan Stahl’s field-goal attempt was blocked.
“Offensively, we got the screen to match their big play,” Breitbach said.
Red Raiders kicker, Billy Deane, was able to redeem himself by making make a 32 yard field goal late in the first quarter.
He then made the extra point after Cole Chiappialle’s 79-yard punt return touchdown to end the quarter at 22-6.
Breitbach changed quarterbacks throughout the game. Both JJ Paige and Tony Staffieri saw action on Saturday.
According to Breitbach, the offense did not seem out of sync because they both have the leadership and confidence to lead the team.
“We planned on using them both,” Breitbach commented. “JJ (Paige) has a lot of experience with our open formations and reads defenses well. Tony (Staffieri) doesn’t have as much experience with that, but he has capabilities to carry the football and do some things that we were doing with the quarterback run.”
In the second quarter, a sideline interference penalty on Shippensburg put Millersville at the Shippensburg 13 yard line.
However, the Marauders were only able to get three instead of six or seven points.
Evan Stahl’s 38-yard field goal gave Millersville their final points of the game.
Justin Pyle would score his second touchdown in the second quarter with another one-yard run.
With 36 seconds left in the half, tight end, Jeff Gulyas, scored on an 18-yard touchdown pass from Landon Archangelo to put Shippensburg up 36-9 at the half.
Breitbach went on to say that his team played better football in the second half.
“I think we did tackle a bit better in the second half, but it wasn’t enough,” he said.
Shippensburg’s second drive of the third quarter would end by an interception. It was caught in the end zone caught by Millersville cornerback, D.J. Fabiani. On that play, he made his first collegiate interception.
The Millersville defense was able to hold Shippensburg offense to one score in the entire half. That score came early in the second quarter thanks to a big play by the Raider offense.
A 59 yard run byArchangelo got the Shippensburg offense to the Millersville 5 yard line. Chiappialle would score his third touchdown of the game with a 5 yard run to the end zone.
“Their skill players were pretty exceptional, we weren’t able to tackle them well enough,” Breitbach commented.
Despite the windy conditions, quarterback, JJ Paige, went 14-for-31 for 190 passing yards. Staffieri would finish with 3-for-7 for 44 passing yards.
“It was a difficult day with the circumstances of our game plan,” Breitbach said. “We had a pretty good feel for what was coming and when it was coming.”
The Marauders will continue to seek their second win of the season as they travel to Cheney University to face the 1-7 Wolves next Saturday at noon.
Breitbach stated that the key to beating Cheyney is for his team to get some players off the injury report and healthy again.
“Football is a physical game. You got be more physical than they are. Today we didn’t match up,” Breitbach said.
Despite the loss on Senior Day, the team's competitive spirit lives on. The seniors and the rest of the team expect to win each game the rest of the season.
These seniors that Breitbach praised truly captures the meaning of renowned Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi's words - "winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is."
