Fighting Scots fall to 3-1, IUP racks up 56 points

The Edinboro Fighting Scots welcomed the 9th ranked Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) Crimson Hawks to Sox Harrison Stadium Saturday. IUP doled out a 56-28 lesson to the younger, more inexperienced Fighting Scots. 

“Big slap in the face and a wake up call for us. Welcome to the PSAC West for sure,” head coach Justin Lustig said after the game. 

IUP won the toss and deferred to the second half and Edinboro would receive to start.  Mitch Thomas would return the ball to the 23-yard line. Edinboro would try to establish the run, but IUP would have none of that and the drive stalled for the Fighting Scots. Austin Reese would punt it away.

IUP would get the ball and start at their own 18-yard line and would not look back. Eight plays later, IUP’s quarterback Lenny Williams would call his own number and punch it in from the 1-yard line. The extra point to follow was good. 

After another stalled Edinboro drive, Austin Reese again would punt, but this one was blocked by IUP’s Diamond Jones and ran in for six points by Chris Wuestner. IUP would continue to score early and often. They put 35 points on the board, while holding Edinboro scoreless for the entire first half.

Although Sisson and the offense would put some drives together, the Fighting Scots could just not find the endzone. The score of the game would reach 42-0 before Sisson would link up with Jordan Williams on a 40-yard pass at 3:37 left in the third quarter to avoid the shutout.

Edinboro would try to mount a comeback, scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter, but the distance was simply too great to cover. 

“This is a very good football team we faced today,” Lustig said. He followed that by saying, “To be quite honest we just weren’t executing, and that goes for the players and the coaches.”

The Fighting Scots refused to go away though. The defense made a few key stops to try to put the offense in good position. But IUP, behind their stand out quarterback, Williams, just always seemed to come up smelling like a rose, even on busted plays. 

Williams would only play the first half, but went 12 of 14 for 209 yards. He also added 12 carries for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns to help his cause. He had help from his running back Samir Bullock, who rushed for 153 yards on 18 carries. Mike Pietropola would come in for relief and had one completion on four attempts for 43 yards. Pietropola would also rush eight times for 26 yards.

On Edinboro’s side of the ball, Jake Sisson managed to go 23 of 37 for 281 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had a lot of support from Jordan Williams, who had 8 receptions for 121 yards. Edinboro would also feature their tight end Nick Helmick, who had three receptions for 30 yards. Edinboro’s usual cast of characters, T’Naz Gregory and James Clark were solid targets for Sisson Saturday. Gregory had 3 receptions for 79 yards. Clark had six receptions for 44 yards. Freshman running back Brendon Rios scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 1-yard run late in the fourth quarter.

“I think the message is: look guys, that is where we want to get to. That’s a championship level team. That’s where we are trying to get to as a football team,” Lustig said.

George Schmidt is a sports writer for EdinboroNow. He can be reached at sports.spectator@gmail.com.

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