Mustangs Ride Past Pioneers

The Morrisville State football team gained 672 yards of offense as they rode past Alfred State 69-17 in the 2014 season opener for both teams. The Mustangs scored on 10 of their 11 possesions in the contest.

Morrisville took the early lead capitalizing on a botched Pioneer punt that gave them the ball on the 10 yard line. Three plays later Lemar Johnson connected on a seven-yard pass to Anthony Gray to give the Mustangs an early 7-0 lead.

Alfred State fought right back driving the ball 59-yards and scoring on a five-yard touchdown run by Rasheed Williams (Sweedesboro, NJ) to tie it up 7-7.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Morrisville scored on back-to-back drives to take back the lead. Kayzon Stovall rushed in from five-yards out with 14:13 remaining in the 1st half and Johnson connected with Josh Powell on a 48-yard pass with 7:14 remaining.

The Pioneers answered with a drive that resulted in a 39-yard field goal by Keegan Phalen (East Aurora) with just 1:23 remaining but Morrisville took the ball down the field in 55 seconds, capped by a 18-yard scoring connection from Johnson to Powell, to make it 28-10 at the break.

Johnson threw his 4th touchdown pass of the day 2:19 into the 2nd half when he hit Jordan Carbonn with a 23-yard passing play.

Ben Wilkerson (Buffalo/Fayette-Ware (TN) cut the Mustangs lead to 35-17 with a 15-yard pass to Erik Simmons (Elmira Free) with 8:16 remaining in the 3rd but it would be all Morrisville the rest of the way.

Johnson and Powell connected twice more (12-yards and 51-yards) in the 3rd quarter to make it 49-17.  Darrel West had touchdown runs of one-yard and 67-yards and Phillip Tack connected with Marcus Conner on a 48-yard passing play to account for the scoring in the 4th.

Williams was a bright spot for the Pioneers registering a 100-yard rushing game. He finished with 155 yards and a score on 30 carries. Wilkerson was 12 for 23 for 142 yards and a score. Simmons led the team with 44 yards receiving on three catches.

Johnson finished 15 for 21 for 286 yards and six scores. He also rushed for 53 yards on eight carries. Powell caught five passes (four TD's) for 143 yards while West rushed for 102 yards on nine carries.

Edward Harrell (Syracuse/West Genesee) led the Pioneer defense with nine tackles. Nick DePofi (Union Endicott), Phalen, and Marlon Hernandez (Bronx/Evander Childs) all had seven tackles.

Colton Evans led all tacklers with 12 for Morrisville. Caleb Wright had nine tackles and Javion Bobb accounted for two of the Mustangs four sacks.

The Pioneers and Mustangs were meeting for the first time as member of Division III of the NCAA. They former NJCAA Region III rivals met 11 times previously with the last contest taking place in 2005.

Alfred State will look to rebound next Saturday when they host the University of Rochester at 4 p.m. at Pioneer Stadium.  Morrisville is at Hartwick next weekend.