SELINSGROVE, PA – The #11 Susquehanna University football team completed their mission of starting the season 2-0 Saturday with a 27-21 win over Brockport. The victory sets them up in prime position with a marquee matchup next Saturday when they welcome defending national champion and two-ranked Cortland, who the River Hawks knocked off last year during the regular season 38-35 that served as the Red Dragons' lone loss of the season.

Kicker Christian Colasurdo and receiver Kyle Howes broke the ice by contributing the first 20 points for Susquehanna. Colasurdo opened the scoring with a 31-yard field goal, then on the team's next drive Howes found the endzone on a pass from backup quarterback Tommy Wright, who uncorked a 40-yard touchdown strike while subbing in temporarily for starter Josh Ehrlich to take a 10-0 first-quarter lead. Early in the second Colasurdo punted to Golden Eagle Daniel Manneh, who returned it back 81 yards to give Brockport its first score of the day 10-7. Colasurdo again was the catalyst, contributing a 39-yard field goal to put the River Hawks up by a touchdown 13-7. An ensuing three-and-out from Brockport resulted in a punt, sending it away to new versatile threat Rahshan La Mons in his first action on returns. Fielding the punt at SU's 34, La Mons ran it 48 yards to B'port's 18. A personal foul called against the Golden Eagles set Susquehanna up half distance from the goal at the nine, where on the ensuing play Howes took an end-around to the left corner to extend the Hawks' lead to 20-7 at halftime.

Brockport refused to go away quietly. Receiving the ball to start the second half after deferring the opening coin toss, the Golden Eagles used their first drive of the second quarter to cut the lead to six on an Isaiah Simmons two-yard run to make the score 20-14 with 10:50 left in the third. It looked as though momentum was on their side when on SU's next drive Ehrlich was sacked and stripped of the ball by Marqwan Fluitt and recovered by Jayson Thomas, setting Brockport up on Susquehanna's 30. On second down and ten, quarterback Ben Gocella was flushed out the pocket and attempted to find a receiver on a crossing route, but was overthrown and landed in the arms of defender Ben Mongare to clip a prime opportunity for the Golden Eagles.

The River Hawks replied by calling again on La Mons, who hauled in a 20-yard touchdown reception from Ehrlich to extend SU's lead to 27-14 at the end of the third. Brockport responded with a touchdown late in the fourth quarter when Simmons ran it in from five yards out with 5:50 to go and SU's lead shrunk to 27-21. With just one timeout on the Golden Eagles' side, the River Hawks turned to ball control to melt time off the clock. They got more than that when Ehrlich found Howes down the right sideline to put the ball at Brockport's 17 yard line with just over two minutes left. Susquehanna, however, was not able to capitalize, beset by a pair of holding penalties that sent them back to a 4^th and 25 from Brockport's 32. Wright, who was once again in relief of Ehrlich, punted the ball and took a Susquehanna bounce to the Golden Eagles' 14, giving Brockport just one minute, 36 seconds, and 86 yards to work with to try to win the game.

B'port failed to gain a yard on its first three plays through the air, though were able to convert the fourth and ten with Gocella finding Nolan Slywka for 18 yards. They succeeded in getting to Susquehanna's 48. Facing third and four, Gocella completed a pass again to Slywka for the first down, only for Jesse Ruisch to strip the ball and Ben Fleming diving on top of it at SU's 42 to call game with 52 seconds remaining.

Susquehanna's defense again stepped up in critical moments to help lock down the win, holding Brockport to 252 yards of total offense, including just 38 yards on the ground as the Golden Eagles averaged only 2.7 yards per carry. Brian Layton represented the River Hawks' only sack of the day on an afternoon where he had two solo tackles, including one for loss, and one quarterback hurry. Linebacker Garrett Carter lived up to his Landmark Conference Defensive Player of the Week moniker from last week, adding a tackle for loss of his own with two solo tackles and a quarterback hurry. Leading the way in tackles for the maroon and orange were the four-tackle showings of Josh Parson, Ben Mongare, Le'trey Bond, Josh Buck, and Berkeley Wagner, with the latter filling in for an injured Dominic Winn. Mongare had the team's lone interception of the day that he returned for 28 yards along with a quarterback hurry, while Parson added one tackle for loss.

On offense Ehrlich had a plentiful day, connecting on 22-of-29 passes for 228 yards with one touchdown, while running for 63 yards on 19 rushes. La Mons was held to 37 yards on 15 carries on a day where SU netted 130 yards on the ground, though nearly met his receiving yards total from last week with eight catches for 96 yards and one touchdown. On punt returns he fielded three for 82 yards. Howes hauled in seven catches for 108 yards and a score, along with one punt return for 16 yards, while Chris Bookter caught five balls for 51 yards, including a long of 22. Wright completed three of his four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown. Matt Surtz and Tommy Grabowski also got some touches with Surtz netting 12 yards on three carries and Grabowski nine yards on four carries.

Susquehanna's time of possession was impeccable, controlling the ball for 40:04 and converting on 9-of-20 third downs. Brockport, meanwhile, failed to convert any third down try on eight attempts, though were able to convert its lone fourth-down conversion attempt and go 2-for-2 in the red zone, both touchdowns. Susquehanna finished with 403 yards of total offense on 79 plays for an average of 5.1 yards per play. SU's return game was also strong. Outside of La Mons and Howes' efforts, Shawn Cain and Hunter Morgenroth also stepped up to field returns, with Cain taking one short kickoff for 22 yards and Morgenroth taking two for 56 yards, including a long of 34. On kickoffs Dominic Bourgeois sent six airborne for 378 total yards, an average of 63 yards.

Saturday's win was a big test in this early going for Susquehanna as they go into next Saturday's noon showdown against #2 Cortland with matching 2-0 records. The Red Dragons are averaging 73.0 points per game with a 76-0 win over Hilbert week one and a 70-7 victory over Lycoming on Saturday.