Seton Hill made the trip to Erie to close out their road portion of the PSAC West schedule with a noon kickoff with Mercyhurst. The Lakers scored 21 points in the second quarter in route to a 41-13 final. SHU drops their fifth straight contest and falls to 2-7 overall and 1-5 in PSAC West play.
Mercyhurst took the opening kickoff and drove 68 yards in 6 plays with an 8 yard TD run culminating the drive to give the Lakers an early 7-0 lead. SHU responded right back with a 9 play, 63 yard drive to tie the score at seven.
Christian Strong rushed for 22 yards on a 2nd and 9 and
Patrick Jackson scored from 12 yards out for the touchdown. Both teams were forced to punt on their next possession. Mercyhurst took over on their own 32 yard line and needed just two plays to retake the lead. They scored on a 68 yard tochdown pass but the extra point was blocked by
Phillip Moreland and SHU trailed 13-7 late in the first quarter.
The Lakers began the second quarter with a 12 play, 84 yard drive to take a 20-7 lead. Mercyhurst scored on a 9 yard touchdown pass to increase the lead. SHU went three and out on their next drive and the Lakers increased their lead to 27-7 on the first play of their next drive with a 58 yard touchdown bomb with 7:39 to play in the second quarter. Both teams punted on their next possession. The Griffins trimmed the lead to 27-13 on their next possession. Strong hit
Dylan Everett with a 28 yard touchdown pass to cap the drive. The extra point was missed and SHU trailed by fourteen with 1:50 to play in the half. The Lakers used their timeouts wisely on their last possession of the half and scored on a 5 yard TD pass with 17 seconds left in the half to take a 34-13 lead into the halftime break.
Seton Hill took the opening kick of the second half and drove all the way to the Mercyhurst 1 yard line but a fumbled snap on fourth down ended the 16 play drive. Mercyhurst was forced to punt on their next drive and SHU then went three and out.
William Hodge's punt was then returned 50 yards for a touchdown and Mercyhurst took a 41-13 lead with just over a minute to play in the third quarter. Neither team scored in the fourth quarter.
Mercyhurst held a 500-258 advantage in total yardage and had 24 first downs to 16 for the Griffins.
Christian Strong was 20-28 for 162 yards and 1 touchdown.
Shane Leatherbury led the receivers with 5 catches.
Nicholas Boynton led the defense with 11 tackles.
Seton Hill will close out the home portion of their schedule when they host Edinboro next Saturday at 12 PM. It will be Senior Day for the Griffins.
