Box Score
Shippensburg, Pa. – Millersville and Shippensburg play Saturday's PSAC Eastern Division football contest at Seth Grove Stadium even into the second quarter. But Shippensburg received career performances from quarterback Chad DiFebbo, wide receiver Mike Harris and running back Kevin Marshall to pull away from the Marauders and hand them their fifth-straight loss to begin the season by a 35-14 final score.
DiFebbo hit on 19-of-29 passes for 321 yards and three scores. Two of those touchdown passes were caught by Harris and Marshall, and Marshall finished the game with the fourth most all-purpose yards in Shippensburg history, rushing for 64, returning a kick for 41, and catching four passes for 158 yards. Harris totaled 10 catches for 128 yards.
The two squads traded a pair of touchdown drives, but with the score tied 14-14 with 5:37 left in the first half, DiFebbo and Harris struck to give Ship the lead for good. That score started a run of 21 unanswered points for the Red Raiders, all of which came in just a 15-minute span.
Shippensburg finished the game with 24 first downs and 498 total yards, while the Marauders managed 101 on the ground and 84 through the air. Junior Brad Lantz led the ground game with 80 yards on 15 lugs. It was the highest rushing total by any Millersville running back in 2008. Red-shirt sophomore quarterback Bill Shirk hit on his first four passes, but was 3-of-14 with two picks the rest of the way.
Marshall made his presence felt early, returning the game's opening kickoff into Millersville territory. On the second play from scrimmage, DiFebbo found Marshall wide open for a 53 yard TD strike, giving Shippensburg an early 7-0 lead.
The Marauders would answer, however. Shirk scrambled twice, completed three consecutive passes including two to newly converted wide receiver Jamal Smith. Smith's second catch was good for 28 yards and put the Marauders at the Shippensburg 9-yard line. That set up a Shirk to Andy Tischbein touchdown connection. It was Tischbein's first TD grab of the season and his first since Oct. 20, 2007.
The change in momentum was brief. After the Millersville defense forced a punt, Tischbein fumbled on the punt return and Shippensburg pounced on it at the Millersville 20. Five plays later, DiFebbo found Harris for the go-ahead touchdown. The miscues continued on Millersville's following possession as Shirk was picked off on the Shippensburg 3-yard line on a diving grab by Jeff Fertig. Millersville managed to stem the tide, though, halting Shippensburg's fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line just before halftime.
But the third quarter belonged to the Red Raiders. Millersville managed just 16 yards of offense on 15 plays while Shippensburg scored twice and received 116 of its 119 yards from the arm of DiFebbo. Chris Infante found the endzone from two yards out with 9:13 left and DiFebbo found Mark Rossi from three yards just three minutes later, putting an end to the scoring.
Millersville, now 0-5 overall and 0-2 in PSAC East play, has surrendered over 400 yards of total offense in all five games this season. Shippensburg improves to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the conference. The Marauders return home on Saturday, Oct. 4 to face Bloomsburg at 1 p.m.
