Millersville, Pa. - It took East Stroudsburg two drives to build a 10-0 lead, but with a stout defense and a running game that piled up a season-high 218 yards, the homestanding Millersville Marauders rallied for an 11-10 win, enduring a steady rain under the lights at Chryst Field at Biemesderfer Stadium Thursday night.

The Marauders intercepted East Stroudsburg quarterback Jake Cirillo three times, including Marcel Mingo's nail-in-the-coffin pick with just 1:30 left on the clock. While East Stroudsburg's Jaymar Anderson entered the game as the PSAC's leading rusher at better than 146 yards per game, he was limited to 81 yards on 22 carries (3.7 yards per carry), and instead, it was Millersville quarterback Tony Staffieri who changed the game with his legs. Making his first start of the season, Staffieri ran for 118 yards and the Marauders' lone touchdown on 21 carries, posting his second career 100-yard rushing performance against the Warriors. He also passed for 151 yards.

East Stroudsburg totaled 140 yards on its first two drives, the first of which ended on a 34-yard field goal from Jordan Walters. The second was capped on a 60-yard hook-up between Cirillo and Jylil Reeder. It certainly had to be a feeling of déjà vu for a Marauders team that had come into the game being outscored 69-3 in first quarters.

"We gave up that early touchdown and that was unfortunate, but at that position you have to have a short term memory," said Millersvilel head coach J.C. Morgan. "They kept coming back and kept battling. I was excited to see them make some plays. We went down 10-0 and felt like 'here we go again.' But we talked about keeping the pressure on our opponent and forcing them to make mistakes. They made a few that we were able to capitalize on."

Ray Lopez made his second interception in as many weeks, ending a second quarter drive on the ESU 46. Jhet Janis halted East Stroudsburg's drive into Millersville territory just before halftime. The Millersville defense stifled East Stroudsburg over the final three-and-a-half quarters, giving up just 178 yards on the next 57 snaps.

"Three quarters of shutout football speaks for itself," said Millersville head coach J.C. Morgan. "(The defense) answered the call every time, and I give them a lot of credit. Coach [Matt] Sutjak kept dialing it up, and they kept finding ways to make plays and keep them from putting points on the board."

It was one of those ESU mistakes that gave Millersville its first points. With 1:49 left in the first quarter, a high snap sailed 20 yards over the head of punter Sam O'Brien and out of the back of the end zone for a safety. Millersville did the rest of its scoring in the third quarter. The Marauder defense forced a three-and-out to start the second half, and Phil Overton and Staffieri gashed the Warriors on an eight-play, 82-yard drive. Seven of the eight plays were runs, and none was bigger that Staffieri's 53-yard gallop to the ESU 13. Three plays later, Staffieri plunged in for a touchdown.

Millersville's next drive started on its own 13, but on third-and-six, Staffieri found Chris Dolan, who turned a raced up-field for a 44-yard gain. Staffieri connected with Xavier Jenkins for 22 yards on a fourth-and-four from the ESU 33, and after the drive stalled on the ESU nine, Joey Farley drilled a 26-yard field goal from the go-ahead score.

"At that point the guys believed that they could go out there and make plays," said Morgan. "We got to a fourth down situation, and they wanted to go for it. That shows a lot of confidence on their part. We were able to convert and get close enough to allow Joey to kick the ball."

Millersville's defense made four much-needed defensive stands the rest of the way. With just over seven minutes left, ESU handed the ball to Anderson on fourth-and-one from the Millersville 44, but Lucas Bush and Morgan Faughnan met Anderson behind the line and dropped him for a turnover on downs. ESU's last chance started with 2:16 remaining at its own 31. On second-and-15 from the ESU 46, Mingo stepped in front of Cirillo's pass, clinching the win.

Millersville totaled a season-high 379 yards of offense and limited ESU--an offense that had scored more than 40 points in two of the last three games--to just 318 yards. Staffieri's rushing effort was seconded by Phil Overton's 72 yards on 15 carries--his highest total since 2016.

Trejon Dinkins paced the Millersville defense with 10 tackles--hitting double-digit stops for the fourth time in five games. Tommy Halloway and Morgan Faughnan both recorded sacks. 

"It feels great," said Morgan. "But we've talked about laying a foundation, and we still have a lot of work to do. We won the game, and we need to be proud of that. I told the guys to celebrate tonight, but to get to where we want to go and to build the way we want to build; tonight wasn't good enough. We have to come back and improve, we still made a lot of mistakes that we have to clean up in order to play good football. But we're going to enjoy this one tonight."

UP NEXT
Millersville travels to Lock Haven on Saturday, Oct. 6 for a 12 p.m. kickoff.

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