ABOUT THE GAME

• On Saturday, Millersville and its defense, allowing just 15.5 points per game, travels to California, Pa., to match-up with the Vulcans' potent passing attack that is averaging 335.5 yards per game. The Vulcans are coming off a 59-0 win over Lock Haven while Millersville is coming off a 21-17 road win at Clarion. 
• Millersville has not had two wins over PSAC West teams in the same season since 2010. Cal U has won 10 of its last 12 games against the PSAC East with the lone two losses coming to Kutztown. 
• Last week's win over Clarion was a rare feat for Millersville, which is now 26-71-1 all-time against current PSAC West teams. It was the fourth win the current PSAC West roster since 2007. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

• The Millersville defense has risen to the occasion in each of the first two weeks, and ranks sixth in the PSAC in scoring, allowing just 15.5 points per game. While the defense ranks 15th in the PSAC in third-down conversion (51.7), 12th in sacks (3), and 12th in total defense (338.5), it has allowed just two touchdowns in each of the first two games. The Marauders were outstanding in the red zone last week at Clarion, stopping the Golden Eagles twice on fourth down in the fourth quarter to preserve the win.
• Isaiah Onuschak is a big reason for the success of the defense. He totaled 16 tackles against Clarion, making the first hit on the final defensive play that stopped Clarion short of a conversion. On the same drive, he broke up a pass intended for the end zone. Onuschak is the PSAC leader in tackles (23) and solo tackles (18).
• Tyler Patron-Penn and Steve Sweeney lead a productive secondary that will certainly be tested by Cal U's passing game. Patron-Penn, an All-PSAC East Second Team selection in 2019, ranks in a tie for second in the PSAC in passes broken up with three. Sweeney has an interception in each game this season. Against Clarion, he returned the INT 54 yards to the Clarion 1, which set up a touchdown for Millersville. Sweeney is one of four PSAC players with four interceptions. As a unit, the defense has four interceptions. Millersville totaled just five INTs in the entire 2019 season. Redshirt freshman linebacker Garrett Cox and D'Andre Blue-Eli both made their first career interceptions last week.
• Special teams has  played a key role for Millersville so far, particularly punter Zach Banta, who was named the PSAC East Special Teams Athlete of the Week on Monday. Banta, the first Marauder to win that weekly award, averaged 44.7 yards on six punts, reversed field position twice in the fourth quarter as Millersville held on to a lead, and landed two punts inside the Clarion 20. Three of his punts were at least 45 yards, and his 61-yarder was a career long and the second-longest boot in the PSAC this season. Banta ranks third in the PSAC, and first among PSAC East punters, in average (41.1). His three punts of 50 yards or more ranks first.
• Two games in, and Millersville has already had two different starters and quarterback. But the player who has accounted for the most offense is Jared Jenkins, who has not started either game. Jenkins has been under center for all four of the team's touchdowns. In week one, he rushed for a touchdown and went 1-for-2 for 15 yards passing. In week two at Clarion, he went 8-for-12 for 107 yards and rushed 15 times for 50 yards. He threw two TDs and two interceptions as well. Jenkins, with 59 yards on the season, is the team's leading rusher. 
• Millersville enters the game averaging 216.5 yards of offense, which ranks 15th in the PSAC. On the ground, the Marauders are averaging 2.1 yards per carry. The Vulcans, meanwhile, rank third in the PSAC, allowing 72.0 yards per game on the ground, and the 2.2 yards per carry average allowed is second best. 
   

SCOUTING THE VULCANS

• Quarterback Noah Mitchell has started all 24 games since arriving on campus in 2018. The former PSAC West Freshman of the Year has a 16-8 record as the starting QB, throwing for over 2,500 yards in each of his previous two seasons. He has 48 touchdown tosses in his career--an average of 2.0 per game. Mitchell currently leads all  PSAC quarterbacks in pass attempts (75) and is second in completions (48) and yards (617).
• Mitchell's favorite target last week was the reigning PSAC West Offensive Player of the Week, JaQuae Jackson. Jackson has 10 catches for 229 yards and two scores, but eight of those catches, both touchdowns and 219 of his yards came against Lock Haven in week two. The week one receiving star was Tyson Hill, who caught nine passes for 155 yards.
• Even with all the passing, Cal U has kept its quarterback clean, allowing only two sacks total in the two wins.
• The Vulcans have been stingy on defense thus far, allowing 14 points in week one to Fairmont State before blanking Lock Haven last week. It's been aggressive and active in pass rush, totaling eight sacks and 22 tackles for loss. The D has also generated five turnovers. Those sacks have come from eight different players.

THE LAST TIME OUT

• Millersville: Millersville 21, Clarion 17  (Sept. 11 2021) - Clarion pushed the Millersville defense into the red zone twice in the final three minutes, but both times, the Marauders dug in and made fourth down stops to preserve a 21-17 road victory. Millersville linebacker Isaiah Onuschak made 16 tackles, and none was more important than the blow he landed on Michael Proios as the Clarion quarterback scrambled on a fourth-and-10 from the Millersville 17 with 51 seconds to play. Rafael Lozada and Tyler Tate, rallying to the ball, cleaned up the play, enabling Millersville to take two knees in the victory formation and seal its first road win over a PSAC West team since 2017. 
• Cal U: Cal U 59, Lock Haven 0 (Sept. 11, 2021) - JacQuae Jackson totaled 219 yards receiving and two touchdown catches in Cal U's rout of Lock Haven. Noah Mitchell's 316 yards passing marked his second-consecutive 300-yard passing game, and he led the Vulcans on scoring drives on seven consecutive possessions. He played only one series in the second half. The Cal U defense forced four turnovers and two turnovers on downs as well. 

SERIES HISTORY

• Millersville and Cal U have met just 16 times since the first meeting in 1930, but only nine of those meetings have come in the last 70 years. Millersville has won three times over Cal U (1974, 1975 and 1986) but has lost the last six dating back to 1987. More recently, the teams have played five times in the last decade. Cal U has scored 41 or more in four of those five games while Millersville been held to 14 or fewer in four of those five. Home/road records started being tracked in 1968, and since then, Millersville is 1-4 at Cal U, with the lone win coming by a 21-6 score in 1975. 
• THE LAST MEETING (CAL U 29, MILLERSVILLE 13 - Sept. 16, 2017): Millersville had No. 5-ranked California Vulcans on the ropes . Despite being down to the third-string quarterback, the Marauders had two fourth quarter chances to pull within one score thanks to a pick six by Brendan Sherman and a perfectly executed on-side kick. But near misses kept the Marauders from pulling off a monumental upset. Marauders frustrated the 2016 All-America quarterback into 15 of 31 passing, holding him to 164 yards while intercepting him twice. Millersville fell behind 23-0 at the half but Cal's offense, which finished with a season-low 285 total yards, was helped by three first half interceptions, a lost fumble and a safety on a muffed punt attempt. Millersville out-gained Cal 103-43 in the third quarter but was limited to 15 total yards on 16 plays in the fourth.