Haines Debut Spoiled By Glenville State

Box Score URBANA, Ohio - The debut of Urbana head football coach Tyler Haines was spoiled by Glenville State Saturday afternoon as the visiting Pioneers shutout the Blue Knights 49-0 at UU Stadium.Urbana (0-1, 1-0 MEC) gave the ball away on its first two possessions, which led to two Glenville State (1-0, 1-0 MEC) first quarter touchdowns. From there, the Pioneers rattled off three more scores in the second quarter to take a commanding 35-0 advantage at the half.

The Pioneers forced a total of four Blue Knight turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble) and scored once in each of the third and fourth quarters to seal the game.

The Blue Knights were limited to just 204 yards of total offense and were outgained by GSC's 481 yards.

With under a minute left until halftime, UU starting QB Cale Burdyshaw (3-10, 22 YDS, INT) exited after taking a blow to the upper body on a slide. Backup Eric Pelfrey filled in for the rest of the game.

Pelfrey, who made a position switch from wide receiver this season, had some bright spots after completing eight passes on 16 attempts for 147 yards. The junior looked good immediately after the break when he came out firing a 31-yard completion to WR Trevon Saunders. However, he made a costly error two plays later when his pass attempt in the red zone was picked off at the Pioneer five.

Saunders, a redshirt sophomore, led both teams with a career-high 101 yards receiving on four catches. The speedster from Columbus, Ohio connected with Pelfrey on two long passes over 30 yards.

Junior WR Kelly Carter boasted a career-high 208 all-purpose yards in the return game, including a long run of 60 yards.

On defense, senior LB Bo Keener recorded a team-high 10 tackles, while senior LB D'Gary Wallace posted 7.5 tackles.

Sophomore DE Clayton Bullard collected two sacks for a new career high.

Glenville State put constant pressure on the UU quarterbacks and recorded five sacks total.
QUOTE FROM COACH HAINES
"Obviously, we are disappointed with our performance," Haines said. "We will critique the film, learn from it, and move on to next week. I feel that both sides of the ball gave great effort. Our execution was lacking throughout the game and this shows us where we stand against a top-tier program in the MEC."
"Glenville is a good team and they will win a lot of football games. I have no doubt we will bounce back with a better performance next week."
STAT LEADERS

RUSHING: Glenville State-Rahmann Lee 14-83; Tevin Drake 10-74; TEAM 1-1; Avron Holland 1-1; Dante Roberts 1-0; M. Leigh-Bracey 2-minus 1; Sean Steele 3-minus 10. Urbana-Ben Sasu 15-18; Denzel Larkin 2-16; Cedric Presley 4-15; Trevon Saunders 1-1; Cale Burdyshaw 4-minus 3; Eric Pelfrey 6-minus 12.

PASSING: Glenville State-Sean Steele 18-31-0-264; Dante Roberts 7-8-0-69. Urbana-Eric Pelfrey 8-16-2-147; Cale Burdyshaw 3-10-1-22.

RECEIVING: Glenville State-Ralph Gordon 7-96; Jeremy Brown 6-84; Kareen Watson 2-28; Damon Lampkin 2-18; Dante Absher 2-17; Tevin Drake 1-28; Rahmann Lee 1-26; M. Leigh-Bracey 1-14; Darren Andrews 1-9; Quin Thornton 1-9; Austin Ratliff 1-4. Urbana-Trevon Saunders 4-101; Karim Jones Jr. 3-20; Larry Southall 2-19; Ben Sasu 1-25; Denzel Larkin 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS: Glenville State-Earon Settles 2-36; Markeith Dews 1-0. Urbana-None.
 
FUMBLES: Glenville State-None. Urbana-Trevon Saunders 2-1; Ben Sasu 1-0; Eric Pelfrey 1-0.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
The Blue Knight offense struggled to stay on the field, going 3-for-12 (25%) on third downs and 0-for-4 in the red zone.
In the first half, UU gained just 34 yards on 24 plays while allowing the Pioneers to rack up 342 yards on twice as many plays from scrimmage.
Glenville State took advantage of its red-zone opportunities, going 4-for-5 (80%) from inside the 20. The Pioneers also wore down the UU defense by converting 11-of-15 third downs.
UP NEXT
Urbana travels to West Virginia State (1-0, 1-0 MEC) for UU's road opener in another MEC showdown. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Laken Field in Institute, West Virginia. The Yellow Jackets defeated Fairmont State last Thursday night, 59-34.

NOTES
UU's 204 yards of total offense is the lowest since posting 222 yards the last time these two schools met in Urbana on Sept. 28, 2013

• The Blue Knights were shutout for the first time since 2008 at No. 24 Ohio Dominican (56-0)
• The last time UU was shutout at home happened in the 2008 opener vs. Findlay (26-0)
• The loss against Glenville State marked the first time UU was shutout in a Mountain East Conference game
• Saturday's game was the biggest point differential in series history between the two schools
• First career appearance at QB for Eric Pelfrey
• ·Transfer Ben Sasu started at RB in his Blue Knight debut (43 all-purpose yards)