COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus football team earned a hard-fought 17-7 win over Muhlenberg in their Centennial Conference opener on Friday night at Patterson Field behind a valiant defensive performance.
With the win, the Bears moved to 4-0 overall for the second time in three seasons and will start 1-0 in Centennial Conference play. Meanwhile, the Mules fell to 2-2 overall and will start 0-1 in Centennial action.
Senior quarterback
Tristan Machado threw for 258 yards on 16-of-31 passing and two touchdowns that both came in the second half. Senior wide receiver
Aidan Roselle led the Bears with 91 yards on seven catches with a touchdown and classmate
Ryder Zulkowski caught four passes for 71 yards. Junior
Jake Van Orden hauled in two passes for 64 yards and Machado's other touchdown pass.
Junior
Devon Green led the Bears with 57 rushing yards on 14 carries with some clutch carries down the stretch. Senior
Jason Bernard was right behind with 46 yards on 17 carries.
Ursinus opened with the ball and advanced to the Muhlenberg 25-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. The Mules got into Bears territory on their first drive following a long catch-and-run but junior safety
Jake Ziegler forced a fumble that was recovered by classmate
Andy Zigbuo to end the threat. The Bears second drive suffered a similar fate as they turned the ball over on downs after advancing as far as the Muhlenberg 24-yard line. The game went scoreless into the second quarter and the Bears put themselves in prime positions to get onto the board when Machado hit Zulkowski for a 45-yard reception to put them at the Mules 4-yard line. However, the Bears moved no further and had a 29-yard field goal failed to keep the game at 0-0 that went into halftime.
First-year defensive end
Noah Porter opened the second half with some fireworks for the Bears as he forced a sack fumble to set Ursinus up at the Mules 19-yard line. The Bears had a net gain of -1 on the drive but junior kicker
Ben Kiedrowski made a 37-yard field goal to get Ursinus finally on the board at 3-0 at the 13:15-mark. The Bears forced a punt and drove inside the Mules 10-yard line and seemingly had their first touchdown of the game off a catch by Zulkowski. However, the officials ruled that Zulkowski fumbled before he crossed the goal line and the ball went out of bounds for a touchback. The Mules moved into the Bears territory, aided by a pair of 15-yard penalties, but were turned over on downs when junior defensive end
Manny Saenz sacked quarterback Luke Spang. Ursinus finally broke through on their ensuing drive when Machado threw a 34-yard touchdown pass on 3
rd-and-10 to Roselle to make it 10-0 at the 1:51 mark of the third quarter. Muhlenberg responded and scored their only touchdown in the fourth quarter to make it 10-7 at the 11:19-mark. The Bears delivered by putting together a 12-play 75-yard drive that took off 7:57 which ended by Van Orden hauling in a 27-yard touchdown pass on 4
th-and-7 to make it 17-7 with 3:22 left in regulation. Muhlenberg had one last gasp and made it as far as the Ursinus 23-yard line before being turned over on downs to seal the win for Ursinus.
Ziegler registered a career-high 10 tackles (eight solo) with 3.0 tackles for loss and one sack with a forced fumble. Junior linebacker
Nakai Robinson also posted a career-high in tackles with nine (five solo) and Saenz had seven tackles (five solo) and 2.0 tackles for loss with a sack. Porter finished with two sacks, a forced fumble and four tackles (three solo).
The Bears return to action on Saturday, October 10
th as they will travel to face McDaniel at 1:00 p.m.
