Football suffers 35-14 in first loss of season

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Casey Bleuel

Redshirt senior quarterback Brendan Boylan (13) completes a handoff to redshirt senior running back Brandon Brown-Dukes (24) during Saturday’s homecoming game loss to IUP.

Liz Montemorano, Staff writer

The Lakers faced a tough loss this past weekend against the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The 35-14 loss ended their winning streak, but the team hopes to move in the right direction after this.
Mercyhurst won the coin toss and the game started with IUP receiving. The Lakers defense started strong by stopping IUP on downs at the Mercyhurst one-yard line. After having the ball for a short minute, redshirt senior quarterback Brendan Boylan threw one of multiple interceptions, and IUP ran the ball back for their first touchdown.
Shortly after the Lakers turned over on downs, IUP scored their second touchdown right before the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter was a lot of back and forth, until Mercyhurst had the ball on the two yard line. Boylan threw a pass to senior John Matarazzo for their first touchdown of the game right before halftime.
IUP began the second half by kicking off, followed by Boylan throwing an interception. This gave IUP the opportunity to score another touchdown.
As a team we need to improve in the rushing and turnover battle.” Head coach Marty Schaetzle said.
The Lakers answered with a touchdown. Boylan saw senior Jaquan Williams in the end zone and completed the pass right before the end of the third quarter.
“It seems like as a team we made a lot of mistakes that we can’t afford to make when playing IUP. We’ll fix these mistakes we made this week as we get ready to play Clarion,” Williams said.
Junior Dorian Stevens recovered a fumble, giving the ball back to the Lakers. Shortly after, another interception was thrown by Boylan.
IUP scored their final touchdown making the score 35-14 IUP. With a few minutes left, IUP ran the clock ending the game.
“We learned that our preparation has to be excellent each week. No one can go into a game, test, presentation etc. and expect to do well without great preparation. These weeks are always an opportunity to evaluate a team’s character,” Schaetzle said.
The Lakers will play this Saturday at Clarion at 2 p.m. Follow their Twitter account @MercyhurstFB for live tweets.