The Gannon University football team ran into a major buzz saw Saturday, falling to No. 12 Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 48-3, at McConnell Family Stadium.
The Crimson Hawks improved to 7-1 overall and 5-1 in PSAC play and have a chance to reach the conference championship game. Gannon dropped to 4-5 overall and 1-5 in the PSAC West going into Saturday’s noon road matchup against Clarion.
IUP, which is ranked fifth in the NCAA Division II Super Region One, has outscored its opponents 397 to 179.
The Crimson Hawks showed their dominance Saturday, scoring touchdowns on their first six possessions and rolling up 508 total yards to Gannon’s 326.
Quarterback Lenny Williams led the attack, completing all seven of his passes for 224 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 116 yards and another score.
Gannon’s Zach Phillips hit on 15-of-25 passes for 175 yards and Tyler Johnson paced the Knights’ ground attack with 68 yards rushing on 11 carries.
Jacardi Brooks was Gannon’s leading receiver with six catches for 70 yards while Quad Law had 51 yards on four receptions.
Law moved past Jestin Hamm and into third place all-time among Gannon pass catchers by notching his 154th reception.
Kicker Karch Holland accounted for Gannon’s only points with a booming 51-yard field goal in the first quarter.
That set a record for the longest field goal in Gannon history. Holland’s kick surpassed two 50-yarders set by Jeremy Ditzler in 2010 and Adam Foust in 1998.
On the defensive side, Christian Carpenter recorded a career-high 17 tackles to lead all defenders. Mike Zanders II added 12 tackles and moved to within three stops of K.J. Heider’s career tackle record of 341, set between 1989 and 1992.
Holland’s long field goal came with a little more than 9 minutes to play in the first quarter and cut IUP’s lead to 7-3.
But the Crimson Hawks added two more scores before the end of the quarter and scored three more touchdowns in the second quarter — two of which came on Williams’ touchdown passes – and IUP held a comfortable 42-3 lead at halftime.
Gannon reached the red zone twice in the second half but turned the ball over on downs and fumbled to thwart those scoring chances.
MATTHEW NEWARA
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