Intensity, team-wide contributions hail Rams in dispatching Shippensburg

Moss
- Swartz
Shepherd — seemingly still steaming from the week before when Kutztown chased it out of the undefeated ranks — disregarded Shippensburg’s shocking touchdown return of the opening kickoff and scored the PSAC game’s next five TDs in literally rolling to a comfortable 59-27 win before a large crowd of over 5,200 appreciative followers.
Even in a game where the Rams, now 4-1 overall, ran off to leads of 35-7 and 59-13, there were critical sections where the Rams denied the Red Raiders any access to meaningful points or promoting a serious challenge.
When Shepherd kicked off and Dante Witcher carried it back to a 99-yard score in just 14 seconds, the Rams needed a morale remedy that would be more than a mustard plaster to a psyche that was still smarting from the previous week’s loss at home to Kutztown.
Trailing 7-0, could Shepherd fire back at the previously undefeated Red Raiders? It did with critical third-down execution that livened the game-tying drive and brought a 7-7 score when Ryan Beach caught a 13-yard TD throw from Tyson Bagent. And then the Rams broke loose — scoring the next four touchdowns before settling for a 35-14 lead at the intermission.

McCook
Bagent and receiver friends often moved crisply against the Red Raider defense, finding more drive-saving yards on third downs, and being helped at every turn by a defense that had Shippensburg quarterback Brycen Mussina being menaced by Ram linemen on at least every other pass play. Mussina would eventually be sacked five times, throw away passes when in too-close Shepherd company and hurry on-the-run tries on other occasions.
Shippensburg was closed down when probing along the ground. And so its offense became almost one-dimensional. Shepherd’s changeable group of rushmen had Mussina trying to resist the constant pressure, but finding himself behind, 35-7, just before the first half finished.
When the still-motivated Rams bolted to the only three scores of the third period, their lead stood at 56-14 and had hundreds of fans already on the move toward an ice cream parlor, restaurants for dinner or back toward Pennsylvania wondering where the previously unblemished record of the Red Raiders had gone.
Shepherd went through the fourth period with reserves stationed everywhere except on the special teams. Shippensburg had been stopped on a football day where the pageantry of its all-star marching band had brought an atmosphere of “big game” college football importance more than its football team had.
The dominant Rams had 628 yards of total offense, including 292 ground yards. Ryan Beach scored twice. Ronnie Brown did the same. Chantz Swartz scored on runs of one and 88 yards. Michael McCook and Jonathan Moss each caught a TD pass from Bagent, who threw five scoring passes on the afternoon. Bagent was 23-for-33 through the air for 336 yards.

Brown
Shippensburg totaled 377 offensive yards, but excited its followers with Witcher’s kickoff-return points more than anything else.
Travels to Lock Haven and Millersville are Shepherd’s next missions.
Team-wide intensity and literally dozens of defensive contributions had turned Shippensburg’s only out-of-state trip of the season into a melancholy afternoon in Shepherdstown.

Beach

Swartz