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Shepherd defense rains on Millersville homecoming

By Bob Madison - For the Chronicle | Oct 22, 2021

Ronnie Brown (30), who rushed for 185 yards and made one touchdown, makes a turn upfield against Millersville. David Pennock

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. — The lingering comfort of the Indian Summer was about to be pushed out.

Any slight thought of invincibility attached to Shepherd football was about to be sent elsewhere.

A driving rain was descending on mostly empty Biemesderfer Stadium and the smallish Homecoming gathering.

It would be a grind for the rest of the afternoon. Little would come easy for either team’s offense. Shepherd’s peppery defense would see to that. And three pass interceptions and sopping wet conditions would keep Millersville afloat for the first half.

Shepherd deflected its early-game misfortunes and steadily increased its control over Millersville’s harried offense, shedding the deficit caused by its own blocked punt, scoring the PSAC game’s next 38 points, and finally seeing its reserve crew give up points on the dank afternoon’s last play. The Rams had prevailed. 38-13; to live another day and come back home this week to Ram Stadium to their own Homecoming affair against staunch league rival West Chester at 12-noon.

Rams defensive back John Chaney (23) breaks up a pass to Hakim Melvin in Shepherd’s away game against Millersville on Saturday. David Pennock

Sharing plaudits with the entire defense was running back Ronnie Brown, who disregarded the draining conditions to log 185 rushing yards on 21 carries. He scored once. The other Ram TDs came from Josh Polce, Chantz Swartz and Avaughn Holley.

Shepherd trailed 7-0 and couldn’t manage even a first down. Although the pelting rain soaked everything in sight — including attempts at raising the sideline enthusiasm level — the Ram defense kept pressuring Millersville every time the Marauders had possession.

Polce would score with a 40-yard reception-run, and the Rams would outpoint the Marauders, 17-0 in the second period.

Millersville received the second-half kickoff. Quickly, Shepherd linebacker Ponce DeLeon intercepted a pass and had Shepherd in the red zone. After just a few hundred raindrops had fallen in the half, Shepherd had a 24-7 lead and fewer than two minutes had gone off the scoreboard.

With Chrys Lane, Ricky Robinson, Frankie Stevens, John Chaney (forced fumble and fumble recovery) and friends keeping the Marauders in trouble, Shepherd had stilled any Millersville morale and moved to a 31-point lead.

Avaughn Holley (28) sliced through the Millersville defense for a total of 47 yards on 10 carries on Saturday. David Pennock

Quarterback Tyson Bagent faced a nagging rush all afternoon. He was made to dodge would-be tacklers, throw under pressure, throw on the run and suffer three interceptions. He threw for less than 200 yards, but the Rams still amassed 450 yards of total offense over the water-logged artificial turf surface.

Held to only 36 rushing yards, Millersville produced 164 yards of offense — 38 coming on the game’s final play that began with three seconds on the fading clock.

Drenched and shaken early, the Rams had moved their record to 6-1. Millersville still had two wins.

In comes West Chester and its 5-2 overall record. The Golden Rams have the most productive ground offense in the conference, but already have two losses and trail Kutztown, Shepherd and Shippensburg in the East Division standings. Will Bagent receive adequate protection when he passes? Will Shepherd fare well enough against the West Chester ground game? The answers to those two questions should decide the success of Homecoming 2021 in Shepherdstown.