COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – It was a record breaking night at Patterson Field on Friday night for the Ursinus College football team.
Ursinus (5-2, 4-2 Centennial) recorded a 36-0 shutout of Susquehanna (3-4, 2-4 Centennial) in Centennial Conference play, keeping their chances of a share of the conference title alive.
Two records were broken or tied in the game as senior cornerback Chris Rountree (Lawnside, N.J./Haddon Heights) tied the school career interception record with his 21st as he picked on late in the fourth quarter.
The record that was broken was the longest pass in school history as junior quarterback Chris Curran (Oceanview, N.J./Ocean City) tossed a 93-yard scoring pass to sophomore wide receiver Darius Jones (Lawnside, N.J./Haddon Heights) in the second quarter with 1:41 left. That pass bettered the old mark by one yard which was set back in 1969.
Curran had another outstanding game as he threw four touchdown passes and ran for another. He finished 16-for-31 for 270 yards and ran for 27 more.
The defensive unit played a big role to, as the Bears forced five takcways on the night. Susquehanna came into the game with a +13 turnover margin. Senior defensive lineman Greg Fontaina (Millburn, N.J./Millburn) had two fumble recoveries, both on botched center-to-quarterback snaps.
Sophomore running back Bryan Ellis (Owings Mills, Md./McDonogh School) finished the night with 103 yards rushing on 22 attempts. Jones finished the night with 107 receiving, while senior running back Jason Golderer (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop McDevitt) had four catches for 51 yards and two touchdown grabs, from 40 and 4-yards out.
Ursinus struck first as Curran ran for an 8-yard score on a bootleg right for a 6-0 lead with three seconds left in the quarter. The Bears would go up 13-0 with 9:34 left in the second as Curran found Golderer for a 40-yard score, and would go up 20-0 with 1:41 left in the half on the record-breaking 93-yard pass from Curran to Jones up the visiting sidelines.
After Susquehanna's first drive of the second half ended in a fumble at the Crusader 28, Ursinus took six plays to score on a 4-yard pass to Golderer with 9:09 left and a 27-0 lead. Susquehanna then seemed to put a nice drive together, but, a fumble recovered by Fontaina ended the drive at the Bears' 5-yard line.
Curran's final touchdown pass came with 22 seconds left in the third quarter as he tossed a 6-yard scoring pass to senior tight end Joe Hoy (Pipersville, Pa./Central Bucks East) in the back of the end zone for a 33-0 lead.
Freshman kicker Eric Boyer (Fort Washington, Pa./Upper Dublin) converted a 24-yard field goal with 8:15 remaining for the final 36-0 margin.
Susquehanna put together one last scoring drive, but, sophomore defensive back Jeff Endy (Pottstown, Pa./Pottstown) intercepted the ball in the eod zone with 10 seconds left to end the game.
Defensively, junior defensive back Matt Ruby (Selinsgrove, Pa./Selinsgrove) finished with seven tackles while, Fontaina, junior defensive lineman John Carty (Cherry Hill, N.J./Paul VI) and junior defensive end Andrew Fiorentino (Oceanview, N.J./Ocean City) finished with sacks.
Ursinus will host nationally ranked Johns Hopkins next Saturday on Homecoming.