Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Marist
Bucknell Football Sprints Past Marist, 48-19
9/30/2006 8:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 30, 2006
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. - Josh DeStefano ran for 101 yards and a touchdown, and freshman A.J. Kizekai had two more long TD runs to lead Bucknell to a 48-19 rout of Marist on Saturday afternoon at sold-out Leonidoff Stadium, spoiling Homecoming Day for the Red Foxes. The victory pushed the Bison back over .500 at 3-2, while Marist fell to 1-4.
The Bison gained all 390 of their total yards on the ground, and their effective running game saw four of their seven touchdowns come on runs of 35 yards or longer. Meanwhile, the Bison defense held Marist to 37 rushing yards and 283 total.
In producing its largest scoring output since a 53-35 win over Holy Cross three years ago (and its largest on the road since a 72-0 win at Ohio Wesleyan in 1964), Bucknell had control of the field-position game all day long, pinning the Red Foxes deep in their own territory on numerous occasions. Of Bucknell's seven touchdown drives, only the final two required a march longer than 58 yards.
Marist used three different quarterbacks who totaled 246 passing yards.
Bucknell parlayed four long touchdown carries into a 28-0 first-half lead. The Bison's first offensive possession seemed to be going nowhere when Oghogho Igbinosun's sack of Terrance Wilson set up a third-and-22 near midfield, but Bucknell went to a bit of trickery, and wide receiver Daniel Zvara took a reverse handoff 51 yards down the right sideline for a 7-0 lead.
Peter Kaufman made it 14-0 in the first minute of the second quarter, taking an option pitch 12 yards to the end zone. Like he did last week, Kizekai came off the bench and made an immediate impact. Last week at Richmond he scored a 36-yard touchdown on his first collegiate carry, and this time he scored twice on nearly identical plays, two 35-yard option pitches around left end. The latter, punctuated by a dive across the goal line, made it 28-0 with 2:40 left in the first half. The 28 points were the most in a first half by the Bison since 2001.
Marist answered with a strong two-minute drive and scored on Steve McGrath's 36-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Tim Keegan with 19 seconds left in the half, cutting Bucknell's lead to 28-7.
Bucknell scored just over five minutes into the second half on DeStefano's 9-yard run. Freshman quarterback Marcello Trigg, in the game in place of the injured Wilson, dove in from a yard out for his first career touchdown in the first minute of the fourth quarter to make it 42-7. DeStefano's career-long 48-yard run set up the short score.
Corin Erby's 42-yard touchdown burst, his first career score, made it 48-13 with 1:28 to play, and Marist finished up with an 8-yard pass from Chris Ferguson to Matthew Semerano on the final play of the game.
Bucknell averaged 8.7 yards on 45 rushing attempts and did not turn the ball over in the game. Kizekai finished with 82 yards on four carries, giving him 139 yards on only nine carries in two career games.
Bucknell's Homecoming is next Saturday, when the Bison host Ivy League power Penn at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium at 1 p.m.
