Football

Delaware Valley College 10, King's College 0


WILKES-BARRE (PA) -- Jake Sheffield rushed for 176 yards and equaled a school-record of 44 carries and the Delaware Valley College defense forced four turnovers including a game-changing blocked punt as the Aggies posted a 10-0 victory over host King's College Saturday at Betzler Fields.

With the win, Delaware Valley improved to 6-2 overall and 5-2 in the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC). King's, meanwhile, slipped to 5-3 overall and 5-2 in MAC play with its second straight conference loss.

The game was played following nearly two inches of rain overnight and into early Saturday morning in Wilkes-Barre, leaving standing water on much of the natural grass surface at Betzler Fields. Both teams played cautiously in the first half and few scoring opportunities surfaced for either team.

After a scoreless first half, the Delaware Valley special teams came up with a game-changing play midway through the third quarter. The Aggies forced a King's punt from its own 34-yard line and Joe Barnicle charged through to block a Tim Lust offering and the Aggies recovered at the King's 35.

Sheffield gained six yards, and, after an incomplete pass, added three more to set up a key fourth-and-one play from the King's 26. Sheffield then picked up the all-important first-down with a two-yard run to keep the drive alive. Two plays later, Sheffield added a nine-yard carry to the 12, and then followed up with five more yards to the Monarch seven. On the next play, Sheffield ran off right tackle, broke a pair of tackles at the two-yard line and found the end zone for the first score of the game. Bill Miller added the conversion as Delaware Valley took a 7-0 lead with 3:07 left in the third quarter.

The Aggie defense forced another King's punt and assumed possession at the Monarch 47. Sheffield carried the ball on five straight plays to move the ball to the King's 13. The Aggies then reached the Monarch seven-yard line where the drive stalled, but Miller converted on a 24-yard field goal to give the Aggies a 10-0 advantage with 11:46 remaining in the contest. It was the senior's 18th career field goal, setting a Delaware Valley record.

From there the Aggie defense took over as Delaware Valley did not allow King's to cross the midfield stripe on the Monarchs' final three possessions and interceptions by Kevin Bliss and Niger Herbert on the Monarchs' final two possessions sealed the victory.

Delaware Valley missed out on a scoring chance on its first possession of the game when the Aggies drove to the King's 27-yard line. The Monarch defense stiffened and a fourth-and-six pass from Mike Isgro to Don Marshall fell incomplete to end the drive. Three possessions later, King's failed to convert its best chance of the game when the Monarchs drove 60 yards to the Aggie 18-yard line. On a fourth-and-11 pass play, Monarch quarterback Jeff Searfass hit Chris Maloney at the Aggie nine, but the Monarch junior fumbled while being tackled by Herbert and King's Andrew Cuenco fell on the ball two yards shy of the first down.

Later in the second quarter, the Aggies failed on another scoring chance when Justin Porter intercepted Searfass at the King's 35. Delaware Valley advanced to the 20 where the drive stalled and Miller's 37-yard field goal into a strong wind fell well short as the game remained scoreless with 2:22 remaining in the half.

In the third quarter, Delaware Valley again missed out on another scoring chance when the Aggies marched 40 yards to the King's 25. Miller attempted a career long 42-yard field goal with the wind at his back, but King's Tom Tulaney blocked the kick to keep the game scoreless.

On King's next possession, however, the game would change when Barnicle registered the key punt block.

Sheffield, meanwhile, enabled the Aggies to maintain possession for most of the second half as he carried the ball 28 times in the second half alone, grinding out 123 yards over the final 30 minutes of play. Delaware Valley maintained possession for 23:13 of the second half, compared to just 6:37 for King's. For the game, the Aggies had the ball for just less than 39 minutes (38:59).

Delaware Valley held a 246-to-141 advantage in total yards as Sheffield outgained the entire Monarch squad. His 44 carries tied Jim Wilson's record from a 1985 game against Wilkes while his 176 yards was the 11th-highest, single-game total in school history.

The Aggies threw for just 21 yards as Isgro completed just 2-of-10 passes on the day. Marshall made both catches for the Aggies, surpassing the 3,000 yard receiving mark (3,015) for his career in the process.

Defensively, Delaware Valley held King's to just 55 rushing yards and 141 yards of total offense. John Pursell led the way with 12 tackles while Anthony Silver became the Aggies' all-time leader in sacks as his fourth quarter takedown of Searfass was the 24th of his stellar career.

King's was led by Jeff Field as he netted 50 yards on nine attempts. Leading rusher John Ortiz was held to a season-low 12 yards on 10 carries. Searfass finished the game by completing 11-of-25 passes for 86 yards with three interceptions.