BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- The Mercyhurst football team jumped out to an early lead and held off a late push to top host Bloomsburg 38-24 Saturday afternoon at Redman Stadium.
With 7:27 left in the first quarter, the Laker defense stopped Bloomsburg on a fourth down at the Mercyhurst 33-yard line. Garrett Owens carried on three straight plays covering 44 yards setting the Lakers up at the Huskie 23. A 14-yard completion from Doug Altavilla to Clay Waldron put Mercyhurst at the Bloomsburg eight, but the drive would end with a Mark Shafer 23-yard field goal to give the Lakers a 3-0 lead.
The Laker defense forced a three-and-out on the next Huskie possession and the offense converted going 76 yards in eight plays capped by a four-yard touchdown by Owens to extend the lead to 10-0 with 11:47 left in the first.
Owens would pick up his second touchdown of the game with 4:40 remaining in the second capping a six-play, 25-yard drive that was set up by a fumble recovery to make the score 17-0.
Mercyhurst would strike once more before the break after the defense forced yet another Huskie three-and-out. On second and seven from the Bloomsburg 40, Altavilla connected with Waldron for 29 yards setting the Lakers up at the Huskie 11-yard line. After a pair of incompletions, Altavilla tossed an 11-yard strike to Jason Armstrong to put the Lakers up 24-0 heading into the break.
The Laker offense picked up right where it left off opening the second half with a seven-play, 55-yard touchdown drive capped by Owen's third rushing score of the game extending the lead to 31-0.
The Huskies would close the gap scoring 16 straight points to trim the advantage to 31-16 with 9:00 minutes to go in the game. The Laker offense responded taking 5:24 off the clock before Altavilla connected with Armstrong for their second touchdown of the day to push the lead back out to 38-16 with just 3:29 to play.
The Huskies scored once more with 1:27 on the clock, but Mercyhurst recovered the on-side kick and ran out the clock to secure the victory.
Owens led the way for the Laker offense rushing for 94 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries. He also recorded a pair of catches for 31 yards. Altavilla completed 14-of-25 passes for 208 yards and a pair of scores. Eight different Lakers caught a pass with Armstrong leading the way with three catches and two touchdowns.
Joseph Scro recorded a team-high eight tackles with five solo stops. Jake Tarasovitch and Alex Zacharyasz each recorded eight stops as well. Aryron Thompson made four tackles, 2.5 for loss, and 1.5 sacks.
The Lakers improved to 2-1 on the season and begin PSAC-West play next Saturday when they host IUP at 1 p.m. on Homecoming.
