Hounds Set to Open 2021 Centennial Conference Season at Gettysburg on Saturday

BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- The Moravian University football team travels to Gettysburg College on Saturday, September 11 for the first Centennial Conference game of the 2021 season. Kickoff is slated for 1:00 p.m. at Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 

THE COACHES: Jeff Pukszyn (Moravian '98) is entering his 11th season as Moravian's head coach after ten years as an assistant coach with the program. Pukszyn joined the Moravian staff as a part-time coach in 1997 after a three-year playing career that saw him named to the All-Middle Atlantic Conference First Team in 1994 and 1996. He was inducted into Moravian's Hall of Fame in 2019. He was also a two-time captain. Pukszyn became part of the coaching staff full-time in 1999 as defensive coordinator and added the titles of assistant head coach in 2001 and special teams coordinator in 2007. In 2015, Pukszyn led the Greyhounds to an 8-3 record and a berth in the inaugural Centennial-MAC Bowl Series while being named both the Centennial Conference and American Football Coaches Association Division III Region 2 Coach of the Year. He has been a part of 266 games for Moravian since 1994 with a 127-138-1 record.
     Gettysburg coach Maurice Banks (Georgetown '06) is in his first year with the Bullets.

THE SERIES: Saturday's meeting will be the 19th between the schools with the Bullets leading the series 11-7. Moravian won the last meeting between the two squads with a 32-28 victory in Gettysburg back in 2019, and the Greyhounds have captured five of the last seven contests. The Bullets' last win in the series was a 28-14 triumph at Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium in 2017. 

GREYHOUNDS IN THE CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE: Moravian joined the Centennial Conference as an associate member in the sport of football in 2007. The Greyhounds were selected seventh in the Centennial Conference preseason coaches and sports information directors poll. Gettysburg was picked to finish tenth in the poll 

BALANCED & EXPERIENCED 'HOUNDS: Of the 86 players on the Moravian roster, 21 are freshmen, 14 are sophomores and 18 are juniors. There are 32 seniors including two fifth-year players on this season's squad, and the Greyhounds return 43 letterwinners and eight starters from 2019. 

THE QUARTERBACKS: Senior Christopher Mills has completed 12-of-30 passes for 183 yards this season with one touchdown and a long of 74 yards. He has also carried the ball five times for three yards.

OFFENSIVE LINE: Moravian has one returner on the offensive line in senior Frank Sallusti at right guard. The Greyhounds will add four other seniors to the starting offensive line with Jaequan Swint at left tackle, Jack Fineanganofo at left guard, Ryan Kennedy at center and Craig Krug at right tackle. The Greyhounds' front five has an average size of 6-1, 275.

IN THE BACKFIELD: Sophomore Nate Boyle leads the Moravian rushing attack with 80 yards on 13 carries including a 52-yard run at King's College while senior Carrington Smith has added 19 yards on 11 attempts.

WIDE RECEIVERS: The Greyhounds have had six different players catch a pass this season led senior Nick Petros, who has four receptions for 69 yards. Sophomore running back Nate Boyle has caught three passes for four yards while senior Trevor Cunningham has two catches for 87 yards and a touchdown of 74 yards at King's College. Senior running back Carrington Smith and junior tight ends Chris Carpini and Ethan Deater each had one catch this fall with Smith and Carpini gaining eight yards and Deater adding seven yards.

DEFENSIVE FRONT: Junior Javi Espinal-Katz leads the Moravian defensive line with seven tackles including two and a half sacks and two and a half tackles for loss. Senior Brandon Nemeth has made three tackles while seniors Brady Hornbaker and Collin Frost each have two tackles. Junior Riley Brody has also made two tackles with one for loss while senior Matt Eroh made one tackle. 

THE LINEBACKER CORPS: Seniors Nicholas Azpeitia and Noah Breidinger lead the linebackers with six tackles apiece. Azpeitia has added a fumble recovery while Breidinger has one pass break-up. Sophomore Nick Levinski has five tackles with one for loss and a sack while sophomore Colin Conway has added four stops with a half a tackle for loss and half a sack. Senior Francis Lagreca and junior Jack Gawlik both have two tackles with Gawlik adding a pass break-up and Lagreca recording a tackle for loss. Senior Matt McNallyhas made one stop.

THE DEFENSIVE BACKFIELD: Senior Romello Walters leads the defensive backfield and the Moravian defense with eight tackles to go with a pass break-up and a forced fumble. Seniors Justin McRae and Connor Lyon have each recorded six tackles while freshman Chad Newhard has three tackles and an interception he returned six yards against King's. Juniors Stefan Lorick and Ethen Aquino and sophomore Matt Blazofsky all have two tackles this season. 

KICKING GAME: Junior Trevor Yacuboski is 1-for-3 on field goal attempts this season with a long of 39 yards, and he is also 1-for-1 on extra-points. Yacuboski has kicked off three times for an average of 59.3 yards, and he has also recorded one tackle. Senior Nick Petros has punted seven times with an average of 39.9 yards per punt, and he has a long of 50 yards and one inside the 20-yard line this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Senior wide receiver Cory Little has returned three kickoffs for 38 yards while defensive back Ethen Aquino has one kickoff return for 29 yards. Junior running back Angelo Macera and freshman wide receiver Nick Weston both have one tackle on special teams.

MILESTONE WATCH: The Greyhounds have two players closing in on milestones for their careers. Senior wide receiver Nick Petros is fourth in school history with 1,858 receiving yards, and he needs 142 yards to become the second wide receiver in school history with 2,000 career yards. Petros is sixth in program history with 124 receptions and needs 36 to set the school record, and he is tied for second with 17 career touchdown receptions, just two shy of setting the school record. He is sixth with a 36.0 career punting average on 144 punts (seventh all-time) for 5,188 yards (sixth in school history). Senior quarterback Christopher Mills enters the week needing 679 yards to become the seventh Greyhound to throw for 4,000 yards after becoming the ninth Hound to reach 3,000 passing yards with a career-best 341 yards versus Dickinson College on November 9, 2019. Mills is also eighth all-time with 260 completions, ninth with 457 pass attempts and eighth with 26 touchdown passes.

THE CENTENNIAL CONFERENCE STATISTICAL RANKINGS: Starting next week, the Centennial Conference will release weekly statistical rankings of the ten football playing schools.

OVERTIME 'HOUNDS: Moravian has played a total of 10 overtime games since the NCAA instituted the rule for the 1996 season and is 7-3 all-time in the extra-session. Five of those ten overtime games have been against Juniata College with the Greyhounds going 4-1 in those games. Moravian's contest in Huntingdon in 2008 marked the first time in the Greyhounds' have needed more than one overtime session in a game. The 2008 season also marked the third year that Moravian has played at least two overtimes games in one season, the other years were 1999 when the Greyhounds played three overtime games and 1997 when Moravian played two overtime contests. 

SCOUTING GETTYSBURG COLLEGE: The Bullets began their 2021 season with a 31-7 non-conference loss at Bridgewater (Va.) College last weekend. Junior quarterback Mason Stolarik has completed 7-of-18 passes for 53 yards while sophomore quarterback Ryan Furey has completed 1-of-4 passes for 19 yards with an interception. Junior running back Nick Riggio has a team-high 29 yards on nine rushing attempts while junior running back Sebastian Gibbs has 19 yards on 12 attempts and sophomore quarterback Aidan Feulner has 14 yards on three carries. Senior wide receiver Matt Lajoie has caught three passes for 26 yards while senior wideout Sal DeBenedetto has one catch for 19 yards. DeBenedetto has three punt returns for 31 yards while junior wide receiver Mike Vigliano has two kickoff returns for 33 yards and he has the Bullets' touchdown on a fumble recovery in the end zone. Senior Doug Cummings handles the kicking duties for Gettysburg, and he is 0-of-1 on field goal attempts, has kicked off twice for a 35.0-yard average and punted 11 times for a 39.5-yard average that includes a long of 49 yards, five fair caught and four inside the 20-yard line. Sophomore defensive back Matt Mikulka leads the Bullets' defense with eight tackles including one for loss and a pass break-up while junior defensive back Justin Adedinsewo has seven tackles. Senior linebacker Matt Lynch, senior defensive back Von Musgrove and senior linebacker Johnny O'Beirne all have six stops while senior linebacker Rich Cardaci, Jr. has five tackles including two for loss and one and a half sacks.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET: In Gettysburg in 2019, Moravian ran for 174 yards and two touchdowns and passes for 251 yards and three more scores as the Greyhounds finished off the first half of the season with a 33-16 victory at Gettysburg in Centennial Conference. Running back Roberto Diez posted his third straight career high with 174 yards on 31 carries while running back Carrington Smith added eight yards on two attempts. Quarterback/running back Sherwin Stewart ran for two yards and a touchdown on four carries while quarterback Christopher Mills had one touchdown on four attempts. Mills also completed 18-of-24 passes for 251 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Wide receiver Nick Petros caught a team-high seven passes for 64 yards, and he also punted three times for an average of 41.3 yards. Wide receiver Alex Pierce caught six passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns, the second 100-yard game of his career and first with multiple touchdowns. Wide receiver Eddie Olsen had four receptions for 70 yards while tight end Nick Cregar had one catch for a five-yard touchdown, his first career touchdown. Linebacker Tanner Barr led the Moravian defense with 14 tackles while defensive lineman Shane Mastro had eight stops and would get a hand on an extra-point attempt that still made it through the uprights. Linebacker Noah Breidinger added seven tackles while defensive back Jackson Buskirk had six stops and a pass break-up. Defensive lineman Austin Heisler contributed five tackles, a pass break-up, a forced fumble and a blocked punt while linebacker Romello Walters also had five stops. Defensive lineman PJ Weierbach had four tackles with a blocked field goal while defensive back Delano McKenzie recovered a fumble for the Hounds. Each team punted on its first possession of the afternoon before the Blue and Grey took over at their own 43-yard line. Diez rushed five times on the eight-play drive for 38 yards including a 20-yard run to put the ball inside the 10-yard line. On the next play, Stewart ran in from eight yards out for his first career touchdown. Brendan Morgans had his extra-point sail wide to the right as Moravian took a 6-0 lead with 7:52 left in the first quarter. Gettysburg responded with a five-play, 92-yard drive to move ahead 7-6 just 2:02 later. Wide receiver Cory Little returned the ensuing kickoff 34 yards to set up the Hounds' offense. Mills hit Olsen with a 45-yard pass to get back into the red zone, and on a third-and-goal from the one, Mills reached a quarterback sneak over the goal-line for a touchdown. Morgans split the upright as Moravian moved back in front 13-7 with 2:46 left in the opening quarter. The Hounds' defense forced the Bullets to turn the ball over on downs early in the second quarter, and the offense turned the defensive stand into points as Mills connected with Pierce on a 24-yard scoring strike. Morgans connected on another PAT to push the advantage to 20-7 with 9:30 before the intermission. Gettysburg put together a 12-play, 73-yard drive late in the quarter but the Moravian defense made the Bullets settle for a 28-yard field goal to make it 20-10 with 47 seconds to play. Little returned the kickoff 41 yards, and a penalty at the end of the play moved the ball to the Gettysburg 41-yard line. Mills hit Pierce with a 36-yard pass down the far sideline to move into the red zone for the third time in the half, and Mills then found Cregar in the back of the end zone for a touchdown with seven seconds before the intermission. Moravian missed the extra-point again and headed to the locker room with a 26-10 lead. Gettysburg scored the only points of the third quarter with a 16-play, 88-yard drive to get into the end zone. The Bullets went for the two-point conversion, but the pass was knocked down in the end zone to set the score at 26-16 with 1:16 left in the third period. Moravian would put the game out of reach early in the fourth when Mills and Pierce connected on a 30-yard touchdown. Jack Coary hit the extra-point as the Greyhounds led 33-16 with 12:27 to play. Heisler blocked the punt on Gettysburg's next possession; however, Mills was intercepted three played into the drive. It took the Greyhounds one play to get the ball back as Heisler stripped the ball loose and McKenzie recovered. The Bullets had one final chance to score with three and a half minutes remaining, but Weierbach blocked the 33-yard field goal attempt. Moravian then had Diez run for two more first downs before kneeling down twice to run out the clock for the victory.