MOON TWP, Pa. — The Robert Morris Colonials opened up their home schedule by falling to Division II Edinboro in an upset, 23-21.
While it was the first ever meeting between the two schools, the Fighting Scots brought a familiar face back to campus. Edinboro’s head coach Jake Nulph played football for four seasons at Bobby Mo and then spent three years on former head coach Joe Walton’s coaching staff.
The Fighting Scots (1-1) and Nulph handed the Colonials (0-2) their first loss to a Division II school since 2019.
“I am so humble and so incredibly proud of everybody that is affiliated with Edinboro football, from our players to our coaches to our support staff, it’s a total program win,” Nulph told Pittsburgh Sports Now following the game. “It is very special to me for obvious reasons. Sitting here, having a little bit of time to reflect, I can’t help but think about Joe Walton and Dan Radakovich. … Those two guys, as mentors, have meant so much to me in my career. It’s a really special game, a really special moment.”
Like the Colonials, the Fighting Scots dropped their season opening game a week ago. Just like this week, the Fighting Scots outplayed their opponent but the scoreboard did not show just how much they did. Unlike last week, Nulph’s squad managed to weather the storm and make the necessary plays to pull out the victory.
“The biggest thing was, we preached all week that our biggest improvement has always come from week one to week two,” Nulph said. “Last week, we played a really good team in East Stroudsburg. We gift wrapped them the game, we felt like we outplayed them for most of the game but the scoreboard did not reflect that.”
The Fighting Scots used a stingy defensive effort to hold the Colonials offense to just 223 total yards. Additionally, the Fighting Scots managed to force a defensive safety that ultimately was the deciding factor of the game and caused an interception, which led directly to a touchdown.
“They really just out-physicaled us,” Colonials defensive leader Jamar Shegog said. “They played harder than us. They came into this game prepared, we started out slow. We just have to be all-around better.”
The Fighting Scots opened the game with a 15-play, 76-yard scoring drive that ended with Isaac Bernard finding a wide open Teagan Brown in the flat. Brown was able to back peddle into the endzone after hauling in the pass with no RMU defenders nearby.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Fighting Scots attempted and successfully recovered an onside kick that the Colonials were not expecting. Fortunately for the Colonials, their defense forced a three-and-out.
Robert Morris started its lone offensive drive of the first quarter fast as Tyvon Edmonds rushed twice for 19 yards and then Anthony Chiccitt hit his favorite receiver Noah Robinson for a 12-yard gain. Then, the Colonials’ drive stalled and they were forced to punt.
The Fighting Scots and the Colonials traded punts over the next two drives.
Midway through the second quarter, the Fighting Scots engineered another touchdown drive. The Colonials defense forced the Fighting Scots to pass on third-and-8 but that is when Bernard threw a perfect ball that fell into Brown’s hands at the two. On the next play, Bo Swartz rumbled into the endzone to give the Fighting Scots a two touchdown lead.
“They weren’t really doing anything that we haven’t seen,” Shegog said. “We just have to make tackles and get off blocks.”
Just as things were looking rough for the Colonials, Trenell Ridgley set them up with good field position after returning the kickoff to the 46-yard line. The Colonials did not waste that momentum as on the first play, Chiccitt hit Robinson for a 25-yard gain.
A couple of plays later, Chiccitt found his tight end Chaz Middleton for an 8-yard touchdown. On the scoring play, Chiccitt threw a front shoulder ball in which Middleton hauled in around the defender and hung on for the score.
Then, on the first play of the Fighting Scots next drive, Bernard was rushed into a bad throw that Rob Carter Jr. stole out of the air for the interception. Carter returned the errand throw back to the Fighting Scots’ 15-yard line.
On the next play, Edmonds hit a hole on the right side of the line and he dashed in for the game-tying touchdown. The Colonials two first-half touchdowns came within a 16-second span.
Despite struggling on both sides of the ball in the first half, the Colonials entered halftime tied at 14. The Fighting Scots held the ball for 22:27 of the first half while the Colonials were on offense for just 7:33.
“We knew we were in a fight, we got into halftime, we re-grouped,” Nulph said. “Our players knew from last week that we let one slip away. We knew it was going to be a four quarter battle.”
To the credit of the Colonials, at least defensively, they made the necessary halftime adjustments to limit some of the things the Fighting Scots did in the first half. In the first half, the Fighting Scots’ offense totaled 133 yards of offense and two scores. In the second half, they were held to just 85 yards and one offensive score.
“It was just our attitude,” Shegog said about what changed defensively at halftime. “We came out slow and sluggish. That is on the leaders, that is on me for real. I got to get these guys going. They just came out and punched us in the mouth, then at halftime we finally woke up, decided to play some ball. We played a little bit better but obviously we did not play good enough.”
The second half opened up with four straight punts. On Robert Morris’ third offensive drive of the half, they faced a third down deep in their own territory when Chiccitt was hit as he attempted to throw, leading to an interception by Adrian Cuevas.
That turnover started the Fighting Scots on the Colonials 5-yard line and they punched it in for the go-ahead score on a connection between Bernard and tight end Clayton Bezon.
While the Colonials matched this score on a DJ Moyer 12-yard touchdown run, the Fighting Scots forced a safety on their next defensive series which gave them a two-point advantage and the ball with a chance to ice it, and they did just that.
While the Colonials did fall to a lesser opponent on Saturday, the last time that they lost to a Division II school, they went on to finish second in the NEC.
“I believe it starts in practice,” Shegog said about bouncing back. “We have to start preparing better, keep building, keep doing the little things right. Our preparation and intensity in practice, it really starts there.”
Next week, the Colonials stay at home to host Mercyhurst, while the Fighting Scots travel to take on Kutztown.
